This is a message for Hindu organisation, many of which are not yet modernized in their thoughts and action. They should walk with modern system. Message given by Dr. N. Gopalakrishnan
Sep 17, 2012
Sep 13, 2012
WORLD PETROL PRICE - Comparison
Price per liter of unleaded gasoline, August 2012.
Prices are in euro cents.
Sep 6, 2012
Worth of our ministers
The figures show that our ministers are only getting richer by the year. Leading the richie rich pack whose details were available till Tuesday night, is DMK’s MK Alagiri, the Union minister of chemicals and fertilizers, who is worth over Rs 37 crore along with the assets of his wife, Kanthi. Alagiri owns a Range Rover worth Rs 35 lakh and a Honda City, while his wife owns a BMW worth Rs 75 lakh. The couple, with their assets taken together, have seen their worth jump by almost 17 per cent from 2011.
The most meteoric rise — 76 per cent increase — in worth from last year has, however, been of parliamentary affairs minister Rajeev Shukla along with his wife who heads a news channel. The couple was worth around Rs 16.56 crore last year but the present declaration shows they are now worth nearly Rs 29.25 crore. Shukla’s wife alone is worth Rs 23.34 crore, including the value of shares she holds in her company. Shukla’s own assets have grown from Rs 1.8 crore in 2011 to Rs 5.9 crore in 2012 — that includes Rs 1.7 crore in fixed deposits. Shukla, however, still drives around in a 2003 model Hyundai Ascent, which is the only vehicle the family owns.
Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, meanwhile, has no vehicle in his or his family’s name, according to his latest declaration, though his total worth along with his wife’s has grown by 33 per cent from last year to over Rs 16 crore. The Pawar couple has parked Rs 2.5 crore in fixed deposits in banks and owns a flat in Dwarka Sector 3 in Delhi, which they claim is worth nearly Rs 1.15 crore.
Finance minister P. Chidambaram and his wife have also seen their worth grow by nearly 26 per cent to nearly ` 30 crore this year.
Chidambaram’s successor in the home ministry, Sushil Kumar Shinde, has emerged as another rich minister with his family’s assets worth Rs 14.18 crore — his favourite investment seems to be in flats. He has one in Pune worth Rs2.14 crore and another in Bandra worth Rs 1.98 crore. But Shinde does not own a car. The only vehicle he mentioned is a 2003- model Mitsubishi Tractor worth Rs 1.89 lakh.
But some big guns from last year have intriguingly not declared their assets so far. Among them are Kamal Nath who was worth Rs 260 crore and Praful Patel who was worth Rs 101 crore in 2011.
Assets of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pranab Mukherjee have not been declared for 2012 yet.
Sep 5, 2012
Over 2500 women converted to Islam in Kerala since 2006-12, says Oommen Chandy
Over 2500 women converted to Islam in Kerala since 2006, says Oommen Chandy
A report by: M G RADHAKRISHNANTRIVANDRUM | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 in India Today.
The shrill debate over love jihad is back again following a spate of recent incidents. On June 25, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy informed the state legislature that 2667 young women were converted to Islam in the state since 2006.
On June 27, the state high court ordered the Kozhikode City Police Commissioner on June 27 to probe an alleged case of "love jihad" in which a 20-year-old Hindu girl eloped from a hospital in Kochi with a Muslim boy after the girl's parents filed a habeas corpus petition. On July 19, Deepa Cherian (31) a former Christian housewife converted to Islam was arrested for allegedly delivering SIM cards to a key terror suspect languishing in prison.
Chandy gave the figures related to conversions in state legislature as a written answer to an unstarred question raised by K K Latika, a CPI(M) legislator. According to Chief Minister a total number of 7713 persons were converted to Islam during 2006-2012 as against 2803 conversions to Hinduism. Interestingly he said no statistics was available as to the number converted to Christianity during the period. Among those converted to Islam during 2009-12, as many as 2667 were young women of which 2195 were Hindus and 492 were Christians. As against this number of young women converted during 2009-12 to Christianity and Hinduism were 79 and two respectively.
Chief Minister said there was no information regarding the original religions of women who converted to Hinduism and Christianity.
