When a temple festival is conducted using public money, does the public not have a right to know how much money was used, and for what reasons? This is at the heart of a controversy around two RTI applications in Tamil Nadu, about the Athi Varadhar festival in Kanchipuram. One of the applications sought details of money spent on the festival from the Kanchipuram District Collector – who dismissed the RTI and claimed it was a request based on “guesswork and doubts”, and not one seeking information.
The other application was made to the Kanchipuram Devaraja Swamy temple – also known as the Varadaraja Swamy temple – where the festival is conducted; the applicant sought details of how much public money was collected during the festival along with receipts – and the temple refused to give this info, claiming the task of collecting the information would divert from the temple’s daily work.
The Athi Varadhar festival in Kanchipuram is a 48-day festival, held once every 40 years. During the event, an idol of Athi Varadhar – an incarnation of Vishnu in Hindu mythology – is brought out of the Varadaraja Swamy temple tank for people to offer their prayers. The idol is made of a fig tree, and is stored at the bottom of the temple tank after the festival. The festival was held in July and August this year.
‘Guesswork and doubts’
GR Ravi from the Tamil Makkal Panpattu Kazhagam in Kanchipuram filed an RTI application with the Kanchipuram District Collector’s office on August 21 this year. The application contained 11 questions, seeking details regarding the money spent for the festival, VVIP and VIP passes given out, how many people had attended the festival, how much money was collected as donations in the undiyal, number of police, medical and conservancy personnel deployed during the fest, number and details of the VIPs and VVIPs who had visited the shrine during the festival etc.
Speaking to TNM, Ravi said, “We have been asking for a check dam across the Palar river in Kanchipuram for many years now. The usual response is that the government does not have money to build it for us. So, I wanted to know how much the government had spent on this occasion and therefore filed an RTI application.”
However, the District Collector’s office dismissed the RTI on the grounds that it didn’t seek information, but was based on “guesswork and satisfying doubts.” “When we perused your RTI application, the information you had sought in your application is based on clarifying your doubts and guesses, as against the definition of ‘ínformation’ under section 2(f) of the Act. Hence there is no place in the law to provide you the information you have requested, or to clear your doubts,” said the response from the District Collector’s office that TNM has a copy of.
Ravi said this was a case of officials not doing their duty as per law. “The act does not prevent anybody from giving information just because the request was in a question-answer format,” he said. The RTI application had been framed as questions, and this could have been a reason to reject the application on a technicality. “Apart from Military and police-related information, the act has authorised the government to provide information to those who ask for it,” he said.
Too much effort to give donation information?
Meanwhile, the second RTI application that has kicked up a controversy was filed by RTI activist Dilli Babu, with the authorities of the Devaraja Swamy temple in Kanchipuram where the festival was held this year. The application sought information under 11 points, including how old the festival is, according to what scripture the ritual of taking the idol out of the lake once in 40 years is conducted, how much money was donated by people who attended the festival, copies of donation receipts, etc. Some of these questions were answered – such as the festival is “hundreds of years old” and that the ritual is conducted “as per customs”; however, information regarding donation and receipt details was denied.
The temple in its refusal cited section 7(9) of the RTI Act: “An information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question.”
“Lakhs of devotees have thronged the shrine for the festival. In such a state, sharing copies of receipts and token details with the applicant will obstruct the daily activities of the organisation. Hence the request is rejected under section 7(9) of the Act,” the temple in its reply said.
Dilli Babu however contested that collecting this information would disproportionately divert the resources of the temple. “It is the duty of the Joint Commissioners and other officials of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department to monitor such festivals and have records for whatever is being offered to the deity. They are supposed to provide the information to those who request for it through RTI,” Dilli Babu said.
Commenting on the issue, former Assistant Commissioner in HR & CE department of Tamil Nadu Muthu Palaniyappan said that the reason for the denial of information is not agreeable at all. “These are fittest cases for the applicants to go for an appeal to the next higher authority. The District Collector and the temple authorities are, by law, required to give the information to the public. These are not military secrets,” he said.
Pointing to the transparency that is mandated of the temples under the department, he said, “The annual audit reports of the temples under the HR & CE department of Tamil Nadu should be displayed in the temple notice boards. But who follows these? This should all be checked and implemented,” he added.
The Collector of Kanchipuram was not available for a response.
The Athivaradar festival, which took place from July 1, 2019 to August 17, 2019, attracted lakhs of devotees and dignitaries from far and wide, thronging the temple to visit the deity in the 48 days. The festival was considered important because it happens once in 40 years. Seven people died and more than 200 people fainted when they had participated in the 48-day festival.