- Whenever the Indian citizens hear, read, write, or come across the slogan, propounded by the Union Government at every forum/opportunity, about the country being counted amongst the developed nations by 2047, we tend to feel proud, though how we intend to achieve the milestone is still unclear. However, the mere mention of India as a developed nation makes us feel on top of the world. Pragmatically speaking, the Indian economy must consistently achieve high GDP returns over the next couple of decades is stating the obvious. What is not obvious is why groups in certain states governed by the BJP are insisting on upholding anachronistic ideologies/practices that should not have any place whatsoever in the present scheme of things.
PC: Royal Trip Makers
- A thorough dissection into how certain nationalistic viewpoints are being bandied about by the right-wing activists/groups in the name of Hindutva is in order. As we are aware, the Badri-Kedar Committee has come up with an idea/proposal on banning access to non-Hindus from two of Hinduism’s most venerated temples, Kedarnath and Badrinath. Without mincing words, this proposed move must be mentioned as not only dangerous but also divisive in the present-day world, where pilgrimage tourism is a huge revenue-generating module. Needless to mention, the Uttarakhand government and state BJP must nix this idea at the bud without any hesitation. In fact, the very idea mooted now should not even be allowed to be mentioned at all.
![Uttarakhand HC Upholds Constitutional Validity Of Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act [Read Judgment]](https://www.livelaw.in/h-upload/2020/07/21/750x450_378555-chardham-yatra-1591697406.jpg)
PC: Live Law
- Disconcertingly, priests’ communities have upped the ante on their longstanding demand to wrest control of Hindu places of worship from state jurisdiction. Recall that in 2021, the Uttarakhand govt junked its Char Dham Devasthanam Board Act passed in 2019 – that sought to bring 51 temples under a single management board – following stiff opposition from Hindu clergy, individual temple managements, and VHP. In the first place, state control of Hindu shrines was exerted to counter casteism in temples in independent India – exactly to counter this kind of bar to access, as suggested by orthodoxies such as BKTC’s. Access for all in Hindu temples is a battle hard-won. The mooted proposal itself is unconstitutional. Remember, the caste conundrum.
PC: Ramble Over World Holidays
- In the name of tradition, as was argued for the proposal to non-Hindus from Haridwar’s ghats days ago, the state cannot allow a return to hoary segregationist practices and remain willfully blind to law and constitutional morality. Alternatively, BKTC is baiting the govt at a time when UCC isan experiment in Uttarakhand. And at a time when pilgrimages are central to its cultural and political messaging, neatly folded into Hindutva politics. Pilgrimage tourism is a red-hot growth sector, and Uttarakhand is a major player. That also should prompt the state, and all states hosting major pilgrimage centres, to open temple doors wider still and for all. Supreme Court, were it to hear the constitutionality of the proposal, would strike it down. It shouldn’t come to that. Simple.
