The uninitiated may see this as the standing proof of the Social Justice for which the Dravidian political parties stage agitations across Tamil Nadu. But this has resulted in creating a serious wedge between the Hindus and Christians in the State and the responsibility lies with the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department of Tamil Nadu.
More than four grounds of prime land belonging to the famous Sri Gangadareswar Temple in Chennai’s Purasawalkam area has been given free on rent to the Salvation Army, an organization engaged in proselytization. “The Divisional Head Quarters of the Salvation Army operates from the premises along with a Church, absolutely free of cost as the HRCE has given it on Rent Free basis to the Church,” said TR Ramesh, president, Temple Worshippers Society, Tamil Nadu.
Ramesh said the land and building given to the Salvation Army are worth Rs 2.5 lakh per year but the HRCE has not collected anything till date from them. This land and building belong to the Temple Trust and as per the by-laws governing the Temple properties, the land or building can never be rented out or leased or sold to a non-Hindu organization.
It may be remembered that the Madras High Court had asked the HRCE Department in 2018 to inform the court about the “whereabouts” of the 50,000 acres of Temple lands in the State to which the Department is yet to give any report.
The HRCE officials remained incommunicado . according to Ramesh, they refused to partwith any information despite his efforts to get the terms and conditions on which the premises has been given to the Salvation Army.
H Raja, national secretary, BJP, who launched the Hindu Temples Reclaim Movement has some shocking information with him. “We took a sample survey of the temples. In the survey, we uniformly found that 5 per cent of the temples exists no more. Among the 38,646 temples, we estimate that at least 1,800 temples could have been demolished to give way to buildings and shopping complexes. Then, at least 20 per cent of the temples have been abandoned or are under-used,” said Raja.
Ramesh had some startling information to make on Sunday. “Peaceful soldiers of Abrahamic religions along with pseudo Hindus have encroached the Sree Kailasanathar Swamy Temple at Raasipuram and built public toilets right next to the temple,” said Ramesh.
The chasm between Sanatanis and the Dravidian parties have been aggravated further because of the latter's indifference towards insults meted out to Lord Muruga by rationalists.
