Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee last Wednesday announced an April date to inaugurate a Rs 250-crore Jagannath temple in Digha.
“I had decided to set up a Jagannath temple on the seashore of Digha in 2019 but it could not start until 2022 because of Covid. After three years, the work has been nearly completed and it will be inaugurated on the auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya (April 30, 2025),” the chief minister said after inspecting the last phase of the construction work.
Radharamn Das, Iskcon Kolkata vice-president, was with her when she made the announcement.
Political analysts felt it was a move to counter the BJP that is eyeing electoral gains in Bengal by highlighting the plight of Hindus in neighbouring Bangladesh. Das has been at the forefront of highlighting atrocities in Bangladesh against minority Hindus in general and Iskcon functionaries in particular.
Mamata’s announcement triggered a battle over temple politics.
“That is not a true Jagannath temple,” said Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly. “One should know that temples, mosques, or gurudwaras cannot be constructed using government funds. Its proper name is Sri Jagannath Dham Cultural Centre. Puri Dham is one of the four sacred Dhams, and attempting to imitate it will not be accepted by Hindus.”
The temple will be built in Purba Midnapore, which is Suvendu's bastion.
“The Jagannath temple in Digha cannot be compared to the one in Puri,” said CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty. “The chief minister can use it for tourism and help TMC workers earn some money. But the fact remains that by involving the government to construct the temple, she is promoting divisive politics.”
The West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO), a state-run urban planning body, will build the Jagannath temple.
The Bengal government has often railed against the drying up of funds for the state from the Centre. In this scenario, without going into the debate over whether a government in a secular country should build temples, The Telegraph Online presents a few alternative scenarios of what the Bengal government could have done with the Rs 250-core it will spend on the Digha temple.
Jagannath temple money would fund Jadavpur University for six years
Jadavpur University has consistently been one of the better higher educational institutes in India. The state government sanctioned Rs 25 and 26 crore for the university in the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24 respectively.
The budget for the Jagannath temple replica is 10 times the annual budget of the state’s premier university.
In August 2024, the vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University wrote to the state higher education department, urging it to increase the allocation for the 2024-25 academic year because the sanctioned funds are insufficient to cover the university’s day-to-day expenses.
The letter said the department should increase the allocation to at least Rs 40 crore.
So, the Mamata government could have given Jadavpur University the minimum amount it wants for over six years.
Bengal could have built 15 new universities
In the state budget of 2020-21, Bengal’s then finance minister Amit Mitra allocated Rs 50 crore to set up three new universities — Birsa Munda University in Jhargram, Ambedkar University in a Dalit-dominated area and another university for advancement of education among OBCs in the next two years.
So, if we take Rs 50 crore to be the cost of three universities, then the state could have formed 15 new universities with the money it will spend on the new Jagannath temple.
RG Kar Medical College and Hospital could have become better
In July 2024, a month before the brutal rape-murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the Bengal government had sanctioned Rs 18 crore to the hospital to start work on its second campus.
The budget was announced on the hospital’s 108th foundation day. The aim was to increase bed capacity and add modern equipment to support patient care.
The cost of Jagannath temple is 13.8 times the amount sanctioned to start work on RG Kar’s second campus.
One of the demands of the junior doctors during the RG Kar protests was to increase bed capacity and improve hospital infrastructure.
Kolkata could have had two more skywalks
The skywalk at Dakshineswar opened in 2018. And the skywalk at Kalighat will be inaugurated early 2025. Both these skywalks will help thousands of commuters to reach the two Kali temples with ease. Besides the temple visitors, these skywalks will serve local residents, too.
The cumulative cost of these two skywalks is Rs 143 crore.
With the Jagannath Temple money, the state could have built at least two more skywalks or footbridges in Kolkata, especially in busy traffic junctions like Moulali or Ruby.
Digha, located in coastal Purba Midnapore, is home to thousands of fishermen whose livelihood depends on government support. The state could have improved the harbour infrastructure catering to deep-sea fishing trawlers and to invite private ship-building companies.
The money apart and temples versus development debate apart, building replicas also highlights a lack of originality.
In Calcutta, the government has already built an alleged replica of London’s Big Ben at Lake Town, and in New Town’s Eco Park we have purported replicas of Paris’s Eiffel Tower, Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer, Rome’s Colosseum, etcetera.
