By Sushil Kutty
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be in Prayagraj on October 6 with the stage set for the next explosive episode of ‘Hindu-Muslim’. Prayagraj is anticipating a monstrous ‘Maha Kumbh’ in 2025 and preparations are in swing. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will announce the dates for the major “baths”, which is what the ‘Kumbh Mela’ has been all about for centuries.
The sheer size of the ‘Kumbh’ cannot be imagined. The last ‘Maha Kumbh’ saw 20 crore devotees. Double that number will get their underclothes drenched in the 2025 ‘Maha Kumbh’. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will hold a meeting with seers of 13 “akharas” and release the logo of the Maha Kumbh.
The Chief Minister will also be requested to remove Urdu words like ‘Shahi’ and ‘Peshwai’ from the Kumbh lexicon. ‘Shahi’ and ‘Peshwai’ had crept into the Kumbh language during the time of the Mughals. After 2014 there were requests to get rid of them, but the Modi and Yogi governments were doing their brand of Muslim appeasement and it was only after the 2024 “half-defeat” that “courage” returned.
The Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, which runs the ‘Maha Kumbh’, split in two. But these are extraordinary times and calls for “unity” have brought them together. The spectre of Islamic challenge to the Sanatana Dharma could not be ignored. Hindu seers are at the forefront of the Hindus’ return challenge. The contamination of Tirupati laddus and the “thook jihad” and “urine jihad” have together put the fear of the devil in the hearts of Hindus.
Therefore, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be asked to guarantee “purity” of the ‘Kumbh Mela’ by keeping people of Abrahamic faiths out of the ‘Maha Kumbh’. Muslims and Christians will be prevented from entering the limits of the ‘Kumbh Fair’. State government officials tasked with running the arrangements for the ‘Maha Kumbh’ must also be “Hindu”.
If that isn’t a breach of fundamental rights, what is? Muslim panelists invited to a fiery debate on the ‘Maha Kumbh’ swore not to take things lying down. They have warned such diktats do not apply to secular India. They’re alleging economic boycott of Muslims.
Thousands of state government officials are expected to be posted in Prayagraj for the duration of the ‘Maha Kumbh’. Will the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government agree to the Hindu seers’ demand? Gorakhpur’s mahant Yogi’s ‘secular’ status will be questioned. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is not divorced from his ‘monk identity’.
Does Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wear a secular choga? The answer is ‘no’. But the Chief Minister swore on the Constitution. That is what counts. He is duty-bound to stick to the law of the land, and play fair and square. There should not be a dilemma, no Hamlet to cloud his decision-making prowess.
That being said, there is nothing that prohibits the Yogi Adityanath administration from “taking precautions”. What if the sight of skull caps leads to a stampede, as is being argued? So, everything, from the “settlement of akharas in the fair area, their arrangements, their needs, and possible construction”, all of these should be in the hands of sanatanis. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath must post only Sanatanis in the fairground, goes the text.
Indian Muslims who are aware of the “proposal”, aren’t mincing words. Repartees like “Yeh Desh Hamara Bhi Hai” are doing the rounds. No, none of them will convert to take a “holy dip” in the Sangam. They practice their own ‘cancel culture’, but get offended when they themselves get cancelled.
No use telling them that Holy Mecca keeps non-Muslims out of the perimeter. “Oh, that”, is the answer. The problem is, with smartphones and instant dissemination of “reels”, the much-maligned “Ganga-Jamuna Tehzeeb” has taken hits. And with “thook” on chapatis, and “peshaab” in fruit-juice, also animal fat in the ‘Tirupati laddu’, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will not need much convincing.
What’s troubling is the sheer amounts of food that will have to be made for the Hindu-hordes. Hunger will be the driving force of the ‘Maha Kumbh’. So what if it galls some Indians if they’re not allowed to participate in the ‘Hunger Games’? CAA was also not for Muslims.
The ‘Maha Kumbh’ logo will feature images of seers, a temple, a Kalash, and the Ganga. The message on the logo will convey the grandeur of the ‘Maha Kumbh’. Will Christian and Muslim journalists, photographers and videographers also be barred from entering the ‘fair’ to capture the grandeur?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overseas reputation, including what the world knows as Modi’s ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’, will take a hit if the Chief Minister bows to ‘Akhara pressure’ and bars Abrahamic faithful from entering the fairground. But if he relents to Modi and Muslim pressure, the Hindu backlash will drown the ‘Maha Kumbh’ in the ‘Sangam’. Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan has already told the world what awaits people doing harm to Sanatana Dharma. (IPA
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