Politics of funding religious outreach: Examining nationwide schemes

As the AAP govt promises salaries to temple and gurudwara priests, a look at other parties nationwide that have made similar announcements or rolled out such schemes

Last week, former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana, promising a monthly salary of Rs 18,000 for priests of temples and granthis of gurudwaras if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which he leads, were to return to power in the Delhi Assembly elections.

 

AAP sources said the party would work out a formula for selecting the priests who would be eligible for the scheme. The announcement stirred the Sangh Parivar, with the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) urging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to include a similar promise in its manifesto for the Delhi polls due in February.

 

In March 2023, the BJP organised a protest by priests outside Kejriwal’s residence, demanding government salaries for temple priests, similar to the monthly honorariums of Rs 18,000 paid to imams and Rs 16,000 to muezzins by the Delhi Waqf Board. On December 30 last year, days after Kejriwal’s announcement, the All India Imam Association protested outside the AAP chief’s residence, demanding that the Delhi government release dues to the Waqf Board to enable it to pay salaries to imams and muezzins.

 

Temple trusts under the Centre and state governments pay salaries to priests of temples that come under the government’s endowment boards; for example, the salaries of the priests at Ayodhya’s Ram temple. The UP government took over the management of the Kashi Vishwanath temple on October 13, 1983, under the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act, and the salaries of priests and other staff were last revised in February 2024, with senior priests receiving Rs 90,000 per month.

 

In Andhra Pradesh, in November 2023, the then YSR Congress Party government increased the salaries of archaks, or priests, working in temples under the purview of the endowments department from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,650 per month. In Karnataka, 50,000 priests employed at temples under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (Muzrai) department have been demanding an increase in their allowance from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

 

However, an increasing number of state governments have taken to paying stipends to temple priests, imams, and pastors that are neither run by trusts nor come under the watch of endowment boards. The AAP’s promise in Delhi is an example of this. Moreover, while the Centre stopped the Haj subsidy in 2018, state governments run by political parties of all ideological hues have rolled out schemes to subsidise pilgrimage, especially for senior citizens.

 

Telangana

 

In Telangana, the Congress manifesto for the 2023 Assembly polls promised “free power supply” and funds for the repair of all “temples, mosques, churches, and other places of worship.” It announced increasing financial assistance to temples from Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000, with pujaris of 643 temples under the endowment board receiving salaries on par with state government staff, and Rs 6,000 monthly allowances for pastors, fathers, imams, and muezzins.

 

Madhya Pradesh

 

In June 2012, the MP government’s Department of Religious Trusts and Endowments launched the CM Teerth Darshan scheme. It provided one-time financial aid to senior citizens to visit pilgrimage sites outside the state and currently covers most of the prominent Hindu religious sites, including Ajmer Sharif, the Golden Temple at Amritsar, and Velankanni Church in Nagapattinam.

 

Over the years, other governments have followed Madhya Pradesh’s lead. The Delhi government launched a similar scheme in 2019. Uttar Pradesh, during both the Samajwadi Party and BJP governments, subsidises pilgrimages to Kailash Mansarovar and Sindhu Darshan.

 

In Uttarakhand, the Congress government started the Mere Buzurg Mere Teerth scheme in 2014, sponsoring the pilgrimage of senior citizens to Hindu and Muslim religious sites, which the BJP renamed in 2017, added several more Hindu sites, and continued with those associated with Islam.

 

Several other states, including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, and Chhattisgarh, have their respective schemes for pilgrims. Tamil Nadu subsidises travel to Jerusalem for Christians and to Mansarovar and Muktinath for Hindus.