Dear Goverments, please keep off Hindu Temples

Tonight, went to Samaya TV to discuss on the news that the famous Dharmasthala Manjunatha temple was being considered to be taken over by the govt.

One senior Jyotishi told things about the Kshetra. Not much arguments.

The core arguments were between me and Talakadu Chikka Rangegowda. It was well anchored by Aravind. This is my second presence as a panelist in Aravind's show.

As usual, the pro government take over arguments were on "mismanagement", "Why should Jains run Hindu temple", "there have been complaints against the Dharmadhikari" etc..

My points were:

1) I am a Bhakta of Dharmasthala temple. I go there voluntarily. I give money on my own. I trust the good work is done by the Trust headed by a Jain. I have absolutely no issue that they are Jains. They are running awesome anna dana. Kitchen Annapurna featured in June 2015 Mega Kitchen National Geographic Channel. Their educational and other institutions are doing wonderful job. For 800 Years, Jain Bunt Heggade Pergade family has administered it splendidly. 21 Dharmadhikaris have come to this seat till date. Government's job is to provide basic facilities and govern. I drove 15 KM to the studio and 10KM were in "Kattale Bhagya" power cut. When the govt can't take care of basic things, why they heck are they wanting to take over well run temples?

2) pSeculars always want Hindu temple money by giving some or the other excuse. Let's stop this now. Why should govt control 35,000 Hindu temples in Karnataka? Why should other states like TN control similar count of Hindu temples? Are all these having mismanagement? There are 164 A category and 283 B category temples with KA govt. Were all these managed by "other religions", before take over? Govt just wants money. And some excuse. I gave examples of how very simple excuses were used by governments to take over cash cows.

3) Talking of mismanagement, there was a murder of a Church father (KJ Thomas) in Bengaluru. There were large scale Wakf land grab amounting to 2 lakh crore as reported by Anwar Manippady. Should the govt take over churches and mosques/dargahs citing mismanagement, murder or other issues?

4) When I heard that only Hindus should manage Hindu temples, I showed that Mohammed Ali, First Division Assistant appointed by the govt in Bengaluru Rural district to manage Mujrai or Endowments department. I don't want a Muslim to manage Hindu temples. Hindus have managed for 1000s of years, and will easily manage ourselves. This argument seriously hurt Mr. Gowda as he saw the hypocrisy of opposing Jains, but having been forced to support Muslims!

5) If there is a big issue with Dharmasthala, people can file an FIR file. If no action taken approach the Magistrate directly. Or file PIL file if land is an issue. Why is the police there? Use them. Instead, trying Govt executive order to grab temple is not something we will allow.

6) I gave examples of Sahasralingeshwara temple of Uppinangady fighting with Karnataka Govt's Mujrai department's 1997 act. The 2007 judgment clearly said that the Endowments act itself is unconstitutional. Google for "Karnataka High Court Sri Sahasra Lingeshwara Temple vs State Of Karnataka on 8 September, 2006".

The judgment concluded: 

"We have already ruled that the Act is hit by Articles 14 and 26 of the Constitution of India. We have further ruled that it is not possible to severe them. Hence, we deem it proper to strike down the entire act and consequently strike down the notification as un constitutional." 

Use this wherever you see temple issue with govt. Governments can't and should not take over temples.

7) I also gave the example of Chidambaram Natarajar temple in Tamil Nadu. The judgment of 2014 January 10th, gave Podu Dikshitars a big victory in a century old case. If Endowments department of a state govt takes over a temple there should be a reason. Merely issuing show cause and circular is not right. Once you take over you will have 2 years or so to rectify it; notification should mention what reason - only take over mismanagement of temple affairs. This was Dr. Swamy's famous case. The 1951 take over of TN govt was deemed unlawful. Dikshitars had printed temple constitution in 1849 itself. Was opened to all castes of Hindus. This point stumped the others and there is not much they could say on this.

Overall; My repeated stress was that Hindus have freedom of religion like everyone else. If there are issues, let other parts of constitution address them (like theft, mismanagement etc.). So called secular government taking over temples violates Articles 14, 25, 26 and 27 of Indian constitution. As a Hindu, I don't want any temple to be managed by the government. Government's job is to take care of power, water, security and other basic necessities. Hindus know how to manage temples and they have been doing it for 1000s of years. Leave our temples alone.

#KeepOffHinduTemples

I think it went on well. If a video is uploaded by Samaya News, I will share here.

AAP: Lies and U-Turns

AAP is the latest novelty factor in India. TV Media is going 24*7 abuzz with how cool the bunch of activists turned politicians are. Print media is writing laurels for "aam aadmi" finally governing Dilli. Media "pundits" are going ga-ga as to how Arvind Kejriwal's phenomenon will be changing India's political landscape, dislodging the established players like Narendra Modi. And social media's AAP fans are all out to prove how great is this new find for India.

And then I asked after one week of Aam Aadmi Party's government in Dilli, to list out some of their lies, and outright u-turns. Within 2 hours, I got enough material to write this blog. These were tweeted mostly with #AAPLies hash tag on Twitter. Since they are coming in large number, you can check out the tweets with that tag, for the latest info.

All the material provided here are courtesy my Twitter friends. If any item has untruth or half truth in it, please post a comment with the correction. I will review it.

Here we go.. listing the top 10 sections of lies and u-turns.

Section 1: Master lists

Tweep @bechaara openly challenges folks to counter him, after listing some #AAPlies.

‏@SaffronZeppelin shares a very interesting video.

Arvind Kejriwal's famous lies get exposed, amongst others:
"I will never fight elections in my life" 
"I don't want to hold any post in my life" 

Then @shaksingh shares an elaborate list of 15 #AAPlies.

