IN OPIUM COUNTRY, HIGH ON TEMPLE POLITICS OF A NEW KIND

Every smuggler here shares his profits with God

Less than 10 km from the gleaming and swishy National Highway 76, Narendra
Mistry is supervising the renovation and construction of ''the temple of
thieves''. As devotees swerve off the four-lane highway between Udaipur and
Chittodgarh and wind their way to the famous Sanwariyaji temple devoted to
Lord Krishna, what they can see is the foundation of a new 'Akshardham',
bang in the heart of opium country.

''This is going to be bigger and better than Akshardham,'' says Mistry, who
is just back from a field visit to Ahmedabad to check out the real thing.
''Actually, the real shrine in Gujarat is not much to write home about. This
temple is much better and we will make it even more beautiful.''

For the last six odd months, Mistry and his men have been working to change
the face of the temple, legendary for the opium offerings made by its
''smuggler devotees''. The silver chest in the shrine accumulates about Rs 1
lakh every day.

''The idol was found when they were digging nearby to build a gravel road
between Udaipur and Chittod,'' says advocate and part-time historian B.L.
Sisodia. ''People believe that their wishes are fulfilled and that's how it
got famous, especially with opium cultivators. Today, every crook very
diligently shares his profits with God, making this one of the richest
temples in Rajasthan.''

Cheques, drafts, fixed deposits, jewellery and cash pour into the temple
coffers everyday. And of course, there are those who brazenly walk in with
opium in their shirt pocket and drop it off in the chest. ''We accumulate
tons of opium and periodically hand it over to the Narcotics Department,''
says the guard, brandishing his gun.

But despite all the riches, inside his gloomy, rat-infested room, Kallu Lal
Gujjar is a despondent man. Chairman of the temple trust, he is credited
with getting the construction work going. But while Mandapiya is abuzz with
talk of the new temple, Gujjar is only talking politics.

''I am waiting to be sacked,'' says Gujjar, who has just completed 18 months
of his three-year-tenure. ''It's just my luck that I got nominated by the
Congress government. Now that the BJP is in, I am definitely out.''

Ignoring the mellow voice of a group of women singing bhajans outside the
shrine, a bitter Gujjar sullenly walks past the new pillars propped up
against the old temple wall. ''Here and in all the 15 villages that are part
of the temple trust, nothing gets done because the government knows we'll do
it. So from building schools to bus-stands, hospitals, gaushalas and even
initiating drinking water schemes, the temple trust did a lot of work.''

Gujjar talks a lot about the past and in the past tense because he thinks
the present sucks. ''Till we were a private trust, we managed to do a lot.
But after 1990, when the government took over and began nominating the
trust, no work ever got done.''

In hushed whispers, in the market outside the shrine, they elaborate. ''All
the grand structures you see were built 20 years back, much before the
government came into the picture,'' confirms Bhairu Lal, as he shoos flies
away from the toffee boxes in his shop. ''Later all they did was appease
governments and got so involved in politics that everything else ceased to
matter.''

Over the years, the temple has ''slowly been reduced to a political
playground''.

So when the trust wanted to do a shilapuja before starting construction and
invited then chief minister Ashok Gehlot, the BJP was up in arms. ''They
were upset because Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had laid the
foundation stone earlier,'' explains Gujjar. He adds that political parties
come here openly and ask them for funds. ''They visit the temple and hold
rallies nearby. We shouldn't be a part of all this but it is very
difficult,'' admits a trust member.

So today, when politicians talk development elsewhere, here the only issue
is control of the shrine trust. Tired of the uncertainty, Gujjar wants all
of it to be over. ''Today any development work project the trust wants to
undertake has to be cleared by the state government,'' he says. ''Right now
decisions are not forthcoming, not even in proposals dealing with drinking
water. So even if it means me not being here anymore, this thing better get
sorted out.''

And as far as the government's much-talked about highway is concerned,
nobody is impressed. '

'It's 10 km too far,'' says Lal, matter-of-factly. ''Contrary to what most
believe it hasn't increased the number of pilgrims who come here. Instead
everyone burns extra fuel to get around. That's been the biggest
contribution of politics here!''