BJP questions HIDCO’s role in distributing Digha temple prasad

As Digha gets ready to observe the Rath Yatra on June 27, the first since the inauguration of ₹250-crore temple in the coastal town, a fresh controversy has erupted over distribution of prasad (offerings) of the temple.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has alleged that the West Bengal government has allocated funds through State-owned West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HIDCO).

“The mandate of the HIDCO is to construct buildings for the government. This is why we did not say anything when it constructed the temple.... But how can it spend such an amount to distribute prasad to households?” asked Jagannath Chattopadhyay, general secretary of the State BJP.

The BJP leader said that till Friday, various district magistrates and the municipal commissioner of Kolkata have been allocated funds of ₹32 crore for arranging gaja and peda (kinds of sweets). He added that directions have been issued from Nabanna (State Secretariat) that another ₹10 crore will be additionally allocated for the purpose. “The State government is going to distribute sweets worth ₹42 crore to the people of the State as prasad. And this money is being spent by ‘HIDCO’,” Mr. Chattopadhyay said.

Radharaman Das, vice-president of ISKCON Kolkata, said that door-to-door delivery of the prasad started from June 17 and is likely to continue till the first week of July. Mr. Das, one of the key priests of Digha Jagannath temple, said that so far prasad has been distributed to 14 million people of West Bengal.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while inaugurating the temple on April 30, had directed that the prasad will be distributed to people of the State. Across the State, the prasad is distributed to public distribution system through which people get subsidised food grains. In certain occasions, leaders of ruling Trinamool Congress are seen going door-to-door to distribute the offerings made at the temple of Lord Jagannath.

Each packet of prasad which costs ₹20 contains two sweets and a photograph of the temple and deities Jagannath, Balbhadra and Subhadra. The temple built over 20 acres of land resembles the 12th century famous Jagannath temple of Puri and there has been a controversy over use of the phrase “Jagannath Dham”.

Political observers see the massive investment of the State government in the temple and outreach through distribution of prasad as a “soft-Hindutva” pitch of the Trinamool Congress leadership to counter BJP’s “Hindutva” push in the State. The Trinamool leadership often compares the Digha Jagannath Temple to Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Kunal Ghosh, State general secretary of the Trinamool, said that the involvement of HIDCO is an administrative matter and administration will answer that.

“Look at what happened when they built the Ram temple. The BJP should think about how many houses and shops were demolished while building the Ram temple in Ayodhya, how many people were made to live on the streets,” Mr. Ghosh said.