However Chandy said that there was no evidence for forced conversions in the state and the fears about love jihad were baseless. "We will not allow forcible conversions. Nor will we allow to spread hate campaign against Muslims in the name of love jihad" said Chandy in response to Lathika's demand for inquiry into forcible conversions.
Sep 4, 2012
How To Destroy An Airline
© Copyright 2011, Forbseindia.comHow To Destroy An Airline
by Cuckoo Paul | Jul 16, 2012
Everything about Vijay Mallya is outsize: The fortune, the vintage cars, the yachts, the F1 team, the airline—and yes, the ambition. And now, it seems inevitable, the fall.
It was said in a jocular vein. “You’re on the ventilator now. But the plug can’t be pulled because euthanasia is still illegal in the country.” The nervousness was palpable and titters followed the comment on a conference call that included Vijay Mallya and his most trusted aides. They were trying to figure a way out of the Rs 10,000 crore mess Kingfisher Airlines has accumulated in debts and unpaid bills over the years. Mallya, the chairman of the UB Group, laughed as well.
If there was any panic, it wasn’t evident in his voice. But those who’ve seen him from close quarters say he’s mellowed over the last one year. And that the man is fatigued because his back has been up against the wall for a long time now. It’s another matter altogether that he has no sympathy or sympathisers—all thanks to his “schizophrenic behaviour” as another aide puts it.
In mid-May this year, Mallya requisitioned staff from Kingfisher Airlines to go to Monaco to help with his ‘opening of the season’ party on his yacht moored at Monte Carlo. His party, now an annual tradition, was attended by the likes of Antonio Banderas and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone. The air hostesses kept their smiles on, as they saw their boss burn a few crores on a single night of high-jinks. They hadn’t been paid their salaries for the last four months.
But Vijay Mallya has it sorted out in his head. What he does in his personal life is nobody’s business. What he does in his professional dealings is all that ought to matter. His people though want him to read the writing on the wall. That his professional dealings aren’t the kind of stuff legends will be written about. Because if things continue the way they are, his son Siddhartha, for whom Vijay Mallya had created Kingfisher Airlines as a coming-of-age gift on his 18th birthday, will have no empire left to inherit.
In fact, they reminded him that it was just a few weeks ago, on June 21, that Hitesh Patel, executive vice president at Kingfisher Airlines, was at Lloyd’s of London, a 300-year-old insurance market run by hard-nosed brokers. Once upon a time, Lloyd’s used to insure ships in the slave trade. Now, they cover high-value assets like aircraft, space ships and oil rigs and they know a thing or two about pricing risk.
Patel’s plans to recapitalise Kingfisher sounded desperate. He knew that no airline can take off without an insurance cover. Which is why, even though the airline had defaulted on paying salaries, suppliers, fees to airport companies across the world and leasers from whom the airline had rented planes, it hadn’t on paying insurance premiums.
But as Patel went about his pitch, it was obvious to him the looks on the faces of the brokers were sceptical. How, they asked him, did Kingfisher plan to pay future premiums? Patel argued, over the next couple of months, the airline will prune its fleet to 35-odd. They raised their brows when he said Kingfisher has two investors lined up—the first a financial investor; the second a strategic one. The airline was keen to go with the strategic partner, he said. And, he added, he expects the Indian government to ease its policies on foreign direct investment (FDI). That move, he told the audience, would give the airline a lifeline.
But as I write this story on July 2, things don’t look sanguine. While the folks at Lloyd’s, who’ve heard many tall tales during their careers, may come around to insuring Mallya’s fleet at a higher premium, his lenders may not be as kind. On July 5, before this copy reaches you, Mallya and team are scheduled to meet up with a committee of bankers at the State Bank of India’s (SBI) headquarters in Mumbai. They need to know how he plans to repay what he owes them.
When this committee met during the last quarter, representatives from SBI had asked Mallya to infuse fresh equity into the business, as this would signal his intent to get out of the mess.
But Mallya, aided by Ravi Nedungadi, his trusted lieutenant and the group’s chief financial officer (CFO), argued his way out using the FDI card. While the bankers said it was a “long shot”, they still decided to give him the benefit of doubt. Since then though, nothing has moved and the lenders are getting impatient. What they see is a man clinging to a disintegrating airline and destined to preside over the biggest bankruptcy in Indian business history.
