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Private virtues, public vices

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    • Bibek Debroy Tags : Monsoon, India agriculture Posted: Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009 at 1513 hrs

    Why should there be an Endowments Minister and Ministry? Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) was established in 1932 and at that time, a colonial government may have wanted oversight. Regulation for something like TTD is fine, but does one need the AP Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act of 1987, or the ones that preceded it? Does one need the Board of Trustees of TTD to be packed with IAS officers and MLAs? Does one need the government to dabble in religion? That's a terrible idea. Since the government messes up most things, it will also mess up religion. Let's keep religion in the private domain.

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    Prayers with public moneyBy: Roy | 26-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward If the weatherman cant give us good news, the answer is not to follow tradition or faith and organize prayers with public money! Instead, the government should focus its funds and efforts towards building canals, rain water harvesting and other solutions to monsoon failure! Is there any evidence to suggest that prayers bring rains? If so, then the government should say so first (and collect the Nobel prize in chemistry later).
    Aggregate rain not importantBy: Rakesh | 26-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward The more important point made in this article is that more important than aggregate rainfall is how well the rain spreads across different regions. The MET department only focuses on the aggregate rainfall. It should also tell how well spread the rains are because there's no use if it floods in one area and it there is a drought in another, exactly the thing happening because of climate change. Also, the government has no right to spend public money on these rituals. It's not about secularism. It's plain waste of money. If they want, the Chief ministers can spend money from their own salaries.
    What is the harm?By: SC Aggarwal | 25-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward I do not see any reason if the Chief Minister of a State takes part in a yajna being performed by religious persons to bring rains. What is the harm in it? Today, there is no rains and every one in the country wants rains. After all rains are not coming. Government is also waiting for rains. Some secular persons of the country become uncomfortable when they see a Yagna is being performed to bring rains. Their secularism becomes in danger. This kind of secularism of some persons is very dangerous. Our secular persons should not feel sorry if some people with or without the help of Government perform Yagna or pooja to bring rains. After all, what is the harm in it if rains come by performing pooja or Yagna?
    Dr Debroy's ArticleBy: viswanathan k s | 25-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward It is useless to write comments as you do not publish them. Whatever suits you only gets published.you acknowledge with:Thanks for posting comment. Your comment has been accepted and will appear shortly.But this does not happen
    Rain Makers By: A K Singh | 25-Jun-2009 Reply | Forward Mr Roy misses the point while debunking the divine intervention efforts of the State government. Vast section of Indian populace are god fearing believers. The elected Governments of these states are just carrying out the rituals which the erstwhile Kings of the yore would have done.And you cant blame them as no rational approach/technique to resolving the problem of monsoon failures has yet evolved.Or should the government's of the day pull up and punish the meteorological department - blatant instance of shooting the messenger.
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