| This is where you and most get it wrong. This apathy is one that was created by the political class in India rather than the religious trusts/organizations. Let me break it down for you: Did you know that most of these Hindu temples and religious trusts that you find sitting on huge donations come under the Endowment Department? Because of which, these trusts have no say on how those funds are utilized. The ridiculous reasoning behind bringing temples under endowment was to prevent Priests from swindling donations. There are few cases where this has happened and I concede to that but that is not as widespread as it was made out to be. On the contrary, this wasn't reason enough for bringing temples under Government control. All that was needed was to file criminal cases against the offending Priests. However, the political class wanted to (and still wants to) keep complete control over the Temple as they can siphon off those huge donations at will. Take a look at what is happening today in Tirupati with the ruling Government brazenly looting the Temple coffers: http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/andhra-pradesh/2018/m... Now instead we have Government servants swindling donations. There is a movement on to free Hindu temples from the clutches of the Government for precisely this reason. On the contrary, Christian churches and Islamic mosques don't come under the Government control. If this isn't discriminating I don't know what is. There is a petition seeking for removal of Government control over Hindu temples: https://www.change.org/p/temple-money-for-temples-only/u/164... Article explaining the corruption by politicians and bureaucrats and subsequent court cases filed to free Temples from Government control: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/freeing-temples-from-st... Quoting from the article linked above: "What is scandalous is the corruption after the takeover of temples as politicians and officials loot the temple’s wealth and land, and divert donations of devotees to non-religious purposes
The Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment on January 6, 2013, allowing my Special Leave Petition that sought the quashing of the Tamil Nadu Government’s G.O. of 2006 which had mandated the government takeover of the hallowed Sri Sabhanayagar Temple (popularly known as the Nataraja temple)." |