(The Telegraph
August 14, 2007)
By Marx, a tantra varsity
JOHN MARY
G. Sudhakaran
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug. 13: The Marxists who saw red when the former BJP-led central government introduced astrology in colleges have announced a tantric university to educate Hindu priests on the essentials of mantras and rituals.
Temple affairs minister G. Sudhakaran, a member of the CPM state committee, said the temple bureaucracy in Kerala was undisciplined and corrupt, and priests, as evident in a few recent cases, were ignorant of rituals and mantras.
The minister was deposing before the Justice K.S. Paripoornan Commission that is probing alleged corruption charges in appointments and financial irregularities at the Travancore Devaswom Board.
Sudhakaran, who does not believe in temple worship, said there was no mechanism to crosscheck if pujas held in temples under the board were performed properly.
So, the government was planning to set up a tantric university that would school priests in conducting pujas and offer refresher courses.
The university would be run under the guidance of Hindu religious scholars but the government did not intend to intervene in spiritual matters, he said. A panel well-versed in tantric rites would keep tabs on the goings-on at temples under different administrative committees in the state.
The government also planned to set up a Great Sabarimala Pilgrim Trust following complaints about the conduct of the Sabarimala festival, he said. The trust would be tasked with overseeing seasonal pilgrim activities.
Besides, thefts, often pulled off with the connivance of insiders, were being reported at temples, he said. Checking this would require a specialised temple protection force under the charge of an inspector-general of police.
Sudhakaran said the number of members on the Travancore Devaswom Board would be increased to accommodate more Dalits and women. The appointment of new members would not be on a political basis, he said.
During the BJP-led rule in Delhi, Sudhakaran, a former member of the Kerala University Syndicate, had lauded Kerala vice-chancellors for ignoring former HRD minister M.M. Joshi’s direction to teach astrology, saying it negated the scientific temperament.
When the Congress-led government in Kerala started a Sanskrit university, christened Sri Sankara University at Kalady, the late Marxist ideologue E.M.S Namboodiripad had warned it would become a Hindutva centre.
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