Government invites opposition ire for putting brahma parivartan report under wraps

Bhubaneswar: The Government came under fire from BJB and Congress on the decision of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) not to make the report of the Brahma Parivartan fiasco public.

“What can I say about the report unless I go through it? An inquiry of the report is made for the public appraisal. If there is any irregularity inside the temple, how it can be secret?” Leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra said.

The BJP also poked a finger at the decision of the SJTA.

“Apprehending that the report would expose the complicity of the state government, SJTA had taken the undemocratic decision not to make the report public on the instruction of the higher-ups. Even it had the audacity not to hand over the report to anyone under the Right to Information (RTI) Act which is a part of the basic fundamental rights,” state BJP spokesperson Pitambar Acharya said at a press briefing here.

Commenting on the statement of Acharya, BJD spokesperson and former Law minister Arun Sahu said the BJP’s statement is totally unjustified. “The decision was taken by the Temple Managing Committee headed by the Gajapati Maharaja  and the affairs of the temple are  under its jurisdiction. The BJP  is unnecessarily dragging the state government into the controversy,” he pointed out.