In mid-May this year, Mallya requisitioned staff from Kingfisher Airlines to go to Monaco to help with his ‘opening of the season’ party on his yacht moored at Monte Carlo. His party, now an annual tradition, was attended by the likes of Antonio Banderas and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone. The air hostesses kept their smiles on, as they saw their boss burn a few crores on a single night of high-jinks. They hadn’t been paid their salaries for the last four months.
But Vijay Mallya has it sorted out in his head. What he does in his personal life is nobody’s business. What he does in his professional dealings is all that ought to matter. His people though want him to read the writing on the wall. That his professional dealings aren’t the kind of stuff legends will be written about. Because if things continue the way they are, his son Siddhartha, for whom Vijay Mallya had created Kingfisher Airlines as a coming-of-age gift on his 18th birthday, will have no empire left to inherit.
In fact, they reminded him that it was just a few weeks ago, on June 21, that Hitesh Patel, executive vice president at Kingfisher Airlines, was at Lloyd’s of London, a 300-year-old insurance market run by hard-nosed brokers. Once upon a time, Lloyd’s used to insure ships in the slave trade. Now, they cover high-value assets like aircraft, space ships and oil rigs and they know a thing or two about pricing risk.
Patel’s plans to recapitalise Kingfisher sounded desperate. He knew that no airline can take off without an insurance cover. Which is why, even though the airline had defaulted on paying salaries, suppliers, fees to airport companies across the world and leasers from whom the airline had rented planes, it hadn’t on paying insurance premiums.
But as Patel went about his pitch, it was obvious to him the looks on the faces of the brokers were sceptical. How, they asked him, did Kingfisher plan to pay future premiums? Patel argued, over the next couple of months, the airline will prune its fleet to 35-odd. They raised their brows when he said Kingfisher has two investors lined up—the first a financial investor; the second a strategic one. The airline was keen to go with the strategic partner, he said. And, he added, he expects the Indian government to ease its policies on foreign direct investment (FDI). That move, he told the audience, would give the airline a lifeline.
But as I write this story on July 2, things don’t look sanguine. While the folks at Lloyd’s, who’ve heard many tall tales during their careers, may come around to insuring Mallya’s fleet at a higher premium, his lenders may not be as kind. On July 5, before this copy reaches you, Mallya and team are scheduled to meet up with a committee of bankers at the State Bank of India’s (SBI) headquarters in Mumbai. They need to know how he plans to repay what he owes them.
When this committee met during the last quarter, representatives from SBI had asked Mallya to infuse fresh equity into the business, as this would signal his intent to get out of the mess.
But Mallya, aided by Ravi Nedungadi, his trusted lieutenant and the group’s chief financial officer (CFO), argued his way out using the FDI card. While the bankers said it was a “long shot”, they still decided to give him the benefit of doubt. Since then though, nothing has moved and the lenders are getting impatient. What they see is a man clinging to a disintegrating airline and destined to preside over the biggest bankruptcy in Indian business history.
On their part, the bankers are grappling with an animal of a kind they haven’t dealt with before. When they had to recover their monies from companies like Ispat, Essar Oil, or more recently Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), they lent against collateral in the form of the assets, and they could use that to arm-twist the promoters into paying up.
In Mallya’s case, what they have are intangibles—like the Kingfisher brand for instance. But this is uncharted territory for banks. There are not too many examples of making the most from brands that have been pledged—other than the occasional example like BPL. Then there is Mallya’s stake in his flagship United Breweries (UBL) and United Spirits (USL) that he had pledged as collateral. Even if these were put out in the open market, at current market prices, they would get just about Rs 150-200 crore. Add to all of this his personal assets like his many homes in various parts of the world. Tot up the net worth of all of this and it doesn’t add to the Rs 7,000 crore-odd the consortium would like to see back on their books.
Perhaps that explains why Mallya and Nedungadi always seem unflappable at these meetings. They don’t plead for time, nor do they sound desperate in their dealings. This, again, is nothing like what the battle-hardened bankers have seen in the past where promoters have practically gone down on their knees to protect their assets from liquidation.
