The latest controversy kicked up by the government relates to the ordinance promulgated to amend the Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions (TCHRI) Act.

Why did the UDF Government go for the ordinance in a tearing hurry? Well, the motive that propelled the government into promulgating it is crystal clear: the ordinance mandates that only Hindu MLAs who vouch their faith in god can participate in the election to vote for selecting an SC/ST member of the Travancore Devaswom Board! At one stroke, it would exclude Left Democratic Front (LDF) MLAs who have not taken the oath in the name of god from the voting process.

Understandably, the LDF has taken strong exception to the ordinance. Angry LDF MLAs and leaders on Friday took out a march to the Raj Bhavan to urge the Governor not to affix his signature to the ordinance.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) has gone one step further by deciding to challenge the ordinance in the Kerala High Court. The party says the ordinance is clearly against a division bench verdict of the High Court which says that only a person who wants to get elected to the Devaswom Board needs to profess his faith in god, and that voters do not have to file a declaration about his religious belief.

Leader of the Opposition V S Achuthanandan, who led the march to the Raj Bhavan, accused the Government of trying to bring the state under an ‘ordinance raj’. Instead of bringing the bills in the state assembly and getting them passed after a discussion, the Government was opting for the ordinance route to realise its political agenda, he charged. In his letter to the Governor, VS says: Mixing one’s belief in god with electoral politics is equivalent to sabotaging the Representation of the People Act.”

Evidently, the ordinance constitutes a brazen violation of the rights of a citizen and an infringement on the rights of an MLA to solemnly affirm his/her faith in the Constitution.

Another obnoxious feature of the ordinance is that it seeks to deny representation to women, who account for more than 75 per cent of those who visit temples, on the Devaswom Board. Ironically, the ordinance has come at a time when both the central government and many state governments are trying to raise women’s representation in various spheres.

The move to have an exclusive recruitment board for the Devaswom boards would open the floodgates of corruption. The proposal also seeks to reverse the decision of the erstwhile LDF Government to delegate the recruitment of administrative staff of Devaswom Boards to the Kerala Public Service Commission.

It is not as if the Opposition alone is opposing the ordinance. Resentment against the ordinance is building up even within the Congress. For instance, the Youth Congress has openly come out against the obnoxious move; so has the Mahila Congress.

So strong is the sentiment against the ‘unconstitutional’ ordinance that YC leader and MLA V T Balram is on record that he would abstain from voting if the new act insists on his filing an affidavit about his faith in god.

Last but not the least, even Assembly Speaker G Karthikeyan has expressed his reservations about the ordinance.

What is most disturbing is that the Government seems determined to go ahead with the ordinance move despite the stiff opposition to the same. With the left parties deciding to take the path of agitation and move the court, the stage is set for a protracted political and legal battle on the ordinance, which militates against the secular spirit of the Constitution. (IPA Service)