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Bhubaneswar, July 4: The controversy over Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nishalananda Saraswati decision to skip a visit to the chariots to worship the deities on the first day of the rath yatra has spurred the debate about the role of the state in religious affairs.
Reacting to the row, Union environment and forest and information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said in a secular country like India, the government should not interfere in religious affairs. Javadekar, who was here in connection with the election of the BJP legislature party leader, visited Puri to have a darshan of Lord Jagannath and his siblings at Gundicha temple.
The BJP leader said that conventions and traditions must be observed in religious matters. However, the minister could not meet the Shankarcharya because of his preoccupations.
Javadekar’s statement came in the wake of a controversy that cropped up following the Jagannath temple administration’s letter that put restrictions on the number of followers who could accompany the Shankaracahrya on the chariots during the rath yatra. Peeved at the temple administration’s attitude, the seer had boycotted the rath yatra.
Former Odisha chief minister and Assam governor J.B. Patnaik also trained his guns on the state administration for being discourteous to the seer.
“Out of fear of the servitors, the temple administration, which is controlled by the state government, wrote such a humiliating letter to the seer. It’s natural on the part of the seer to feel humiliated following the ‘insulting diktat’ from the temple administration,” said Patnaik, who alleged that an age-old tradition has been broken with Shankaracharya refusing to visit the deities on the chariots. Senior BJD minister Damodar Rout, however, said that Patnaik’s comments smacked of politics.
“Janaki babu has deep knowledge of Jagannath culture. But instead of criticising the government, it would have been better if had he made suggestions to end the ongoing stand-off between the seer and the administration.” The daitapati (servitors) association also condemned the Assam governor’s statement.
“Patnaik should withdraw his statement. He was the chief minister when the Naba Kalebar of the Trinity (change of idols) had taken place in 1996. One may ask if he then was under the pressure of the daitapatis to ensure that the event passed off peacefully,” said president of Daitapati Niyog Ramakrushna Das Mohapatra.
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