That also explains why the consortium of lenders led by SBI and including Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India and ICICI Bank has banded together, put the debts into a pool, and tried to figure the most viable way to get their money back.
In Mallya’s case, what they have are intangibles—like the Kingfisher brand for instance. But this is uncharted territory for banks. There are not too many examples of making the most from brands that have been pledged—other than the occasional example like BPL. Then there is Mallya’s stake in his flagship United Breweries (UBL) and United Spirits (USL) that he had pledged as collateral. Even if these were put out in the open market, at current market prices, they would get just about Rs 150-200 crore. Add to all of this his personal assets like his many homes in various parts of the world. Tot up the net worth of all of this and it doesn’t add to the Rs 7,000 crore-odd the consortium would like to see back on their books.
Perhaps that explains why Mallya and Nedungadi always seem unflappable at these meetings. They don’t plead for time, nor do they sound desperate in their dealings. This, again, is nothing like what the battle-hardened bankers have seen in the past where promoters have practically gone down on their knees to protect their assets from liquidation.
That also explains why the consortium of lenders led by SBI and including Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India and ICICI Bank has banded together, put the debts into a pool, and tried to figure the most viable way to get their money back.
The number crunchers at public sector banks like SBI knew by late 2009 that lending to Mallya wasn’t an exercise in prudence, but found it difficult to refuse more debt. So they came up with a fairly ingenious solution. They started to write off the loans as NPAs, a term used by financial institutions for loans that stand the risk of default. They now had a valid reason to avoid lending—by the rulebook, you can’t lend to an NPA.
Which brings us back to what could possibly happen on July 5, when Mallya and Nedungadi meet the committee. Like in the past, deliberations will continue—the last meeting went on for over six hours—and the bankers will try to get back what is theirs. Blame it on a system that is unable to push through a liquidation or a change in management; or on a wily entrepreneur who’s learnt the art of gaming the system and knows the only thing bankers have to go by is hope that he’ll put a do-able plan in place.
As a fall-back option, the banks have forced Mallya to pledge more shares in his liquor companies as collateral. So much so that almost 95 percent of his stake in United Spirits is now pledged with the banks. Despite that, the bankers’ hope hangs on a flimsy thread. As things stand, a good part of the Kingfisher fleet is grounded for lack of spares. Aircraft are being cannibalised to run the 13-14 planes that are operational. Many planes are parked in hangars across the world. Since the banks have stopped lending, group companies have been funding daily expenses. But the situation is now so grim, that those funds are drying up.
“The number of planes that continue to operate is likely to be pared down further and eventually it is expected to be a five-plane operation,” says a source at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This is because five airplanes are the least needed by a company to retain its Airline Operator’s Licence. “This can bring down losses from Rs 10 crore a day to Rs 10 crore a month,” he adds.
But a lot of the airline’s infrastructure that Mallya built for a 100-aircraft global carrier remains intact. About 4,500 employees are still on its rolls, down from 7,000-odd a year ago. The impressive mock-up of the A330 plane, at the Qube, a corporate park near the Mumbai airport, is still in place.
“The number of planes that continue to operate is likely to be pared down further and eventually it is expected to be a five-plane operation,” says a source at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This is because five airplanes are the least needed by a company to retain its Airline Operator’s Licence. “This can bring down losses from Rs 10 crore a day to Rs 10 crore a month,” he adds.
But a lot of the airline’s infrastructure that Mallya built for a 100-aircraft global carrier remains intact. About 4,500 employees are still on its rolls, down from 7,000-odd a year ago. The impressive mock-up of the A330 plane, at the Qube, a corporate park near the Mumbai airport, is still in place.
As for the current operations, it takes most employees just a few hours a day to keep them running. The planning, revenue management and marketing departments, for instance, are full of people who have almost nothing to do. There is not much to sell and little long-term planning to do.
The airline was kicked out of International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) billing and settlement plan, and deals directly with the agents now.
A senior management person from Mallya’s team says the only reason his people are still there is because they haven’t been paid for five months now. They don’t have the option of walking out right now because if they do, there is a very real threat they’ll lose everything, including the money that ought to be credited to their provident fund accounts and other perquisites that were part of their original package.
