By Nitin Mahajan
The troubles for the Bharatiya Janata Party led Uttarakhand government are far from over despite its announcement to dissolve Chaar Dham Devasthanam Management Board.
Sources in the party believe that with the announcement of dissolving Devasthanam Board by the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami may have helped placate the anger within the priests as they called off the agitation, there are many who are quite upset with the state government’s decision to enact a law constituting the board in the first place and took so long to dissolve it.
The state is set for assembly polls early next year.
Senior leaders believe that though the party has been successful in fending off a direct fight with the priests and their supporters, the disappointment in the party for coercing them to take an extreme step like agitation has not gone down well with the Brahmin community.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an RSS affiliate, too threw its weight behind the priests and demanded that temples and their management should be freed from government’s control.
“We are happy that the state government has taken its decision to have Devasthanam board back but we will strengthen our movement against govt’s control over the temples and urge centre to formulate a law on this as well,” stated a senior functionary at the RSS affiliate.
Senior party leaders in the state believe that it was the Centre’s decision to repeal the three farm laws that led the Dhami government to take the bold step of taking an enacted law back. Moreover, priests had warned the BJP of supporting their opponents in upcoming polls if the board isn’t dissolved.
The brahmin community which has been at the forefront of the agitation against the Board are waiting for the government to get the dissolution of Devasthanam Board approved in the assembly.
The priests of Chaar Dhams namely Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath and Yamnotri have been protesting against the formation of Devasthanam Board as they fear infringement of their rights over temple properties, freedom to hold festivities and pooja and other rights. They were demanding dissolving the Board so that there would be no government interference in the temples functioning.
Char Dham Devasthanam Board came into being after being notified on January 15, 2020 and was enacted by Trivendra Singh Rawat. Many in the party believe that it is one of the primary reasons why he was asked to resign. It was a 29 member board with the Chief minister as its chairman. The Dhami government announced the dissolution of he Board on November 30.