If manufacturing fake news, agenda, and fake outrage has been an Olympic game, Indian media would have won gold medal every time. In what looks like yet another hit job by mainstream media, it tried to create a controversy around President Ramnath Kovind’s visit to Jagannath Temple. Three months ago, President Ramnath Kovind visited Jagannath temple along with his wife, First Lady Savita Kovind. Now, suddenly three months after his visit, media houses have realized that priest at Jagannath Temple misbehaved with President Kovind and his wife Savita was also harassed by the Temple priests.
According to Times of India report, the minutes of a meeting organized by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SIJTA) on 20th March, states, “A group of servitors had blocked the President’s path near the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine and shoved the First Lady.” Furthermore, according to the report of TOI, SJTA chief administrator, IAS officer Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, acknowledged that President and his wife faced inconvenience inside the temple but he declined to comment further on the issue. He said, “We discussed the matter at a meeting of the temple managing committee a few days ago. It is being investigated.”
It has been also alleged that President had been stopped from putting his head on the ‘Ratnasinghasana’ on which the Jagannath deity is placed. But the media had also confirmed that no complaint had been made from the President or his office.
The priest who accompanied President and his wife during their visit to Jagannath Temple rubbished the news of any misbehavior with President Kovind. According to him, “On March 22, President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife came for darshan at Jagannath Puri temple. We accompanied him and no one misbehaved with him.”
On March 22, President Ram Nath Kovind & his wife came for darshan at Jagannath Puri temple. We accompanied him & no one misbehaved with him: Damodar Mahasuar, priest who accompanied President Kovind and his wife during their visit to Jagannath Temple #Odisha pic.twitter.com/kRpIWilKWh
— ANI (@ANI) June 28, 2018
He rubbished the allegations of misbehavior and added, “After 3 months, Pradeep Jana of Shree Jagannath Temple Admin and DM Puri said they had received a complaint from Rashtrapati Bhawan that stated ‘Pandas’ (servitors) misbehaved with Pres& his wife. The allegation are baseless,we lodged FIR against Pradeep Jana&DM Puri (sic).”
After 3 months,Pradeep Jana of Shree Jagannath Temple Admin&DM Puri said they had received a complaint from Rashtrapati Bhawan that stated 'Pandas' (servitors)misbehaved with Pres& his wife. The allegation are baseless,we lodged FIR against Pradeep Jana&DM Puri: D Mahasuar,priest pic.twitter.com/PcZ1eRt7Xi
— ANI (@ANI) June 28, 2018
There was no complaint about not allowing to touch the ‘Ratnasinghasana’ because only three people in the world are allowed to put their head on the ‘Ratnasinghasana’- the head priest, Gajapati Maharaja and the Nepal King. Obviously, the President was also not allowed to do so. Later on, Temple Priest must have provided him with the reason, and he was convinced with the provided reasons and that’s why he did not file any complaint. And yet, media is trying to cook their own different story and has attempted to make a controversy out of it.
https://twitter.com/Infinitchy/status/1012321294573072385?s=19
Once the lord #Jagannath gets down from the Ratnasinghasana, it is the Daitapatis who perform puja. They belong to Scheduled Tribe community. The Gajapati also is not a 'brahmin'. What we see here is the coexistence of various castes together with their devotion to the devata.
— Armchair Groundworks (@Kuvalayamala) June 28, 2018
There are two reasons why media is manufacturing all this outrage. The media is, very slyly, hinting that the reason for the alleged misbehavior was because President Kovind comes from Dalit community. The media wants to bring this caste angle in a subtle manner into the public domain in order to isolate the Dalits from the BJP just before 2019 General Elections. Two, anti-Hindu media just wants to portray a negative image of Hinduism by showing how backward and regressive Hindu religion is, with one of its most prominent and sacrosanct temples behaving in such a rude manner with the Head of State of India. But in their quest to malign Hinduism and hurt the BJP politically, media again came out with wrong facts and stands exposed today.
