Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Thursday termed the BJP government’s plan to free Hindu temples from state control as “a historic blunder”.
Shivakumar was responding to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who said that a new law would be introduced to keep Hindu temples out of the government’s control.
“They’re doing a historic blunder,” Shivakumar said. “How can Muzrai temples be given to local people for administration? Temples are the wealth of the government, a wealth of the treasury. Crores of rupees are collected by these temples. They’re trying to take a political stand by looking at other states. We won’t allow it,” he said.
Shivakumar said that Congress will take a formal stand on the issue after a meeting of senior leaders on January 4.
That Hindu temples should be freed from state control is a long-standing demand of various Sangh Parivar groups.
Bommai’s promise is seen as him pushing the Hindutva plank further ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, after bringing the Anti-conversion Bill.
Karnataka has 34,563 temples under the Muzrai department. Of them, 205 are in the ‘A’ category with annual revenue of over Rs 25 lakh. There are 139 temples in the ‘B’ category (Rs 5 lakh and Rs 25 lakh). The remaining 34219 temples are in the ‘C’ category.
The Banashankari temple in Bengaluru, the Kollur Mookambika temple in Udupi and the Kukke Subramanya temple in Dakshina Kannada temples are some famous temples under Muzrai.
Temples in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ categories earned Rs 1383.63 crore between 2018 and 2020.
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