Mamata set to inaugurate Digha Jagannath temple: What it means politically

The Jagannath Dham, built as a replica of the Jagannath temple in Puri in neighbouring Odisha, is located in the seaside resort town adjacent to New Digha railway station. Spread across 22 acres, the temple, a pet project of the CM, was built for Rs 143 crore, according to the state urban development department. The Jagannath Dham has been built by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO), with the Kolkata-based Design Studio handling the design and architecture.

Banerjee laid the foundation stone of the temple, which is located eight km from Chandaneswar temple in Odisha’s Balasore district, in 2019. Back then, she claimed that she expected the temple to generate a footfall equal to the temple in Puri and said tourists would enjoy the same facilities on Digha’s beaches as in Puri.

Bengali Hindus have a deep connection with the deity Jagannath, going back to the 12th century CE, when saint and social reformer Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited the Puri temple.

Since then, Puri has been a popular pilgrimage site for Bengali devotees cutting across social classes. The Jagannath Rath Yatra is a popular festival across Bengal. During British rule, several Bengalis settled in present-day Odisha, building dharamshalas and hotels for Bengali tourists and pilgrims, further increasing Puri’s visibility as a destination of pilgrimage as well as tourism.

This is not the first time Mamata has implemented a project or taken a step to reach out to Hindu believers. Having consistently been accused of “Muslim appeasement” over the years, the West Bengal CM has tried several times to balance it out by reaching out to the community and trying to ensure that their support does not fragment, blunting the BJP’s Hindutva pitch. In 2020, Banerjee announced a monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 and free housing for 8,000 poor Sanatan Brahmin priests. Over the past few years, the TMC government has also provided financial assistance and power tariff subsidies to Durga Puja committees. Not just temples, the Mamata government has also allocated funds for the development of the Furfura Sharif shrine in Hooghly district that is a famous Muslim pilgrimage site. During the campaign for the 2021 Assembly polls, the West Bengal CM faced flak from the Opposition after she claimed to recite “Chandi Path” every day.

TMC spokesperson Jayprakash Majumder said, “Sri Jagannath temple in Puri has a historical importance. It has attracted the people of Bengal through the ages. As Bengalis, we see Puri or Srikhetra as part of our lives. Mamata Banerjee realised that many people cannot visit Puri. But closer home, Digha is a beachside tourist destination. So why not build a Jagannath temple here? It is a noble idea. With this temple in Digha, religion and tourism will go hand in hand like many pilgrimages of South India. See it this way: to attract tourists, she added religion as an attraction.”

The BJP has already criticised the Mamata Banerjee administration for building a religious structure using taxpayers’ money. In November 2023, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari said the state government was not building a temple but a “cultural centre”, adding that the Constitution prohibits the use of taxpayers’ money for building religious monuments by government entities.

At the time, he said neither the West Bengal government nor its agencies possessed the legal or religious authority to construct the temple. Drawing a parallel, he pointed out how the Central and UP governments did not fund the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya that was built through donations received by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said, “It is not the government’s duty. Nevertheless, they are doing these things as they cannot carry out the responsibilities of governance.”