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Kathmandu Saturday September 16, 2000 Bhadra 31, 2057.
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Take control of temple management
This refers to the front page news items that appeared in
your esteemed daily of Sept 5, 2000 titled "Auditor General for complete check of
Pashupati offerings."
Accountability is a must both in the public and private
sectors and expenses must not be held back from citizens in any way according to the
traditions of democracy the world over, be it the case of a religions temple or lapses in
which the royalty might have been involved or any shady political deals. Transparency and
accountability are the two most vital pillars on which democracy thrives, if issues
related to them are not addressed the hydra-headed autocracy with its ugliest face of
yester years, is certain to come back once again.
In this context, the Auditor General has rightfully taken the
initiative "for complete check of Pashupati offerings" where lakhs and crores of
public money has been misappropriated by a handful of priests. Not only that, strangely
enough, all the priests of the Pashupatinath shrine, one of the hottest Hindu places of
pilgrimage, are from India and that too at the cost of the priestly class of our own land.
Therefore, the question naturally arises as to why the
priestly class from our own land are not so competent as their alien counterparts?
Perhaps, the practice of importing outsider priests (Bhattas) in Nepal to propitiate lord
Pashupatinathji must have been introduced out of sheer whim or biased thoughts against
local priests.
It has to be most regretfully noted that in blatant defiance
of the law of the land, the present set up of Indian priests (Bhattas) are deadly against
producing facts and figures of offerings by the devotees either before any public body
(PADT) or the government agency (PAC) on the pretext that such a move will anger Lord
Pashupatinathji as though the Lord is now very happy over the gross misuse of temple funds
by the Indian Bhattas.
Therefore, it is high time the government considered bringing
about appropriate legislation for taking over the entire management of Pashupatinath
temple as has been the case with several important temples in India and to appoint local
priests.
T Vuban
Simalchour, Pokhara-8 |
