Odisha to develop Laxmanananda Saraswati’s birthplace as heritage village: Majhi

Gurujang, the birthplace of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, who was killed in 2008, will be developed as a heritage village, and the gram panchayat as a model panchayat, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced on Friday, signalling the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ongoing focus on Hindutva.

The announcement came at an event marking the birth centenary of the VHP leader, who was known for his campaigns against religious conversions in Odisha’s tribal belt.

Majhi accused the previous Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government of negligence and “appeasement politics” in handling the seer’s murder. He also repeated the allegation that reports and files of the Justice Mahapatra and Justice Naidu commissions, set up to investigate the killing, had disappeared from the state secretariat as part of a “deliberate conspiracy” to shield those responsible.

Laxmanananda Saraswati, 84, and four others were killed at the Jalespata Kanyashram in Kandhamal district on August 23, 2008, during Janmashtami celebrations. The killings triggered one of Odisha’s worst episodes of communal violence, in which at least 38 people were killed and 54,000 displaced.