AP Verma, deputy managing director and chief credit risk officer of SBI, says a phased closure of the airline is a possibility because the airline has shrunk to a point where its market share is just about 5 percent. But it is still not clear if lenders are willing to go to court and engage in a legal battle to extract their pound of flesh. The lenders have a popular refrain: There has never been an Rs 10,000 crore bankruptcy in India and who would benefit anyway?
Not everyone is so sure. Jasdeep Singh, an airline analyst at Kotak Mahindra, an investment banking firm, argues it is impossible to service the airline’s liabilities with its existing operations. Foreign investors, he says, are unlikely to want to tangle with Kingfisher and will look for healthier airlines to invest in.
An aviation industry veteran who did not want to go on record says, “It is impossible to get any foreign airline to invest in Kingfisher. They can easily get much more from Spicejet, Go Air or anybody else for that matter. They won’t need more than $100 million to gain a toehold into India. Why take Mallya’s woes on their books?”
The view is corroborated by another London-based aviation analyst who declined to come on record. His arguments are that it will take at least $50 million to make the aircraft airworthy. So, he not only has to find ways to deal with the debt and outstanding payments, but also infuse capital to get this going. “Why on earth should Etihad or Qatar Airways want to touch him now?” he asks.
What it means is that, assuming FDI norms are eased and either of these airlines decides to pick a 49 percent stake in Kingfisher, they will in all likelihood ask for a 30-year (long-term) loan from banks and perhaps a five-ten year interest moratorium. Even if they squeeze out a concession from the banks, the new investors will still have to pump in at least $500 million. It simply doesn’t make business sense. As for Emirates, the airline owned by the royal family of Dubai, and one that Mallya has tried to woo in the past, CEO Tim Clark has clearly said they wouldn’t be interested.
A senior management person from Mallya’s team says the only reason his people are still there is because they haven’t been paid for five months now. They don’t have the option of walking out right now because if they do, there is a very real threat they’ll lose everything, including the money that ought to be credited to their provident fund accounts and other perquisites that were part of their original package.
AP Verma, deputy managing director and chief credit risk officer of SBI, says a phased closure of the airline is a possibility because the airline has shrunk to a point where its market share is just about 5 percent. But it is still not clear if lenders are willing to go to court and engage in a legal battle to extract their pound of flesh. The lenders have a popular refrain: There has never been an Rs 10,000 crore bankruptcy in India and who would benefit anyway?
Not everyone is so sure. Jasdeep Singh, an airline analyst at Kotak Mahindra, an investment banking firm, argues it is impossible to service the airline’s liabilities with its existing operations. Foreign investors, he says, are unlikely to want to tangle with Kingfisher and will look for healthier airlines to invest in.
An aviation industry veteran who did not want to go on record says, “It is impossible to get any foreign airline to invest in Kingfisher. They can easily get much more from Spicejet, Go Air or anybody else for that matter. They won’t need more than $100 million to gain a toehold into India. Why take Mallya’s woes on their books?”
The view is corroborated by another London-based aviation analyst who declined to come on record. His arguments are that it will take at least $50 million to make the aircraft airworthy. So, he not only has to find ways to deal with the debt and outstanding payments, but also infuse capital to get this going. “Why on earth should Etihad or Qatar Airways want to touch him now?” he asks.
What it means is that, assuming FDI norms are eased and either of these airlines decides to pick a 49 percent stake in Kingfisher, they will in all likelihood ask for a 30-year (long-term) loan from banks and perhaps a five-ten year interest moratorium. Even if they squeeze out a concession from the banks, the new investors will still have to pump in at least $500 million. It simply doesn’t make business sense. As for Emirates, the airline owned by the royal family of Dubai, and one that Mallya has tried to woo in the past, CEO Tim Clark has clearly said they wouldn’t be interested.
Adding to Mallya’s misery is that arch rivals like Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways are frantically at work to ensure Kingfisher stays down. For instance, when Kingfisher was grounded in November last year and dozens of its flights were cancelled, Jet declined to honour tickets issued by Kingfisher. This, in spite of the fact that both airlines have an interline agreement in place. Instead, Jet Airways insisted Kingfisher pay full fares to accommodate stranded passengers. In markets like the US where airline bankruptcies aren’t rare, partner airlines usually step in to help.
