Leaders across party lines oppose non-traditional Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath

Bhubaneswar, Jan 31: Leaders across party lines opposed the non-traditional Rath Yatra celebration by ISKCON in Mumbai on January 30. The ISKCON has hurt the emotion of devotees of Lord Jagannath by organizing the annual Rath Yatra on a different date, said political leaders unanimously. BJD MLA Amar Prasad Satpathy said the ISKCON is trying to abrade the Jagannath culture intentionally and it will be raised in the upcoming session of the Assembly. He also asked the Puri Srimandir administration to file a complaint with police against the Mumbai unit of ISKCON. Similarly, BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra asked the state government to take action against the ISKCON authorities and to bring a law to avoid repetition of celebration of such non-traditional religious events. Congress veteran Sura Routray also asked the government to bring a special law to avoid occurrence of such practices. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness’s (ISKCON) Mumbai unit organized Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath at Shivaji Park in Dadar yesterday going away from the traditions of Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri. The festival is usually observed on the second day of ‘sukla pakshya’ in the month of ‘Asadha’ following the Hindu calendar. Before this, the Ludhiana unit of ISKCON had planned to organize the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath on a different date last year which was strongly opposed by devotees of Lord Jagannath and the issue was raised in Odisha Assembly also. The non-traditional Rath Yatra celebration by ISKCON has irked people of Odisha and triggering a revolt against the organisation for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.