ISKCON's guest wants to expose its 'scams'

State Congress President D K Shivakumar is a chief guest at the Krishna Leela Theme Park ceremony this week. And he's just waiting to spoil the party

State Congress President D K Shivakumar is a chief guest at the Krishna Leela Theme Park ceremony this week. And he's just waiting to spoil the party

Guess who's invited as chief guest at Iskcon's Krishna Leela theme park's ground-breaking ceremony? The temple trust's Enemy No 1 D K Shivakumar.

House of faith being questioned: ISKCON faces an investigation

There is no love lost between DK, as the State Congress president is popularly called, and the trust, ever since he alleged that the International Society for Krishna Consciousness was making money from real estate after saying it was building a theme park.

While the government is procrastinating on constituting a joint house committee to probe into Iskcon's alleged irregularities, the trust has gone ahead and invited him, among several others, to grace the event to mark the start of work.

A source in Iskcon said, "When we invited him, he said he would come."

Ministers, MPs, and pontiffs of eight maths are among the august invitees.

DK's charge

On July 22, Shivakumar was hailed by all parties in the Assembly when he brought to light alleged irregularities by Isckon.

Impressed by his facts and figures, the government agreed to constitute a house committee to probe the religious group's Akshayapatra mid-day meal scheme and its real estate interests.

'I am determined to expose Iskcon'

Iskcon is developing a residential and commercial complex on 35 acres of private land on Kanakapura Road to fund its ambitious Krishna Leela theme park. The park is coming up on an adjacent 28 acres of government-allotted land.

Interestingly, Shivakumar was one of the bidders when the private land went up for sale a couple of years ago.
MiD DAY had carried a series of reports on the issue following which Shivakumar moved an adjournment motion on the floor of the house.

When contacted, Shivakumar said, "I am determined to expose Iskcon and will not take part in any of their programmes."

He said he had ample proof against Iskcon that he would make public shortly. "What I have shown in the Assembly is just the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more in store."

He is pressuring the government to speed up the process of constituting the house committee and appointing an administrator for Iskcon after confiscating its assets.

Committee

Jagadish Shettar, speaker of the Assembly said, "The parties have sent names for the committee members, but the education department is yet to send the reference points for the probe without which we won't know what to investigate." The department of education has to send the reference points because the investigation will be chiefly about the mid-day meal scheme that falls in its ambit.

However, Nadaddor, principal secretary, department of primary and secondary education, said, "The department has not heard anything from the speaker yet. Right now everybody is busy with flood relief and we will look into these issues later."