Was it so Successful?
By Deepak Vohra

Dear CHAKRA

Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I have just read His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami's account of the Calcutta Rathayatra on your website ("Without Prejudice - Calcutta Ratha Yatra"), as well as Adridharan das' latest newsletter on the same topic (on the IRM website). Adridharan has quoted various newspaper reports which completely contradict Maharaja's description of the Festival. Bhakti Caru Swami states in his report:

"Many newspapers reported favorable articles and praised ISKCON's preaching activities. "

I wonder if Maharaja would be so kind as to reproduce these many favourable articles, as the only ones I am aware of fall quite spectacularly short of such praise. I reproduce these below (they include leading newspapers 'Asian Age' and 'Hindustan Times'):

"ISKCON's Rathayatra celebration in Metro city of Calcutta became a dull & dry show because of infighting between Dharma gurus. Since the last 20 years the Rath Festival in this metro was known as the third biggest Rath Yatra festival in the world, but because of the infighting very few people attended the Rath Yatra celebrations as compared to last year and the size of Lord Jagannaths chariot was also much smaller in comparison to last year. " - SANMARG, June 24th 2001

"Kolkata, the annual car festival today turned out be a poor show. " - Hindustan Times, June 24th 2001

"After the internal disagreement & charges and counter charges ISKCON's Rathayatra parade today was lifeless and devoid of fervour. The Calcutta High Court gave the right for this years Rathayatra parade to the Mayapur based ISKCON Bureau. In the over 20 year history of the parade, it was for the first time that this religious parade was piloted by Dayaram Das. In this the third largest Rathyatra of the world, there was a lack of feeling and togetherness, which has always been very tangible in the previous years. " - Vishvamitra, June 24th 2001

"But visitors have found this fare lifeless. "Despite all the arrangement, it is a dull and dry fare", say Rituparna Sen and Atul Bhattacharya of South Calcutta. " - Hindustan Times, June 30th 2001

"ISKCON feud over dismal fest. After a lacklustre Rathayatra, the Ultaratha, too, was devoid of the usual glamour and religious fervour associated with the celebration of this Vaisnav festival in the city. [. . . ] Each has blamed the other for the colourless rathayatra this year. " - The Asian Age, July 2nd 2001

"An attraction of the ISKCON Rathyatra was special because of the presence of a "special guest", but due to the internal infighting there was no special guest. " - Pratidin, June 24th, 2001

I wonder how these newspapers missed the joyous festival occasion as described by Bhakti Caru Maharaja thus:

"Hundreds of thousands of visitors lined the streets through the entire route. The atmosphere was vibrant with the melodious kirtan led by the devotees, followed by hundreds of devotees chanting and dancing enthusiastically. People spontaneously joined in to pull the carts of Lord Jagannatha, Subhadra devi and Lord Baladeva. For the whole week the site has been thriving with transcendental activities of all sorts -innumerable souls pouring in for darshan of Their Lordships, discourses, book distribution, yajnas, offering puja, Youth Forum preaching, massive free prasad distribution, questions and answers, dramas, cultural programs, dioramas etc. "

One newspaper report even stated:

"The Rathayatra parade by the Mayapur Bureau was unfortunate said Jagadhatriya Das of ISKCON Mayapur. The Gurus Of ISKCON were seen, wandering around in their convoy of air-conditioned cars during the parade of their Lordship Jagannath, Baldev & Subhadra. " - Vishvamitra, 24th June 2001

Maharaja states in his report: "not only he (Adri) did not help, but broke the chariots and damaged the dioramas on the floats the night before the Ratha Yatra. "

Yet Adridharan counters in his newsletter: "We have a picture taken by the newspapers 2 weeks before the festival which proves that the construction on the carts was halted, and that their condition remained the same right up to the time of the Ratha Yatra. "

Also, Maharaja's report of VIP dignitaries presiding over the event is in stark contrast with the June 24th newspaper report from Pratidin newspaper that: "An attraction of the ISKCON Rathyatra was special because of the presence of a "special guest", but due to the internal infighting there was no special guest. "

Perhaps Maharaja would kindly clarify the details of his report as published on CHAKRA, so that we can all be safe in the knowledge that his account of the events is indeed "Without Prejudice".

Thank you.

Your servant Deepak

© CHAKRA 8-July-2001

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