Senior BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy has asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to de-notify all the 47,000 temples in the State, release them from the shackles of the government and return them to their rightful owners.
Dr Swamy’s letter is in the backdrop of the January 6, 2014 Supreme Court verdict quashing the Madras High Court judgments which had upheld the Tamil Nadu government’s take over of the lord Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram.
Dr Swamy, who had challenged the taking over the lord Nataraja Temple by the Tamil Nadu government and appointing an executive officer for the temple administration pointed out to the chief minister that “any take over of a temple administration by the Government, by an Order of appointment of an Executive Officer, which Order does not disclose the period of validity of the order, is arbitrary, illegal and unjust. Therefore the said Order is liable to be quashed by the Court”.
“Hence I seek your co-operation for de-notifying of all the 47,000 temples which are presently under your Government control, and illegal. In my capacity as Convener of the legal Cell of the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha (led by Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Coimbatore) I can assist the Government for orderly freeing of the temples at the earliest in a phased manner,” Dr Swamy said in the letter.
Immediately after the Supreme Court verdict, Dr Swamy had told The Pioneer that the verdict was of far reaching consequences since all Hindu temples in the country has been illegally taken over by the government. “I will strive hard to get the 47,000 temples in Tamil Nadu liberated. Then Ill see to it that the verdict is extended to temples all over the country,” he had said.