New Delhi: Priests of various shrines in Uttarakhand, who have been demanding the dissolution of the Char Dham Devasthanam Board, have threatened to hold protests during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Kedarnath shrine on November 5 if their demand for an audience with him on the subject is not met.Earlier this week, the priests had staged a black flag protest and prevented former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat from entering Kedarnath, which has been decorated for Diwali.The ire of the priests was directed against Rawat as it was during his term that the Board was constituted in 2019. Priests have claimed that the board existed to make industrialists money at their expense and that it also went against the tradition of the shrines.Following the latest protests, the BJP government in the state, now led by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, has stirred. Dhami with senior cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat on Wednesday, November 3, appealed to the protesting priests to climb down.Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami inspects the preparations ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit. Photo: PTI‘Want assurances from PM’Talking to The Wire, Vinod Prasad Shukla, president of the Teerth Purohit Samaj Shri Kedarnath, said, “On Wednesday, Dhami came and said we will ‘finish’ this Board by November 30. Harak Singh Rawat also gave a similar assurance. They assured us that they will bring an enabling Bill in the assembly to the effect. We welcomed the announcement and said please do not do any wrong or injustice to us.”However, Shukla said that the priests want to take up the issue during the upcoming visit of the prime minister as well.“We seek time from the PM to discuss with him how and what is being done regarding our demands,” he said.Also read: Uttarakhand CM Finally Agrees to Meet Priests Protesting the Char Dham Devasthanam BoardThe leader of the protesting priests also said that the group has proposed that two of its representatives meet the prime minister for 15 minutes to discuss the issue of the dissolution of the Board. “Or we will protest,” he said.On November 5, Modi is scheduled to visit the Kedarnath temple to look at the progress of the rehabilitation programmes undertaken for the region following the devastating floods of 2013. Modi will be unveiling the Samadhi of Sri Adi Shankaracharya, that was damaged in the flood. A statue of the Indian philosopher and theologian will be also be unveiled.The Kedarnath shrine will be closed for the winter from November 6.Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Dhami offers prayers at the Kedarnath Temple, in Kedarnath, Wednesday, Nov 3, 2021. Photo: PTIOppositionThe issue has also become a sore point for the ruling BJP in the state as the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party are using it to build momentum against the saffron party before the assembly election due early in 2022. AAP has already assured priests that it would dissolve the Board if it forms a government in the state.The teerth purohits and other stakeholders have been regularly holding protests in Kedarnath, Rudraprayag and other parts of the state on the issue.Upon becoming chief minister in July this year, Dhami had formed a committee to submit a report on the issue after talking to all stakeholders. The priests have been insisting on a total dissolution of the Board, that has as many as 22 IAS officers in it, on the grounds that it has changed various dynamics of shrine management in the state.For one, no construction is now allowed within a 200-metre radius of any temple. In addition, the rights of priests, whose forefathers had been running many of these shrines for centuries, to have a say in their management and on allocation of properties around them were taken away. All this, they claimed, had hurt nearly 50,000 families in the state financially.This apart, the priests were also peeved that several traditions related to timings of operation of shrines, and the rituals to be carried out were also changed arbitrarily by the Board.
