The Jagannath Temple at Puri is the only shrine in the world where the deities are made of wood. Invariably, idols called deities are made of metal or stone to last thousands of years. But the wood decays, more so due to ritual abrasions and constantly friction-linked daily activities.
Interestingly, the deities at the Jagannath Temple are unique in everything. They live like royal human beings, wake up in style, eat grand breakfasts after the morning routine cleaning up and bath and start the day for merrymaking. They change clothes half a dozen times to look fresh and divinely attractive, eat exotically light, health-giving food and go to bed after taking a heavenly intoxicant. They listen to relaxing music with dedicated spinsters dancing to give them the best mood for a sound sleep. No wonder, the divine bodies decay in time. So, every 12 or 18 years, the bodies are changed. Neem timber is used to make the idols. This wood has a terribly pest-repelling ingredient, for which no termite ever dares come close to the sanctum sanctorum. This happens just before the Rath Yatra, which has been made world famous by Shri Prabhupada who founded the ISKCON. But paradoxically, the ISKCON followers, the original Car Festival brand ambassadors, are not allowed to enter the temple.
Television came and the festival became even more hyped. Until 1996, the Nabakalebar remained one of those routine festivals which attracted between four and six lakh people. lately, with information reaching all through mobile phones and the internet and because private banks made vehicle loans available for even a street beggar, the crowds have been on the increase.
India is a secular country where the State should not engage itself so deeply in Hindu rituals and festivals. The State’s role is to remain strictly limited to ensuring facilities of communication, shelter, fair-price food, sanitation, emergency health services and, above all, law and order. The biggest religious event on the planet is the Maha Kumbh Mela on the banks of the Ganga in Allahabad which this year was witnessed by 100 million people and which went across 50 days without a hitch. The Harvard B Schools took note and wanted to learn from Indian planners and doers the techniques of handling such a colossally mammoth task peacefully.
For the coming Nabakalebar, the Odisha Government suddenly found a great opportunity in seeking special financial grants from the Centre to conduct the event impressively. The State Government has prepared a budget of Rs 1,000 crore for the festival.
People of India must know what is really happening around Puri. The little town was granted Rs 50,000 crore to come up with a first-ever sewerage system in Odisha way back in 2002. The work is still halfway, 11 years down the line. More than half the sewerage lines are either damaged completely or buried forever. Then lately, the Naba Kalebar event sprung all officials and greedy servitors to life. Rogue engineers planned bad roads, terribly dangerous drains and chose thug contractors to build them across the town, which has resulted in the residents being in grave trouble. Garbage-quality concrete roads, terrible drain walls and dangerous electrical installations have forced residents to move courts, scream protests or warn officials against errant conduct. Puri today is a completely defaced, damaged little city, which is unlikely to become livable in another one year, let alone remain ready to accommodate pilgrims and tourists. The servitors known for long as greedy exploiters are simply waiting for the event so that they make prey every gullible pilgrim-devotee and execute the robbery schemes without being identified as exploiters.
The State Government has a formal Chief Administrator and the present incumbent is just too sincere and dedicated a guy who is doing everything according to the temple rulebook. But the Government has dumped yet another official called an OSD, who is projected as a trouble shooter. He declared just before the previous Rath Yatra that the Daitas would be adequately compensated for the loss they incur due to the ban on chariot climbing. As per legal norms, no official has the right to do such a thing so brazenly. The Daitas cannot have any ‘profit or loss perception’. They are an unruly lot who arm-twist the officials to make money not due to them. Even if the loss compensation was a convention by any remote chance, no one knows even today whether the make-believe loss has been compensated for or not, what amount or who gave the money. The State could not have given that under any circumstances. So, the public has the right to have the money recovered from the official if the amount has been stolen from the State exchequer. Even the Hundi collection is to be restrictively kept away from such illegal spending.
It may be recalled that a great deal of public money was spent on sending the ignorant servitors on an all-India shrine visit to orient them to good behaviour and devotee-friendly conduct. No post test has been conducted to make sure they have changed. The money has been wasted. The servitors are as ill-behaved, greedy and defiant as ever. It seems they were not sent to the Maata Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra where all pilgrims, no matter what the number, are given everything free: clean shelter, free bed, blankets, cloak facilities, food and commendable security. The elderly and the sick are given free rides up the hills in eco-friendly battery-driven cars. Nearly the same facilities are made available at Siridi for the Sai devotees.
But Puri has the worst facility and the service providers with the biggest bragging. The hotel and holiday homes loot; the tour operators rob; the shopkeepers extort beyond the maximum retail prices; and the auto-rickshaw operators use threats to extract money not due to them. The administration had remained callous for long. Most fortunately, the present incumbent District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police have landed like messiahs. SP Ashish Kumar Singh has caused such panic among the criminals, would-be-criminals, known frauds and troublemakers that Puri district, we are told, has begun experiencing a ‘criminal famine’. The goons, robbers, extortionists and the politically-backed big brothers have all vanished from the scene or landed in jail. The elderly and women, the same way as the responsible youth groups, are sighing in relief that they can walk the streets without fear in the dead of night as of yore.
If only the State planners can be persuaded to replace the noise-n-smoke emitting auto-rickshaws with electric vehicles which are now affordable, the nation would bow down to them for turning the best-known Hindu Dham a truly pilgrim-tourist-friendly destination. The heads only have to think clearly.
The worst truth is that the State officials including Ministers along with the CM should not talk too much about the Nabakalebar to attract 50 lakh pilgrims and tourists which would destroy the little town and make life of its residents miserable for years. During the festival time, the local people become prisoners at home only because the traffic planning is horribly defective, more so when manned by aliens from Malkangiri or Sundargarh. The beach turns the largest defecating ground on earth during the Car Festival. Also, if 50 lakh people throng Puri, the biggest ‘mobile sewerage treatment plant’ has to be installed in town. There is still time for the officials to go and train themselves in UP, where truly quality planners can whip them to sanity. Harvard School is no stupid to have recognised the UP outfit which has proven its efficiency, and silently so.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)