Written by Milind Ghatwai | Bhopal |
May 10, 2016 1:33:06 am
May 10, 2016 1:33:06 am
BJP president Amit Shah was to take a holy dip with Dalits and saints from Dalit communities in the Kshipra on Wednesday.
Faced with criticism from the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, religious figures and at least one senior RSS leader, the BJP has scaled down its social harmony campaign, as part of which party president Amit Shah was to take a holy dip with Dalits and saints from Dalit communities in the Kshipra on Wednesday.
Senior RSS activist and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh leader Prabhakar Kelkar told The Indian Express that the event will make it appear as if Dalits were so far barred from taking a dip during the largest religious gathering of the Hindus, which, he said, is not true.
“No one is asked to spell out one’s caste before taking a dip. So what is the relevance of organising an event like this,’’ he asked.
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With more voices coming up against the exercise, the BJP has dropped the plan of taking out a procession of Dalits from Valmiki Dham to Ramghat. Shah’s official itinerary released by the party on Monday did not mention any dip.
Sadhus set to take a dip in Kshipra river during Simhastha Mahakumbh in Ujjain on Monday. PTI photo
But blaming mainstream religious leaders and the Parishad, the apex organisation of Hindu sadhus and saints, for perpetuating the caste divide, a party leader said, “He (Shah) is determined to take a dip with the Dalit community. So the programme will take place on some other ghat. They (religious leaders) think a procession like the one we had planned is their monopoly; they can’t stand others being extended the same privilege.”
The parishad’s president, Mahant Narendra Giri, had recently said that there is no caste distinction among sadhus. “All of them take the dip (and) Amit Shah should come to serve the saints, not to play politics,’’ he had said.
Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Dwarka Sharda Peeth, has also called the BJP’s proposed event a “drama”.
Kelkar, meanwhile, also took a dig at MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, whose photographs are adorning many hoardings in Ujjain. “It’s a religious and spiritual festival but attempts are being made to turn it into a political event,’’ he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to release Simhastha Declaration at the end of the three-day event.
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