Mamata names ISKCON priest as trustee board member of Digha Jagannath temple, inauguration on Apr 30

Digha: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday incorporated Kolkata’s ISKCON chief in the board of trustees of a Jagannath temple at the coastal town of Digha, one of her most ambitious religious projects of current times.

The move is being interpreted by certain quarters as ‘subtle messaging’ from Banerjee in the wake of the alleged attacks on ISKCON institutions and monks in Bangladesh.

Announcing a 13-member board of trustees for the upcoming Jagannath Dham project on the shores of the Bay of Bengal in Digha in Purba Medinipur district, the chief minister named Radharamn Das, Vice President of ISKCON Kolkata, as one of the board members.

Banerjee on Wednesday reviewed the construction of the ‘Chaitanya Jagannath Dham’ project, a temple of Lord Jagannath built in the likeness of the Jagannath Temple in Puri and a host of other temples, and announced its inauguration on the auspicious occasion of 'Akshay Tritiya' on April 30 next year.

Das, who also doubles up as ISKCON Kolkata spokesperson, accompanied Banerjee to her visit to the under-construction project and was seen flanking the chief minister while she made her announcements to reporters.

The management board for the project, Banerjee said, would be headed by the state chief secretary and would include top brass of district police and administration, priests and representatives of the Hindu monastic order.

“I will not be a member of this board,” the chief minister emphasised while preferring to call herself a “volunteer” and stated that an officer of the rank of additional district magistrate would be in charge of overseeing the running of the project and handling the boost in tourism which the project is expected to attract.

Utilising the opportunity to repeat her appeal before the Centre to lend support to the persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh, she said that the Union government must protect the minorities and bring back those willing to return from the violence-hit neighbourhood.

Built on a plot of nearly 22 acres, the Jagannath Dham project has cost the state exchequer around Rs 250 crore with additional funds required to make the temple fully operational, Banerjee said.

"Construction of the temple will be over in another three months. The inauguration will take place on April 30, and the process for that will start 48 hours before, on April 28," she told reporters.

"I must congratulate the HIDCO (an urban planning body under the state government) engineers for the stupendous job they have done. This temple will attract tourists from around the globe. This will remain for thousands of years," Banerjee, who was accompanied by Chief Secretary Manoj Pant and DGP Rajeev Kumar, said.

Banerjee explained that the temple would feature separate guest rooms, store rooms, and shops selling puja items, which would be managed by women from the locality.

The Trinamool Congress supremo, however, was slammed by the state’s opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari for “defying the Constitution” in utilizing public money to construct a religious site.

He also claimed that the work order for the project was issued by the state-run HIDCO to a private firm to build the 'Jagannath Dham Sanskriti Kendra' (cultural centre) at Digha and that the documents do not speak about a temple.

"As per the Constitution, the government cannot use money from the exchequer for constructing any institution of a particular religion," the BJP MLA said.

Claiming that the Trinamool Congress supremo does not have any connection with Hindu organisations, he said that it was only after the Ram Mandir was constructed in Ayodhya that she came up with a similar idea to garner support of the Hindu community in the state.

The BJP leader said that the Puri Jagannath Temple cannot be replicated.

"The Puri temple, which is one of the four dhams across India, cannot be replicated as the other three dhams cannot also be," he said.

Adhikari also took a dig at Das for “preferring to remain mute and not protest” Banerjee’s announcements which “undermined the Hindu faith”.

He also said that the Kali temple in Kolkata's Kalighat, near the CM's residence, was being renovated by a private company's corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.

"The chief minister should not claim credit for everything," he said.

Work for the project, conceived and announced by Banerjee in 2019, began in the post-Covid phase of 2022 and has admittedly remained close to the chief minister’s heart.

Unwilling to draw comparisons with the Puri Temple of Lord Jagannath, Banerjee said, “That temple was built by kings. This is built by the government. It will have adequate facilities for priests and visitors. Women from self-help groups would be allowed to undertake business activities at the site,” she said.