Newsday
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, October 27, 2004: (HPI note: This Newsday article updates the situation with the Flushing temple.)
For the thousands of faithful who worship in Flushing at the country’s oldest Hindu temple, it is considered a sanctuary. But in recent months, the Ganesha Temple, named after the Hindu elephant-headed Deity, has become the focus of an increasingly heated legal battle over its governance. The struggle has centered on a state court’s decision to restructure the temple’s leadership by creating a voting membership and forcing an election for a new board of trustees. A self-perpetuating board of 11 trustees now runs the temple, which was completed in 1977 by the Hindu Temple Society of North America. For the past three years, however, a group of 28 temple-goers seeking a voice in the temple’s management has used the state courts to push for a more democratic style of governance. On Sept. 15, the temple’s trustees were handed their latest legal defeat when a federal judge deferred jurisdiction to the state courts. The decision clears the way for an earlier ruling by State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Golia in Queens, who last year appointed an outside referee, Anthony Piacentini, to oversee the election of a new board of trustees.
The current legal wrangling in Flushing, however, is an external fissure in a deeper power struggle. The temple, an impressive gray granite structure tucked along a residential block in Queens, generates as much as $3 million a year in donations from some 21,000 devotees and runs dozens of educational and social programs. “The temple is built through the sacrifices of many,” said Krishnan Chittur, an attorney for the temple-goers seeking the elections. “Right now it’s literally a personal property.”
Chief among the complaints of the temple-goers, who include a former chief priest, is the temple’s reluctance to make its financial dealings fully transparent. “Members don’t have a clue on the financial status of the temple,” Chittur said. The temple’s trustees have authority over all of the temple’s affairs, from preparing for regular religious festivals and running the temple’s various programs to the hiring of priests and other staff. Temple president Uma Mysorekar said the temple maintains internal and external accountants who audit their books and present the temple’s financial statements to worshippers once a year.
So far, the state court has largely sided against the temple’s trustees. In a June 10 ruling, Justice Golia called the temple’s current board “illegitimate” and a “caretaker” regime until a new board can be elected. Under the state court ‘s ruling, the temple will now essentially be required to create a congregation, opening membership to all of the 21,000 individuals on its mailing list who are over 18 years of age and willing to pay a token membership fee. The temple has appealed both the federal and state court rulings, but barring any reprieve, the election of a new board of trustees could take place before the end of this year.