"State control of Hindu temples and their property is by far the largest, financially most damaging scam of independent India. ...What business is it of the State to levy an administrative charge from anywhere between 5 percent to 21 percent on Hindu temples in the name of audit? What business is it of the State to dictate how many times a pooja is to be conducted and who is to conduct it, and who is qualified to be the priest and what is going to be the procedure for worship? What business is it of the State to control tens of thousands of acres of temple land and then set rent for it? The loss to Hindu temples on account of this alone is estimated over decades to be in lacs of crores... . Because of this loss in revenue generation, Hindu temples are not able to spend money on what they would really like to spend money on—opening up ved pathshalas, schools, colleges, gaushalas, fellowships and scholarships, orphanages, Hindu cultural and religious centres—all things and causes other religions and their places of worship spend their money on unencumbered.... Only in India can you step aside and watch as the State appoints non-Hindus— Muslims like Firhad Hakim, Christians like Vangalapudi Anita—on boards that control Hindu temples; only here will we remain silent as temple idols are stolen, temple property auctioned, a whole temple driven ecosystem and way of life dismantled-Assault on temples has turned into an assault on Hinduism itself. Imagine a Hindu priest or a politician controlling and dictating how St Frances Church or the Jama Masjid should be run. If that happens, perhaps judiciary would indeed conduct a midnight hearing, crying death of secularism."