Naveen's Temple Run

Naveen’s An ambitious programme to make Odisha’s architectural marvels more tourist-friendly is CM Naveen Patnaik’s answer to the growing saffron footprint in the state

- ROMITA DATTA

When the Supreme Court on June 3 rejected a public interest litigation petition against the Odisha government’s Shree Mandira Parikrama Project (SMPP), Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik tweeted: “Tuma iccha bina patra te haleni ahe Jagannath. Jay Jagannath (Not even a leaf moves without your will, O Jagannath. Hail Jagannath).” The apex court’s backing for the heritage corridor project around the Jagannath temple in the coastal town of Puri, coming a few weeks after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) informed the Orissa High Court that the redevelopment work could have caused damage to the 12th-century temple, is a shot in the arm of the state government, which is keen to complete the project in 2023, a year ahead of the Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

Temple politics has had a late start in Odisha, with Patnaik embracing it only after 2019 when the BJP bagged eight of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state—a huge improvement over the single seat it had managed to win in 2014. To pre-empt what he saw as the BJP’s plan of importing an overtly aggressive Hindutva wave to Odisha and overshadowing its regional pride, Patnaik felt the need for a socio-cultural reawakening centred on the 11th- and 12th-century temples in Puri, Bhubaneswar and Konark in particular. Soon after taking over as CM for the fifth time, Patnaik embarked on an ambitious renovation and beautification programme to make these architectural marvels more tourist-friendly. The ASI, though, has been slowing things down, arguably to the advantage of the BJP, which is looking to hijack temple politics from Patnaik.