It is also an open secret in the aviation business that Naresh Goyal has been lobbying for years to keep FDI into Indian aviation out. Until now, he’s been successful in staving the proposal off and in the process has denied his competition the much needed capital. “Naresh’s networking skills are legendary—particularly in the Middle East. He knows not only the top brass and the regulators in most countries, but also the sheikhs who own the airlines. He operates at various levels,” says a Jet insider who has worked with Goyal since the airline was launched. Mallya has reason to fear rivals like Goyal who have the ammunition to stop potential investors, including partners like Etihad and Qatar Airways from throwing a life-line.
That leaves Mallya with only two other options to raise funds and keep his airline business afloat.
It is also an open secret in the aviation business that Naresh Goyal has been lobbying for years to keep FDI into Indian aviation out. Until now, he’s been successful in staving the proposal off and in the process has denied his competition the much needed capital. “Naresh’s networking skills are legendary—particularly in the Middle East. He knows not only the top brass and the regulators in most countries, but also the sheikhs who own the airlines. He operates at various levels,” says a Jet insider who has worked with Goyal since the airline was launched. Mallya has reason to fear rivals like Goyal who have the ammunition to stop potential investors, including partners like Etihad and Qatar Airways from throwing a life-line.
That leaves Mallya with only two other options to raise funds and keep his airline business afloat.
· Sell some more of his personal stake in United Breweries to the Amsterdam-based beer maker Heineken which now holds 37.5 percent in the company. His senior-most advisors have been egging him to do that. But that would mean ceding operational control—something that is anathema to Mallya.
· The other option he can exercise is to part with Whyte & Mackay, which he had acquired in 2007 for £595 million. Internally, his team has been going hammer and tongs at him to sell this part of the business if he doesn’t want to part with what he has in United Breweries or United Spirits. Here too, he has demonstrated reluctance. A part of this reluctance could stem from the fact that in a market where sentiments are damp and capital is scarce, Mallya cannot command the kind of valuations he wants.
In any case, says Olly Wehring, the London-based editor of Just-Drinks, none of these options will make sense to buyers unless they have complete control over these assets. Mallya has a history of being a difficult partner to deal with when he is a majority stakeholder.
A little over three years ago, when we launched Forbes India in May 2009, we had written of how Kingfisher Airlines is teetering on the brink of disaster; of how Mallya’s debts are mounting to frightening proportions; of how he’s been lobbying hard with the finance ministry to ease FDI norms in the airline business; of how his charm and influence convinced at least three public sector banks to loan him funds; and of his now legendary rivalry with Naresh Goyal.
But back then, a senior investment banker dismissed our questions with a wave of his hand: “Vijay has always been up to his eyeballs in debt.” Ravi Jain, promoter of wine company Vallee de Vin, is somebody who’s seen Mallya from close quarters. He sounded equally nonchalant. “He is a man with many lives. He just needs to hang in there for some more time. Things will change when the market recovers,” he told us then. Their arguments sounded convincing and we concluded it was only a matter of time before he bounced back.
But three years down the line, there is little reason to believe Mallya wants to hold on to the airline business any more. By all indications, what he is doing right now is playing a game of brinksmanship. If he exercises the euthanasia option, creditors will surely come in to encash his personal guarantees, significantly eroding his own net worth. This includes banks and airport operators like Mumbai International Airport (MIAL). The latter has already initiated proceedings against him in the courts to recover its dues.
The hypothesis doing the rounds right now is that Mallya would ideally like to see someone else shut the airline down—either the government or the regulator. That way, he can claim he didn’t choose euthanasia, but was killed.
Now, if only somebody had the nerve to call his bluff!
(Additional reporting by Prince Mathews Thomas)
This article appeared in Forbes India Magazine of 20 July, 2012
EYE OPENER FOR ALL INDIAN HINDUS
Why are we Hindus taking all this lying down?
Foreign writer opens our eyes. 
The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Act of 1951 allows State Governments and politicians to take over thousands of Hindu Temples and maintain complete control over them and their properties. It is claimed that they can sell the temple assets and properties and use the money in any way they choose.
