After reports emerged that Rashtrapati Bhavan had complained to the administration of the Jagannath Temple in Puri about shrine servitors misbehaving with President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife Savita, some servitors on Tuesday termed the allegations as an attempt at maligning them.
Kovind and the first lady had visited the Jagannath Temple on March 18. According to reports, a Khuntia Mekap servitor allegedly tried to block Kovind from entering the Jagannath Temple's sanctum sanctorum. The servitors also allegedly shoved Kovind and Savita as they were having darshan of the deities.
Rashtrapati Bhavan immediately sent an official complaint on the incident to the Puri district administration. A meeting of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration decided to send show-cause notices to three servitors over the incident. After reports of the incident at the Jagannath Temple emerged on Tuesday, political parties expressed concern over practices at the temple.
However, speaking to the Odisha Bytes news agency in Odisha, a senior servitor at the Jagannath Temple, Damodar Pradhani, claimed the servitors may not have been aware of the protocol about VIP visitors as they spent most of their time inside the shrine.
Binayak Dasmohapatra, who is also associated with the servitors, told the agency the Jagannath Temple authorities were trying to malign the reputation of servitors' community by releasing details of the incident three months after it occurred.