Comment

Offcourt...

One of the signs of apartheid is bestowing special status to a select few in complete disregard to the legitimate claim of a large section of the society. I’m not referring to the decades old quota system but the right of millions of devotees to offer obeisance at the worship places being controlled by cash-rich managements either under the government’s supervision or privately by ‘pandas’ who claim to have inherited the deity.

It’s no gain saying now that the special treatment (VIP or VVIP) is a new culture. It has been there and could be specified as another legacy of the British Raj when teeming Indians were looked down as ‘slaves’ while a selected privileged others were bestowed with high sounding titles and even allowed membership of some clubs. They could dine and wine at some restaurants set up exclusively for ‘gora sahibs’.

However, public empathy against discrimination in temples could be viewed in the aftermath of Bachchan family whistle stop tour in a friend’s private airplane to offer Rs 51 lakh at Balaji temple in Tirupati as the last ritual of a widely publicised marriage.

There was hue and cry by hundreds of dedicated devotees who were waiting for days to offer prayers there and many who had travelled from far off places in India to perform certain rituals they had promised. They kept waiting, while some people from Mumbai, whom the temple management described as ‘VIP’, walked in the sanctum sanctorum unstopped and flew back after completing their tasks.

Majority of Indians, who are made to believe that Hinduism is a way of life, protested through various agile TV channels and the management declared that henceforth all devotees would be treated equally in the temple of peace; there shan’t be any VIP. In fact, the VIP culture in temples didn’t get judicial disapproval when Kerala’s Sabrimala temple managed by Travancore Devasom Board sought the Supreme Court’s seal on a proposal for classifying different category of devotees visiting the deity and the special treatment required for them.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhan and Dalveer Bhandari agreed to the proposal that while children, physically disabled and similarly disadvantaged persons could offer prayers to the deity from ‘a raised platform without causing any obstruction to the devotees standing in the general queue’, they didn’t find fault in Devasom board’s proposal that two categories of ‘dignitaries’s be allowed to have darshan. They are ‘former VIPs and VIPs’.

Neither the law nor any rule book offers any definition of a VIP. The result is that god fearing, law abiding and conscientious minions keep waiting for their turn; some most wanted lawmakers, tainted politicians and bureaucrats roll over the queues. Temples like Sabrimala have also fixed rates for different rituals.

For ‘Udayasthamana Pooja’ which is booked till 2010, the cost of ticket is Rs.20, 000 each. Another ‘Padi pooja’ which is booked till 2017, the entry ticket is Rs 30,000 for six members of a family.

Then theirs is less popular ‘Nitya Pooja’ costing Rs 2, 500 for each devout, ‘uccha pooja’ for Rs 2,000 and ‘Usha Pooja’ for Rs 501 are also available.

This apex court approval could be viewed as upholding the temple managements’ right to discriminate on the grounds of financial strength, political clout, and money power. Who says in the eye of God every one is equal.