Bhubaneswar: BJD legislator Soumya Ranjan Patnaik Thursday opposed the car festival being organised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) in Ludhiana November 16 next.
Taking strong exception to the date of the car festival, Patnaik urged Speaker S N Patro to direct Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take up the matter with his Punjab counterpart and restrain the Iskcon authorities from organising the car festival November 16.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Assembly, the BJD MLA said the Iskcon is planning to organise car festival November 16 next as per its own will and not as per the Hindu calendar which he said will not be tolerated.
Patnaik appreciated the Iskcon for promoting Jagannath culture globally but opposed to the date of car festival.
The BJD leader said in 2008, the Gajapati Maharaja of Puri had written to Iskcon authorities here protesting the celebration of car festival on a date other than the date fixed as per the Hindu calendar.
Initially the Iskcon did not pay any heed to it, but later the organisation observed the festival as per the Hindu calendar.
He also urged the Speaker to direct the culture minister to ensure that ‘Vande Utkala Janani’, the state song of Odisha, is sung in a particular style.
The Speaker asked the culture minister to take a decision on ‘Vande Utkala Janani’ in consultation with the experts.