With increasing focus on the Jagannath Temple in Puri these days, the Freethought Party of India (FPI) has demanded that the hype over religion and god should stop and there should be rather discussion on the socio-economic problems of the State.
“Where is the time for the leaders and media people to debate on the socio- economic problems of the people of the State of OdishaIJ The scientific ideas of Nicolas Copernicus, the Astronomer who discovered the Solar System in 1543 and the other achievements of leading medical scientists like Jonas Edward Salk (the inventor of anti-Polio vaccine) are not really reaching the members of younger generation in Odisha because all the leaders at the top are busy over Bhajans and Janans written in praise of lord Jagananth and other Hindu deities.
In most areas of the State ordinary people are being forced to give Chandas to Puja committees. So the future of Odisha is really doomed,” lamented FPI general secretary B Ramchandra CST Voltaire.
He demanded a clear-cut policy on providing prayer-less quality education to all the children of the State irrespective of their parents’ financial status, opening of free registration of priest-less love marriages offices at the Panchayat level to destroy the caste system and do away with unnecessary high expenses of marriage, besides uprooting all religious animosities existing among Hindus, Muslims and Christians. This will make Odisha grow, stressed Voltaire.