LDF takes Padmanabhaswamy temple verdict sans progressive rhetoric

Thiruvananthapuram:  Hushing up the usual revolutionary rhetoric, the CPI (M)-Led LDF Government in Kerala has quietly accepted the Supreme Court verdict upholding the rights of erstwhile Travancore Royal family over the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala capital. The minister in charge of temple affairs Kadakampally Surendran, a CPI (M) nominee, has made it clear that the government will not prefer an appeal against the judgment.

It is not far to seek the reasons why even a frisson of a hair is not being raised by the Left over the judgment that upturned the Kerala High Court ruling that the control of the fabulously rich temple be taken over by the State. The LDF leaders are aware that it will be politically unwise to ruffle the feelings of vast sections of people, as the government did after the 2018 apex court verdict permitting women of all ages to Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.

Ending a long-drawn-out legal battle, the SC has held that Travancore royal family is the “human ministrant” or Shebait (manager) of the temple. A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Indu Malhotra thus brought to an end to the dispute that dragged on over a decade whether the temple management should be taken away from the royal house, so that its administration could be entirely vested to a state-created statutory body. Even as it upheld the royal family’s rights, the apex court directed setting up of an administrative committee with Thiruvananthapuram District Judge as its chairperson. 

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In normal circumstances, the Left would not have left uncontested a ruling that restores privileges of the royal-feudal days. But the lessons it had learnt from the way it handled the Sabarimala issue remains a cautionary tale for a party fully converted to parliamentary system, shedding pretensions of being a revolutionary movement.

The LDF was routed in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which came amidst the turbulence over the government’s proactive moves to end the long-followed custom that barred women of menstrual age trekking up the hill shrine.

Also, the government led by Marxist strongman Pinarayi Vijayan is now under the cloud cast by the Kerala gold smuggling case. The investigation of the sensational case has been taken over by the NIA. The government is confronted with some unpleasant questions linked to the key accused in the case. The opposition Congress and the BJP has mounted a fierce assault on the government. All these would make it costly for the LDF to open a new front over the temple issue when the state assembly elections are due in less than a year.

The grand temple in the heart of Kerala capital has been the nucleus of the Travancore royal family. The heads of the royal house had wielded power as “servants of Sree Padmanabha” for last few centuries, until the princely state got integrated with the Indian Union in 1947. Following this, most major temples were taken over by the then state of Travancore-Cochin and formed the Travancore Devaswom Board for their management. However, as a special case Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple was retained under the trusteeship of the royal family.

Though it has been a never-miss attraction for visitors for centuries, the sprawling temple shot to fame over a decade back when the world came to know that its inner recesses hold immense wealth in the form of gold ornaments, jewels and a whole lot of invaluable riches. It all started with late TP Sundarrajan, a former IPS officer who took an early VRS and an ardent devotee of Lord Padmanabha, moved the court seeking transfer of control of the temple to the state’s authority.

In 2011, the Kerala High Court ordered the state to take over the temple’s control. After this, a court-appointed panel was formed to make an inventory of the riches stashed in underground chambers of the temple. Though, the inventory panel had not opened all the vaults, whatever treasures it came across from those that they explored had been amazing. 

As expected, the members of the royal family have hailed the verdict terming it as “a victory of the Lord and a blessing from him to his devotees”. They also added that the invaluable riches of the temple belong to the Lord, and not to the royal house.

The main opposition Congress-led UDF as well as the BJP and the Sangh Parivar outfits have also welcomed the verdict, while taking a dig at the LDF that at least this time round it had chosen to act with discretion.