God at work in Orissa

Only the lack of priests and chanting distinguish some parts of the State Secretariat from a temple. For example, were it not for the signboard above it, the entrance to the Commerce and Transport Department, complete with an appliqué canopy and idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra — Orissa’s holy trinity — looks just like a shrine.

Nityananda Sahu, a peon in the Transport Department, has ensured that the office space does double duty as a place of worship. Religious rituals are as much part of his daily routine as are pushing files and paperwork. “The Lord came in my dreams and asked me to keep him here,” said Sahu, gesturing towards the makeshift temple that has been here since 1995. An idol of Lord Jaggannath presides over a pristine tiled floor, while Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi gaze down benevolently from a huge laminated poster.

Other government departments are not far behind and a first-time visitor is more likely to bump into gods and goddesses than toiling babus in the labyrinthine and often dingy corridors.

In the Plan section of the Finance Department, a more elaborate temple than the one in the Commerce and Transport Department is the cynosure of all eyes. The idols are more ornately dressed and are a fetching contrast to the drab files and dour clerks.

At the entrance to the Labour and Employment Department, Lord Jagannath and his consorts are comfortably poised on a rather garishly coloured concrete pedestal next to the room of department Secretary Ashok Tripathi. However, the idol that could really do with divine intervention is that of Goddess Tarini in the office of the Directorate of Resettlement and Rehabilitation. Pushed into a dank corner, she has only a malodorous urinal for company.

But these bedecked offices raise questions that go much deeper than decorating trends. “Idols or images of any religion have no place in any government office. Why should the government allow it in the first place? This is sheer hypocrisy. Naveen may be claiming that his bones are secular, but his flesh and blood are not secular,” says John Dayal of the All Indian Christian Council. Agrees a senior IAS officer: “It’s a blatant violation of government rules. In a secular country no religious symbol can be displayed in government offices. What if tomorrow some people start building small mosque inside one of the departments?”

A solution to this violation of policy, is not easily found. Special Secretary in the General Administration DepartmentManoranjan Sharan told The Indian Express: “There is nothing in the rules that say such a thing can be prevented.”

Meanwhile, even the priests are raising questions at the mushrooming of idols inside the Secretariat. “Gods should be kept in a clean and sacred place. No one is allowed to go near the idols with shoes on and certainly not with cigarettes dangling from their lips. But in government offices, this is exactly what goes on. This is sacrilege,” said Rabi Pratihari, a member of the managing committee of the Jagannath temple at Puri.

And if the gods and goddesses in the state Secretariat were not enough, shrines have also cropped up inside police stations in Cuttack, giving plenty of ammunition to those who slammed the Orissa police for its debatable secular credentials during the Kandhamal riots. At Madhupatna police station, more than 10,000 people from all walks of life, including criminals, are invited to the feast every year during Dussehra. So is the case with the feasts at the police stations at Jagatpur, Manglabag and Purighat.