Politics has no role in daily worship and festivals of temples, says Kerala HC
Kochi, Feb 17: The Kerala High Court has held that politics has no role to play in the conduct of daily worship and temple festivals, while observing that neither a devotee nor the district administration has the legal right to insist on using a specific colour for decorative materials used in ceremonies.
In its order on February 14, a division bench of Justices Anil K Narendran and P G Ajithkumar said a devotee has no legal right to insist that saffron or orange coloured decorative materials alone should be used for festivals in a temple under the management of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
Similarly, the district administration or the police cannot insist that only ‘politically neutral’ coloured decorative materials be used for such festivals.
The court made the observation while disposing of two petitions filed in connection with a case relating to the conduct of Kaliyoottu festival at Major Vellayani Bhadrakali Devi Temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
The temple is under the management of TDB.
One of the petitioners alleged that on February 7, when the decoration work at the temple premises commenced, the police orally directed them to stop the erection of arches, festoons and tinsels with saffron colours, and asked them to use multi-colour items for decoration in the shrine’s premises.
The court, in its order, said that the right to worship is a civil right, “of course in an accustomed manner and subject to the practice and tradition in each temple”.
“A worshipper or a devotee has no legal right to insist that saffron/orange coloured decorative materials alone are used for festivals in a temple under the management of the Travancore Devaswom Board.
“Similarly, the district administration or the police cannot insist that only ‘politically neutral’ coloured decorative materials are used for temple festivals. Politics has no role to play in the conduct of daily worship and ceremonies and festivals in temples,” the order said.
Nemom police had filed a counter affidavit saying the district magistrate had given a direction to remove all flags, banners, flex boards and other decorative works put up on roads after a dispute between rival groups of devotees backed by political parties affected the law and order situation.
However, the writ petition alleged that the District Magistrate and the local police were creating trouble in the conduct of the temple festival, “misusing their powers, under the influence of the local Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers”.
The police informed the court that it has not made any restrictions over use of saffron colour in the rituals such as Nilathilporu, Paranettu, etc and have insisted that saffron be used with other colours in the decoration in public places.
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India to get first national security semiconductor fabrication plant
Wilmington (PTI): Under a transformative collaboration with the US, India will get a national security semiconductor fabrication plant that will produce chips for use in military hardware and next-generation telecommunications.
The India-US joint project was announced following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Wilmington on Saturday.
A joint fact sheet on Modi-Biden talks said the two leaders "hailed" the semiconductor project as a "watershed arrangement".
It will be the first ever India-US semiconductor fabrication partnership.
It is the first time ever the US military has agreed to do a partnership for these highly-value technologies with India and it is a watershed moment as it is as significant as the civil nuclear deal, people familiar with the matter said.
"President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed a watershed arrangement to establish a new semiconductor fabrication plant focused on advanced sensing, communication, and power electronics for national security, next-generation telecommunications, and green energy applications," the fact sheet noted.
It said the "fab, which will be established with the objective of manufacturing infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors, will be enabled by support from the India semiconductor mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the US Space Force."
The Fab becomes not only India’s first, but one of the world's first multi-material fabs for national security, the people cited above said.
The fact sheet said Modi and Biden praised combined efforts to facilitate resilient, secure, and sustainable semiconductor supply chains including through GlobalFoundries' (GF) creation of the GF Kolkata Power Center in Kolkata.
It said the project will enhance mutually beneficial linkages in research and development in chip manufacturing.
"The leaders welcomed steps our industry is taking to build safe, secure, and resilient supply chains for US, Indian, and international automotive markets, including through Ford Motor Company's submission of a Letter of Intent to utilize its Chennai plant to manufacture for export to global markets," the document said.
It said Modi and Biden commended ongoing efforts to build more expansive cooperation around 5G deployment and next-generation telecommunications.
This includes the US Agency for International Development's plans to expand the Asia Open RAN Academy with an initial USD 7 million investment to grow this workforce training initiative worldwide, including in South Asia with Indian institutions.
