By Omar Rashid
New Delhi: The Sanatan Dharma is “one large banyan tree” and cannot be compared to a “bush”. With this allusion, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on January 25 seemed to express his disapproval of the growing demands by Hindu religious leaders for the formulation of a Waqf board-like ‘Sanatana Board’ for the maintenance and control of properties of various Hindu temples and mutts.
Adityanath was speaking at an event organised at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj by the extreme right-wing organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Although he did not directly speak about the ‘Sanatan Board’, Adityanath made a slant reference to the matter while addressing the ‘Virat Sant Sammelan’ of the VHP, which has, as of now, not given a nod to the idea of a Sanatan Board.
“Do not confine Sanatan Dharma to any narrow boundaries. Do not compare it to those tiny little boards,” Adityanath said a day after the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the apex umbrella body of the 13 Hindu sects in India, announced that it would declare a Sanatan Board at a ‘Dharma Sansad’ at the Maha Kumbh on January 27.
The Akhara Parishad and the VHP, a frontal unit of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), both agree that temples and Hindu mutts should be freed from government control and that Waqf Boards of the Muslim community be abolished. However, the VHP does not seem to share the opinion of the Akhara Parishad that temples be managed through a centralised board.
Alok Kumar, international president of the VHP, has said that the idea of a Sanatan Board needs more deliberations. Talking to a news website, Kumar said, “It’s important to know what the content of the Sanatan Board will be. We will try to understand this and then make a decision,” he said. The Telegraph reported that Kumar categorically rejected the idea of a Sanatan Board, bringing to surface a difference of opinion between the VHP and the Akhara Parishad. “We don’t want a Sanatan Board. Rather, we want the government to abolish the Muslim Waqf boards too. There is no need to have such boards,” Kumar said.
The Akhara Parishad is gearing up to reveal the contours and structure of a Sanatan Board on January 27. Ravindra Puri, Akhara Parishad president, while addressing journalists at the Mela on Friday, argued for the need for a centralised board. “When there is a Waqf board, why shouldn’t there be a Sanatan board? The law should be the same for everyone and justice should be given to all. Through the Sanatan Board we will take back possession of all the mutts and mandirs that have been occupied,” said Puri.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
