Hailing the recent High Court ruling on non-discrimination by the priests on the basis of caste regarding puja offered by the Dalit and the tribal people as a landmark one, the Akhil Bhartiya Akhada Parishad, the apex body of the Hindu ascetics, said that they have been practising the same for a long time. Other Hindu priests based in Rishikesh have also welcomed the ruling.
Notably, the court had given the order on the petition filed by a resident of Haridwar, alleging that the upper-caste priests in Haridwar kept discriminating against lower-caste devotees by refusing to perform religious rituals on their behalf. The court in its order had further said that a person from any caste might become a priest if qualified for the job”.
Speaking to The Pioneer, president of ABAP Mahant Narendra Giri said that they in the organisation had passed such a resolution long ago, debarring the priests from practising discrimination among the devotees on the basis of caste at the temples run by it. “We also asked the priests performing puja for the devotees at the major Hindu temples not to go for any caste-based discrimination among those offering puja,” he said. “Besides, we made it clear that anyone could become an office bearer of a temple committee or an officiating priest if he has the knowledge and the qualification required for it,” he added.
Asked for comment on the court ruling, Swami Chidananda Saraswati of Parmarth Niketan said, “The High Court order is in perfect tune with the belief that all are equal before God. In fact, we are all one in the divine sense. God brooks no caste.”
Mahant Ramamnad Puri of Niranjani Akhada also echoed the same sentiment and said that no priest could debar any person from performing religious ritual or entering the temple on the basis of the caste he or she belongs to. “This is unfair and the court’s order is fully justified,” he said.
However, Baba Hathyogi who belongs to Ramanand sect said, “The High Court order is incomplete. The managing boards of the government- run shrines can lift the restriction on the appointment of priests, but in the private temples and shrines, the tradition of Brahmins being made the head priests will continue.”
He further said that entry into the sanctum sanctorum of several temples is still restricted to the common man, no matter whether he is from the upper or the lower castes.