BJP will scrap the ministry administring Hindu temples when comes to power in TN: Annamalai

Hyderabad: Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai said the DMK government in Tamil Nadu is hell-bent on taking temple revenues to construct malls in the guise of developing shopping complexes.

Addressing media here on Tuesday, he said the Tamil Nadu state government was constructing malls outside a temple in Tiruvannamalai and Mariamman temple in Samayapuram in Trichy.

The Hundi monies of temples of about Rs 4,00 to Rs 500 crore are not meant to construct malls. "Some want 25 per cent, another 30 per cent cuts in the malls constructed by the contractors favourable the ruling dispensation in the state," he alleged.

Further, the state government intend to destroy the heritage of the temple's gold jewellery as old as 1000 years from the times of the Chola kings. The TN government wants to monetize converting the temple gold into gold bars to raise money. Also, the temple runs educational institutions, the modus operandi in the appointments of priests, and many other issues are plugging the temple administration in Tamil Nadu, he pointed out.

Against this backdrop, the BJP has made a declaration. Proposing that it would dissolve the ministry administering the Hindu temples and their assets. Our proposal was that the temples should best be left to the people practising the religion to administer their temples. The government should not interfere in the temples, churches, mosques and other religious places of worship. The government should only oversee to ensure things won't go wrong, he added.