The new Jagannath temple in West Bengal’s Digha finds itself at the centre of a controversy soon after opening. Right from its consecration on Akshaya Tritiya, the temple funded by the WB Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation drew the ire of Jagannath devotees and politicians in equal measures.
While Mamata Banerjee’s opponents have called it a cultural centre—and not a temple—built to garner political capital ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, it has led to outrage in Odisha, home to the Shree Jagannath Temple of Puri, one of the country’s four dhams. A top servitor of the Odisha temple triggered the controversy when he told a Bengali TV channel that the idols for the Digha temple were made with surplus neem wood from the Puri shrine.
His claim, which he later refuted under growing criticism, snowballed into a political storm, prompting the Mohan Charan Majhi government to order an inquiry. The probe eventually revealed that neem wood from the Puri temple was not used, but the participation of the senior servitor in the consecration rituals at Digha raised questions. Two servitor bodies had cautioned its members against taking part in the rituals of the Digha temple on the grounds of dilution of tradition.
The controversy has left the BJP government in Odisha in a spot of bother as the opposition has called out its handling of the situation. Under pressure, it has decided to write to WB to lodge an official protest against the use of the word ‘dham’ for the Digha temple, after which legal measures would be explored. It also decided to formulate standard operating procedures for the Puri temple’s critical affairs.
The government should also not drag its feet on constituting the Shree Jagannath Temple’s managing committee, which has been pending for long. The temple management has been at loggerheads with Iskcon in the past for proposing the Rath Yatra on a different date than that scheduled by the temple authorities.
The rituals of Shree Jagannath Temple are considered especially blessed as it is the moola peetha (original shrine), and the religious sentiments of crores of believers are attached to it. There may be replication of the temple and worship of the deities elsewhere, but Shree Mandir’s sanctity needs to be protected.