Puri Shankaracharya Flays Demolition Drive Near Jagannath Temple

Puri: Shankaracharya of Gobardhan Peeth in Puri Swami Nischalananda Saraswati on Saturday criticised the Odisha government for demolishing the century-old mutts near the Jagannath temple.

Talking to mediapersons here, Saraswati asked why the Justice BP Das Commission of Inquiry instituted by the state government had not consulted him before suggesting the reforms around the Jagannath temple. “Was it not his responsibility to consult me? Which bureaucracy had refrained him from doing so? Let a committee be formed for a thorough probe into this matter,” the seer said.

“With the special power bestowed on me, I hereby declare the report of the Commission as null and void. Let the Supreme Court know that the report of the Commission is nothing but a well-orchestrated conspiracy,” he added.

The Shankaracharya also decried the steps taken by the Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae to oversee the reforms of the Jagannath temple. “Was it not the responsibility of the amicus curiae to discuss the temple reforms with me?”

Taking a dig at the Chief Minister and Law minister, the seer said the management of the Jagannath temple should not be done on a secular basis. Rather the temple should be managed with religious provisions and tradition.

Lashing out at the former chief administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Suresh Chandra Mahapatra, the seer said that the insult to the Shankaracharya was an insult to the people across the world.