Congress Calls Odisha Bandh Over ‘Brahma’ Transfer Fasco
24 June, Bhubaneswar
The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Wednesday called for a dawn to dusk state bandh on June 26 to protest against the inordinate delay and the total mismanagement in the transfer of brahmas from old idols to the new ones inside the 12th century Jagannath temple.
OPCC president Prasad Harichandan told mediapersons here that the Naveen Patnaik government, Jagannath temple administration and a section of temple servitors were solely responsible for the mess in the transfer of brahmas from the lords.Their action had hurt the sentiments of millions of devotees across the world,” Harichandan said alleging that all this happened due to callous functioning of the state government .
He said despite so much hue and cry from all walks of life, including the Puri Gajapati king and the Puri Sankaracharaya, who have strongly condemned the mismanagement in brahma transfer, the Patnaik government is yet to take any action against those responsible for such deviation of the thousand years old tradition of the Jagannath temple.
The Congress president appealed to all political parties, the Jagannath lovers and the religious bodies to come forward and extend their full support to bandh call to lodge their protest against the blatant deviation of the tradition of the Jagannath temple.
Harichandan said keeping the ensuing Nabakalebar in view, all work related to the Nabakalebar including the construction of the chariots, all essential services and examination in the institutions will be exempted from the bandh call.
The Congress president reiterated the demand for a judicial probe by a sitting High Court judge in the brahma transfer mismanagement, resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and removal of Sri Jagannath Temple Chief Administrator Suresh Mohapatra holding them responsible for such mess.
He said it was more shocking that the Chief Minister has kept mum over the issue till date and not initiated any action against those responsible for the delay and mismanagement in the brahma transfer of the lords, a major ritual of the Nabakalebar in the Jagannath temple falling after a long gap of 19 years.
Harichandan said the probe ordered by the SJTA Chief Administrator into the brahma transfer fiasco was nothing but an eye-wash and questioned how could a person who was guilty and also responsible for such mismanagement,will probe into the incident.
He said the Congress as announced earlier will also observe a mass fasting on June 26 in the state capital near Ram Temple as a mark of protest over the Brahma transfer mismanagement of the trinity of Jagannath temple.