The upcoming Madhya Pradesh elections has brought to sharp focus a self-styled Godman, who calls himself Bageshwar Dham chief and preaches Ramcharitmanas and Shiva Purana.
A storyteller with phenomenal drawing powers, he rose to fame through divya durbars where he claimed to perform miracles. Audiences of all ages seek his wisdom on family matters, careers, and even seek relief from creepy experiences.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress wouldn’t be unmindful of his impact on the electoral calculations.
As an editorial rightly notes, MP is an “experimental ground for Hindutva politics.”
In recent times, the editorial observes, the Congress has played the Hindutva card by installing 108 Hanuman idols in Chhindwara, the bastion of Kamal Nath.
The Kamal Nath government set up the Adhyatma department to give the spiritual propaganda a firm push, the editorial noted.
Shastri, who is also the founder of the Bajrang Sena, has courted controversy in the Chhatarpur district of MP. He has built a reputation for making speeches laced with hatred.
But he is turning on the charm quotient with his rallies, making him a serious threat in the elections. The media, regardless of his inflammatory speeches, have given him a fair bit of publicity. The editorial points out that he has a great deal of following in Chhatarpur, his home district, where the BJP won one seat and the Congress three in the 2018 Assembly elections.
So, are we looking at a scenario where Indian politics will be dominated by babas and self-styled Godmen? As the editorial notes, it’s a complex subject and raises questions about the role of self-professed spiritual leaders in the public domain.
Some spiritual leaders such as Baba Ramdev, Asaram Bapu, and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev had a strong presence in the political landscape. Their spiritual teachings are widely followed. Remains to be seen whether Shastri will have a similar impact both on and off the political turf.
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