Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
The Chief Administrator of Jagannatha Temple Suresh Mahapatra, under whose management Navakalevar became a fiasco, has taken advantage of a High Court ruling to use SriJagannatha as a medium of misogyny.
A female devotee of SriJagannatha is found from CCTV footage to have climbed up to the floor of Nandighosha chariot on July 20. The District Collector and Police are pressed to find out the lady and subject her to prosecution.
Mahapatra has suspended a servitor namely Artatrana Pratihari for his alleged failure to obstruct the female devotee when she climbed up to the floor and has called for explanation from the Badagrahi of Nandighosha, Jagannath Swain Mahapatra as to why action should not be taken against him for the offense the lady committed by mounting the chariot. The Badagrahi has rejected the allegation as his only duty it was to see to the stability of the image on his seat in the chariot, and not guarding the entrance.
The High Court ruling, which is being used as the stick to beat the woman with, should be reviewed by a greater bench in public interest. Puri Sankaracharya has been trying to reduce SriJagannatha to an instrument of Brahmanya Dharma. The said ruling has given him the boost. Had the state government been pro-people, it should have challenged the said ruling.
But why the stress is now on the said ruling against a woman climbing the chariot, when the state government and its officers are marked for habitual contravention of court orders?
The CCTV footage repeatedly shown in television channels makes it clear that many people were on the floor of the chariot along with the female devotee. Why only she is being singled out by the officer? On the other hand, how the TV channels got the CCTV footage, unless the officer who is privy to the same has deliberately given copies thereof to media? And, why has he given the CCTV footage to media?
Is it designed to use SriJagannatha as a medium of misogyny?
Perhaps, yes.
This must be condemned by whosoever has any respect for the cult of Jagannatha.
And, the State, though already very late, should seek review or nullification of the High Court ruling that is now being misused by the officer, whose deficiency or conspiracy destroyed the sanctity of Navakalevar, for vitiating Jagannatha system with misogyny.
The High Court of Orissa being the superintending Court of the State should be prevailed upon by the Government to ensure that no Judge of Brahmin caste hears any case concerning SriJagannatha, as the Sankaracharya and his stooges are trying to impose Brahmanya Dharma on his cult, to the total detriment of what the deity of SriMandira really stands for.
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