He's quite well versed with these topics, so feel free to challenge him for links, if you feel any of these are incorrect.

Then @ArinKamath shared 5 key u-turns of AAP, proving that they are not necessarily AAM. The most damning one is the #AAPCON government they formed with Congress support.

Section 2: AAP Taking Corrupt Congress Support

‏@RPrasad_7 asked: Why AAP is cheating people that BJP has offered them support? Only Congress offered support, not BJP particularly, when you focus on Congress giving unconditional support to form the government.

Another friend shared a video of Arvind Kejriwal & Yogendra Yadav being caught red-handed by Subramanin Swamy. Hilarious.. watch it.

Then @Purple_Truth shares the real truth of AAP & Congress relationship, poupularly known on the social media as #AAPCON government.

@SachsR also shared a similar #AAPCON drawing, this time from the funny Amul Baby.
"Hand in hand, Aam in Arm?"

Section 3: AAM Hesitating On Sheila Dikshit Corruption Cases

‏@nationalizer shared the most damning thing about how AAP has connived to save Sheila Dikshit's Congress corruption.

AAP had a page on its website called "Pol Khol" meaning expose them.
http://aamaadmiparty.org/PolKhol/Electricity.aspx

At the time of writing this blog, the page was missing. Hence producing the archive that @nationalizer provided.

Why would AAP remove this critical page from their website?

@niranjanprabhu shared a video where Kejriwal is exposed on his flip flop on Sheila.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152108859596346

Another similar expose shared by @chotivalebaba on Dr. Harsha Vardhan's charges and Kejriwal making a disgusting u-turn.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxI_xdOUuY

@dreamthatworks asked.. AAP said Congress corruption will be probed in 7 days and it is alraedy the 8th day, nothing happened. Why "Mr. Clean"?

@LostProphet77 asked the same. "Sheila Dikshit would be in jail within 7 days of AAP forming Delhi Govt". What happened?

Section 4: "Free" Water

@IamSrivatsanV saved an AAP Busting detail about water.

@gk125 asked - Is AAP Delhi water formula full of leaks?

"The people of Delhi may be in for a rude shock, following the new water pricing formula of AAP. They may have to shell-out 2-3 times more. Where meters are faulty, cost will be even higher"

Read the analysis: http://www.moneylife.in/article/aap-delhi-water-formula-is-full-of-leaks/35822.html

@IamSrivatsanV shared the Kejriwal's waterfront by Surjit S Bhalla, which talks about Reverse Robinhood episode where poor will pay for rich people's water consumption.

"Aap Ki Amir Party" Indian Express writes..

Read analysis here: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kejriwal-s-waterfront/1215340/0

@ArinKamat shared the so called terms and conditions which make the application of this free water stuff difficult.

Of course, by now, most AAP supporters will be trying to find some material against BJP, instead of trying to defend the drama of AAP.

Section 5: Electricity

@IamSrivatsanV shared a comparison with older tariff. Unless you are very carefully watching the electrical meter, even one unit above 400 units can make you pay more. So this is not truly a power tariff cut that aam aadmi would understand or monitor closely.

Section 6: Rakhi Birla's car being "attacked"

@PawanDande claims, Rakhi Birla planted story of attack on car, while it was hit by cricket ball, even boy apologized, still nautanki & FIR

@TrustBJP shared a video explaining this more:

Why this drama Rakhi ji? First day shared auto, then sleeping in assembly, then getting Innova car, then no security claim, then this drama for personal car...

Section 7: AAP's Anjali Damania, known as "land shark" on social media.

‏@ArinKamath shared the details from Kejriwal's Headlines Today show in March 2013 and what was actually on AAP website (contradiction).

‏@gk125 shared the same video where Kejriwal lied about Anjali Damania. In fact the person who asked the question, tweeted to me on the same!

" She is a volunteer" drama exposed. 

Now the same "volunteer" Anjali, who is accused of being a land shark, against whom Kejriwal refused any probe internally, is Nagpur AAP's candidate in Maharashtra. If Anjali had some self respect, she would not be contesting from the party which disowned her on national TV!

Section 8:  Election Commission Clean Chit

@rameshnswamy shared the truth that EC never giving any clean chit, as claimed by AAP after getting exposed with that Sting operation against Shzia Ilmi, Kumar Vishwas and a few more.

Read: http://news.oneindia.in/new-delhi/election-commission-quashes-aap-claims-of-being-given-clean-chit-1348855.html

According to Election Commissioner HS Brahma the commission has not verified the veracity of the tape. He also added that unless the AAP challenges it legally, no clean chit can be given to it. The party had earlier claimed that the EC had given a clean chit to the party and declared that the sting operation CD was doctored.

Section 9:  Where is JanLokpal?

@ArinKamath asks, where is Jan Lokpal? This was asked on 31st December, but we can understand the delay in forming the government. At least by 6th January some movement should have happened? That too after using Anna Hazare's name in spite of him clearly saying don't use?

Section 10: No Government Car

Coming to Arvind Kejriwal's famous tweet about "we never ever" part of government transport.

@masala_chaas busts that lie too quickly.
In Apr 2013: See the conditions in this video, put by AAP for giving tickets.

And  now in Jan 2014, giving gas guzzling Rs. 15 to 18 lakh (upper range) costing, foreign brand lavish cars to AAP ministers.

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party Ministers of Delhi, except Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, were today given Toyota Innova cars as official perks.

A number of ministers, including Manish Sisodia, Rakhi Birla and Saurabh Bhardwaj, came to Delhi Assembly complex in official cars.

Asked if coming by such cars was reflective of practising austerity, Kejriwal downplayed it saying the party never said it's ministers will not use official cars.

How convenient!
I have 100s of other tweets and information shared by online friends. But this is enough for now..

Can we really trust such political chameleons?