A charge has been made not by any Temple authority, but by a foreign writer, Stephen Knapp in a book (Crimes Against India and the Need to Protect Ancient Vedic Tradition) published in the United States that makes shocking reading.
Hundreds of temples in centuries past have been built in India by devout rulers and the donations given to them by devotees have been used for the benefit of the (other) people. If, presently, money collected has ever been misused (and that word needs to be defined), it is for the devotees to protest and not for any government to interfere. This letter is what has been happening currently under an intrusive law.
It would seem, for instance, that under a Temple Empowerment Act, about 43,000 temples in Andhra Pradesh have come under government control and only 18 per cent of the revenue of these temples have been returned for temple purposes, the remaining 82 per cent being used for purposes unstated.
Apparently even the world famous Tirumala Tirupati Temple has not been spared. According to Knapp, the temple collects over Rs 3,100 crores every year and the State Government has not denied the charge that as much as 85 per cent of this is transferred to the State Exchequer, much of which goes to causes that are not connected with the Hindu community. Was it for that reason that devotees make their offering to the temples? Another charge that has been made is that the Andhra Government has also allowed the demolition of at least ten temples for the construction of a golf course. Imagine the outcry writes Knapp, if ten mosques had been demolished.
It would seem that in Karanataka, Rs. 79 crores were collected from about two lakh temples and from that, temples received Rs seven crores for their maintenance, Muslim madrassahs and Haj subsidy were given Rs. 59 crore and churches about Rs 13 crore. Very generous of the government.
Because of this, Knapp writes, 25 per cent of the two lakh temples or about 50,000 temples in Karnataka will be closed down for lack of resources, and he adds: The only way the government can continue to do this is because people have not stood up enough to stop it.
Knapp then refers to Kerala where, he says, funds from the Guruvayur Temple are diverted to other government projects denying improvement to 45 Hindu temples. Land belonging to the Ayyappa Temple, apparently has been grabbed and Church encroaches are occupying huge areas of forest land, running into thousands of acres, near Sabarimala.
A charge is made that the Communist state government of Kerala wants to pass an Ordinance to disband the Travancore & Cochin Autonomous Devaswom Boards (TCDBs) and take over their limited independent authority of 1,800 Hindu temples. If what the author says is true, even the Maharashtra Government wants to take over some 450,000 temples in the state which would supply a huge amount of revenue to correct the states bankrupt conditions
And to top it all, Knapp says that in Orissa, the state government intends to sell over 70,000 acres of endowment lands from the Jagannath Temple, the proceeds of which would solve a huge financial crunch brought about by its own mismanagement of temple assets.
Says Knapp: Why such occurrences are so often not known is that the Indian media, especially the English television and press, are often anti-Hindu in their approach, and thus not inclined to give much coverage, and certainly no sympathy, for anything that may affect the Hindu community. Therefore, such government action that play against the Hindu community go on without much or any attention attracted to them.
Knapp obviously is on record. If the facts produced by him are incorrect, it is up to the government to say so. It is quite possible that some individuals might have set up temples to deal with lucrative earnings. But that, surely, is none of the governments business? Instead of taking over all earnings, the government surely can appoint local committees to look into temple affairs so that the amount discovered is fairly used for the public good?
Says Knapp: Nowhere in the free, democratic world are the religious institutions managed, maligned and controlled by the government, thus denying the religious freedom of the people of the country. But it is happening in India.. Government officials have taken control of Hindu temples because they smell money in them, they recognise the indifference of Hindus, they are aware of the unlimited patience and tolerance of Hindus, they also know that it is not in the blood of Hindus to go to the streets to demonstrate, destroy property, threaten, loot, harm and kill
Many Hindus are sitting and watching the demise of their culture. They need to express their views loud and clear Knapp obviously does not know that should they do so, they would be damned as communalists. But it is time some one asked the Government to lay down all the facts on the table so that the public would know what is happening behind its back. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not secularism. And temples are not for looting, under any name. One thought that Mohammad of Ghazni has long been dead.
HARD REALITIES.........
Hinduism remains the most attacked and under siege of all the major world religions. This is in spite of the fact that Hinduism is the most tolerant, pluralistic and synthetic of the world's major religions.
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