Priests to start stir from Aug 17 against Char Dham board
Agitation to be held statewide, apex organisation leading protests says govt not serious about scrapping the board
HARIDWAR: Priests in Uttarakhand have announced to start a statewide agitation from August 17, demanding scrapping of the Char Dham Devasthanam Board formed by the BJP government to bring Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri and 47 other temples under its purview.
The state government in December 2019 had tabled the Uttarakhand Char Dham Shrine Management Bill in the assembly amid protests. The bill was passed in the assembly and became the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act, 2019. Under the Act, the state government led by then CM Trivendra Singh Rawat constituted the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Board on January 15, 2020, taking away management of temples from priests.
Priests, pandas and temple committees of Char Dham and 47 other temples have been protesting against the board, claiming that government has no role in managing religion.
Char Dham Teerth Purohit Hak-Hakookdhari Mahapanchayat, the organisation spearheading the protest, said the state government doesn’t seem to be in favour of abolishing the board.
“New chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is dilly-dallying by saying that a high-powered committee will speak to the priests on all aspects of the issue and that further action will be taken based on the recommendations of the committee. The state government is misleading us; it is not serious about concerns of the priest community,” Mahapanchayat president Krishan Kant Kothiyal told reporters in Rishikesh on Tuesday.
“We will stage sit-in protests at Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kharshali, Ukhimath, Rudraprayag, Devprayag, Rishikesh and Dehradun from August 17. We are also getting support from devotees, pilgrims and local people,” he said.
Forming the committee, Dhami had said, “The priests seem to have doubts that we are going to snatch their traditional rights. I want to assure them that their all rights will be kept intact. Government only wants to assist them in improving the facilities for pilgrims in Char Dham yatra.”
Teerth purohits (priests) and pandas, who perform death-related rituals, will also hold protests against public representatives who don’t support their agitation.
Kothiyal questioned the Char Dham board, saying no such board has been made to bring mosques, gurudwaras and churches under one umbrella. “Only priests, teerth purohits, pandas and stakeholders of Char Dham shrines and 47 other temples are being targeted and brought under the Char Dham Devasthanam Act. Why are we being targeted when the tradition of managing the Char Dham by local priests and stakeholders has been going on for decades?”
Kothiyal and other officebearers of Mahapanchayat claimed that Jyotish-DwarkaSharda Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati has lent support to their agitation. Saraswati is currently also the Shankaracharya of Badrinath Dham.
Teerth purohits at Kedarnath have been agitating against the board for the past 58 days. About 25 priests associated with the BJP have resigned from the party in protest.
Kedar Sabha president Vinod Shukla said, “All teerth purohits are united and will resort to all measures to ensure that the Char Dham Devasthanam Board is abolished.”
Mukesh Shukla, a teerth purohit who resigned from the BJP, said, “We were not consulted by the government and party office-bearers when the board was formed. This shows that the BJP has sidelined teerth purohits, so we don’t consider it right to be associated with such a party.”
In April this year, the then chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat had announced that the state government will review the formation of the Char Dham Board.
The announcement came after akhadas, priests of Char Dham and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders demanded dissolution of the board, saying the move was taken to sideline them and ensure full government control of temple-related issues.
In July last year, the Uttarakhand high court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy against the government takeover of the Char Dham and 47 other temples through formation of the board.
The court ruled that the ownership of the temple properties would remain with Char Dham shrines and power of the board would be confined only to the administration and management of the properties.
Former CM Trivendra Sigh had said, “We formed the Devasthanam Board for the Char Dham shirnes, but some people have been protesting against it. But it is my firm belief that the board is good for the state.”
The Congress has said that if the party forms government, they will abolish the Char Dham board.