Police action sought after Ardhanariswara desecration charge

The complaint alleges that Hindu Temples protected by the ASI are being used for wedding shoots and vulgar advertisement campaigns without permission.

A complaint has been filed with the inspector-in-charge of the Old Town police station in Bhubaneswar, Odisha against a person for committing sacrilege and description in a Hindu Temple.

Prafulla Kumar Swain in his complaint against one Jitu Mishra said that he had posted a video on the social media in which he videographer a short clip in which he himself is disrobing the image of Ardanariswara in the Vaital Temple Complex.

The complaint says, " Mishra is seen yanking off the vastra of the God and then he clumsily tries to reaffix it after filming. It is seen that he then just keeps it at the place thereafter crumbling it."

"His social media post has gone viral and is hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus. I have come to know that he is a person appointed by Odisha Tourism as a guide to conduct heritage walks in the Old Town. There are reports that he has earlier done the same thing in Mukteswar and Parsurameswar Temples," the complaint also read.

"Please take appropriate action in this regard. There has been a spurt in heritage walks in the Old Town being conducted by the Tourism Department and other agencies where untrained and ignorant guides take people to the Temples and give a lot of misinformation. Many of these are living Hindu Temples where entry of non-Hindus is prohibited. Inspite of being protected monuments by the Archaeological Survey of India and the state archaeological department, there are pre-wedding shoots, commercial advertising films etc being made in a very vulgar manner which is hurting the sentiments of the devotees. No permission is being taken for such events," the complainant also said.

This act as also condemned by Jagannath Sena convenor Priyadarshan Patnaik, who said that if no action is taken then protests would be held both at the ASI and police station. He also demanded that the person needs to be debarred from entering any Temple and removed from the Odisha Tourism Heritage Walks.

Ramesh Shinde, national spokesperson of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti visited the Temple on March 5 and conducted an inquiry. "The idol of Ardhanariswara is kept covered at this temple. We object to disrobing of the idol by the tourist guide and demand action against him," Shinde said.

Other Hindu organisations such as the Kalinga Sena, VHP and Bharat Raksha Manch have also expressed their displeasure over the act.