Mahakumbh: Is RSS Trying To Make It Political?

How commercial interests are also tied with the celebration could be seen in Gautam Adani’s distributing food in a tent and sponsoring one crore copies of a collection of prayer songs. The collection has come from a Gita Press, the publication that has been propagating Hindutva since the early decades of the last century. It has played a significant role in the Ayodhya movement

This is a time when we must look at the course the country has adopted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been repeating the details of his agenda for 2047. If the current scenario in the country is any indicator, we can see into our future. We would be turned into a country where religion would take the driving seat. We will have more thriving pilgrimage centers than business ones. If this is the agenda of the RSS and the BJP for the coming two decades, we can guess what kind of nation we are planning to make.

Should we not look around and locate ourselves in a world that has become more and more competitive? Should we not evaluate the outcome of the push the Hindutva forces give the nation? Will this religious push give any impetus to the progress of the nation? We find an appalling silence over these questions. Indian media is busy counting the number of people taking a dip in the water at the confluence of three rivers—Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati. The holy dip is supposed to free them from their sins. We need not talk of the scientific basis of such beliefs because people, our Gurus, have already discussed them without challenging the foundation of this belief. This has continued from Buddha to Kabir and Swami Vivekanand. Many others have also challenged these practices.

If we go beyond the superstition involved in it and take it as a social and spiritual exercise, Mahakumbh promises both plurality and conformity. People who speak different languages and stick to diverse religious practices gather at the confluence of three rivers they believe sacred. This is exciting. The meeting of diverse people also symbolizes a meeting of different minds. If we see it through the lens of history, the practice seems to have originated after the decline of Jainism and Buddhism to do away with the hostility between different sects of Sanatan Dharma. The hostility between Shaiva and Vaishnava sects had taken a violent shape during the early mediaeval period. Modern-day Akhadas represent the continuity of these sects. Who can deny the unifying role of these gatherings? Practices such as Mahakumbh allow people from other faiths, including Muslims, to participate.

However, the BJP and the RSS have turned these cultural and religious practices into a communal battlefield. If the BJP is trying hard to harvest a political gain, the RSS is attempting to control it. The BJP has ensured that it should add to its political propaganda. The venue is flooded with posters of Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Yogi. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister did not stop there. He convened a special meeting of the cabinet. All the ministers took a holy bath. The picture of Home Minister Amit Shah taking a holy dip is significant for the message it conveys. Many saints, including Baba Ramdev, made him bathe. The picture loudly announces the alliance between religious and political elites.

Various Poojas and Yagnas in the Mahakumbh also make the celebration overtly political. A famous saint is performing a Yagna to annex PoK (Pak-occupied Kashmir) into India.

How commercial interests are also tied with the celebration could be seen in Gautam Adani’s distributing food in a tent and sponsoring one crore copies of a collection of prayer songs. The collection has come from a Gita Press, the publication that has been propagating Hindutva since the early decades of the last century. It has played a significant role in the Ayodhya movement. If we look at the turmoil Adani group is embroiled in, we can speculate on his alliance with the RSS and the BJP. He is trying to gain legitimacy from a religious route. Will it help him get out of the trouble he is facing in the USA and elsewhere?

However, the Mouni Amavasya stampede has pushed the BJP into big trouble. Its attempt to take political advantage of the celebration has failed. The Yogi government has not only failed to protect people from the mishaps but also lost the trust of the people. People wonder how a saintly chief minister, as he is, could lie before the people and deny the mismanagement that has led to the stampede. For over 15 hours, he kept repeating that none of the pilgrims had lost their lives. The media played the most sordid role by trying to cover up the incident. It assumed the role of government spokesperson. Channels were just showing the reactions of Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Yogi and assuring the people that everything was in order. It is to the credit of the alternative media that people could know about the incident in fairly good detail. It is not difficult to conclude that the government’s focus on publicity led to the stampede, as the administration was hardly interested in managing the crowd. It did not have any plan for crowd management. Had he spoken the truth, Yogi would not have lost the trust of the people. Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand has reacted very sharply to Yogi’s attempt to hide the incident.

The BJP-allied media is trying to impress upon the people that incidents such as this have happened earlier also. They are trying to suggest that previous regimes did the same thing and did not speak the truth about the number of casualties. They even refer to the 1954 stampede when Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister. The media is propagating a biased comment by Prime Minister Modi on the incident. He blamed Nehru for both the incident and hiding the truth. However, the allegation is baseless. Neither Nehru was personally responsible for the incident, nor was he involved in the cover-up. All the newspapers had widely covered it and criticized the government.

The way the Mahakumbh is being celebrated at the behest of the RSS and the BJP needs a thorough evaluation. They are changing the core of the age-old celebration for their petty political gains. Is it not a cultural attack on Hinduism?

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)