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Is Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi pushing the plank of soft Hindutva? The answer to this question is in the affirmative, if one goes by recent happenings in the state. However, the Jogi camp stoutly refutes any such charge.
Sources close to the chief minister maintain that such canards are being churned out by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine to malign Jogi's image. "The combine is baffled over the popularity of the Chhattisgarh government. The Jogi administration is fulfilling the dreams of Rajiv Gandhi under the guidance of All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi," confide the sources.
For instance, Jogi played host to Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand for four days. Initially, the seer was putting up at the residence of housing and environment minister Ravindra Chaube, but Jogi requested Swami Swaroopanand to give him a chance to play the host.
The Shankaracharya obliged the Chhattisgarh's maiden chief minister. Naturally, devotees made a beeline to Jogi's residence to pay their respects to the seer. This was the first time that the Shankaracharya had stayed at the residence of the chief minister.
Among other actions of Jogi, which gave some arsenal to his critics to fire at him, was the decision to fund a temple of Kaushalya Mata - mother of Lord Rama - at Arang, 30 km from Raipur. Arang is famous as a temple town in Chhattisgarh and, historically, it is stated that the region was famous as Kaushal Pradesh.
For this, a Trust has been set up, with Jogi as a patron. The state exchequer is going to give Rs 2 crore for the construction of the temple. The state government has already allotted over 30 acre of land for this purpose. Earlier, Jogi had played host to Maa Anandmayee and organised Ram Katha and religious discourses by her.
To mark the completion of 1,000 days of Jogi in office, Vikas Yatras from nine places were started on July 20. The yatras culminated on July 26 at Ratanpur, near Bilaspur. But the incident was highly criticised - both within and outside the party - because these yatra vehicles, in the shape of raths, were flagged off from nine different temples. Immediately after coming under fire, Jogi's team declared that such yatras were never to be started from temples. Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) spokesperson Rajendra Tiwari categorically said, "It had been decided at the very beginning that these vikas yatras will be started from Congress committee offices."
At the same time, however, Rajendra Tiwari said that members comprising contingents of such yatras would definitely offer prayers at temples, mosques, churches and gurudwaras which fall along the way. He discounted reports to the effect that the Congress high command had intervened and got starting points of such yatras changed.
Nine places where such yatras are to be launched include Ambikapur, Raigarh, Dongargarh, Kawardha, Dantewara, Deobhog, Keshkal and Mahasamund. Incidentally, all these places are famous for some or the other temple. Also, Jogi's cabinet colleagues - as well as Congress MPs, MLAs and CPCC office bearers - were instructed to ensure success of the yatra.
Contrary to such claims by Tiwari, these yatras commenced from nine different temples and terminated at the Mahamaya temple at Ratanpur on Saturday. The BJP has taken this development with a pinch of salt. According to Lakhiram Agrawal, in-charge of the party's affairs in Chhattisgarh, there was nothing wrong in constructing the temple of Kaushalya Mata. But the timing of such occurrences raises a suspicion regarding the intent of the chief minister who, in Agrawal's views, has promoted caste-based politics ever since Chhattisgarh was born on November 1, 2000.
Even a langar (community kitchen) is being run by the government's support at Malerkotla in Sangrur district of Punjab for pilgrims of the Amarnath Yatra. For this, raw food grain and pulses were given by rice millers and other industrialists in the state. But the consignment was flagged off from the chief minister's official residence by Jogi himself.
In Bilaspur, considered to be the second biggest city after Raipur, Chhattisgarh has a new traffic square. Basically, the square is old but it has got a new name. Earlier, it was known as the Chillam chowk, but now it has been rechristened the Mahamaya chowk.
Accusing Jogi of promoting "soft Hindutva", Agrawal claimed that conversions had gone up in the current regime, hinting it would be a major issue during the forthcoming Assembly elections. "These actions have been taken with an eye on the Assembly elections. Actually, they are nothing more than political gimmicks," thundered Agrawal. Moreover, he alleged that the administration had given construction of churches in tribal areas a boost.
There are reports that Hindu clergies from Datia, Assam, Kolkata and Banaras had been deployed for tantrik puja (witch craft) to deal with his detractors like Motilal Vora, Shyama Charan Shukla, Charan Das Mahant, Vidya Charan Shukla and Arvind Netam. However, the Jogi camp has dubbed the charge bunkum. "This is an effort to malign Jogi's image," claimed a loyalist of the Chhattisgarh chief minister.
"As far as the starting of Vikas Yatras from temples is concerned, it has no element of religion like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is going to do on the Independence Day," alleged the Jogi loyalist. "Otherwise, why is the BJP keeping quiet over whatever controversial decisions Jogi has taken?" he asked.
In Chhattisgarh, development is
the mantra for success "unlike Hindu religion in Gujarat", said he. The
chief minister's loyalist also questioned the idea of using religious places
of a particular community for celebrating national festivals.
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