Gurugram: This week, Haryana Chief Minister and BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar not only named a senior secondary school for girls in Palwal district after Indian freedom fighter Jhalkari Bai on the occasion of her birth anniversary, but also announced construction of a community centre for members of the Koli caste and the installing of a statue of Jhalkari Bai there.
The freedom fighter was a member of the Koli community, according to a statement released by the government.
The naming of the school after Bai and the announcement of the construction of the Rs 3 crore community centre, are the latest in a series of events aimed at celebrating past heroes under the Khattar government’s ‘Sant Mahapurush Samman Avam Vichar Prasar Yojna’.
While the programme was started in February 2021, with the avowed intention of remembering icons from history on their birth or death anniversary, it has also turned into a potential caste outreach scheme for the ruling BJP ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, said political observers.
Hemant Atri, a political observer from Haryana, said that the manner in which events to celebrate birth anniversaries of national heroes from different castes and sub-castes are being organised by the Khattar government, leaves no one in doubt that the government is trying to woo people ahead of the parliamentary and assembly elections due next year.
“Though the scheme was launched two years back, the number of events organised by the government in the past one year shows that it is an outreach attempt ahead of elections,” said Atri.
In a message on social media platform X (previously Twitter), Khattar wrote Monday, “Jhalkari Bai, a brave woman, fought with amazing bravery against the British army along with Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi in the first war of independence [in 1857]. The life of courageous, fearless and patriotic heroine Jhalkari Bai ji inspires all of us and will inspire the coming generations. We all have to work together to carry her name forward.”
According to Praveen Attrey, media secretary in the Haryana government, the ‘Sant Mahapurush Samman Avam Vichar Prasar Yojna’ has played a significant role in conveying the message of communal harmony and peace among people, and it would be “misplaced” to view it through the prism of caste politics.
Attrey added that the state had allocated Rs 10 crore for the implementation of the scheme.
Political observers, however, find the Khattar government’s seeming caste outreach through the Mahapurush scheme to be in contradiction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the only caste that mattered to him were the poor.
The PM had made the statement while addressing a rally in Durg, Chhattisgarh, ahead of this month’s assembly election in the state.
“It is surprising that when PM Narender Modi refused to acknowledge the existence of caste, his party’s government in Haryana is creating and celebrating caste icons through an extravagant scheme ‘Sant Mahapurush Vichar Samman Prasar Yojana’ in the stated objective of ‘spreading the message of communal harmony and peace’,” said Mahabir Jaglan, a retired professor of Kurukshetra University.
Jaglan further alleged: This [the introduction of the programme] is the result of the flop of hard Hindutva in Haryana, which was designed to be implemented through recent communal clashes in Mewat. The people in general and the peasantry, in particular, stood as a rock against the communalisation of the society through Nuh violence. The BJP through its government in the state has evolved the plan B to push its divisive agenda, this time in the form of soft Hindutva. It seems to have a plan to make inroads into different castes invoking the past glory of their heroes.”
On 31 July, a religious procession organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad and Matra Shakti Durga Vahini was attacked, allegedly by hundreds of youths from the Meo Muslim community, leading to clashes that left six dead, over 70 injured, and caused loss of property worth several crores. The violence spilled to adjoining districts of Haryana, including Gurugram where a mosque was set ablaze and a naib imam was killed. At the heart of the unrest was the rumour that cow vigilante Monu Manesar would be joining the yatra.
While Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij had said the incident had been engineered to disturb peace in the state, the Khattar government had drawn flak after a purported video of a Nuh cop claiming he had shared prior inputs of a possible build-up of communal tension in the district with the government, went viral on social media.
Also read: Haryana to bring law against use of dead bodies in protests. Up to 1 yr in jail, Rs 50,000 fine
Grant for those celebrating birth anniversaries of ‘Mahapurushs’
In the past couple of months, the Khattar government has organised nearly a dozen events to celebrate the birth anniversaries of historical figures — mostly Hindu kings or warriors.
Khattar’s X page is filled with photos and posts detailing his participation in these events.
On 27 February, 2021, Khattar posted a video announcing that those celebrating birth anniversaries of Mahapurushs under the ‘Sant Mahapurush Samman Avam Vichar Prasar Yojna’ would get a grant of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
However, a scan of his posts about the scheme show that while he has posted about eight such events in the past 12 months, there are mentions of only two programmes related to the ‘Mahapurush’ scheme between its inception and December 2022.
In May last year, Khattar was the chief guest at a Maharishi Kashyap Jayanti celebration in Karnal. Maharishi Kashyap is hailed as a past icon of the Kashyap Gotra among Brahmins.
On 20 December last year, Khattar posted a video of his speech at a Maharaj Shoor Saini Jayanti celebration in Hisar. Saini is considered an icon of the Saini community, an OBC group in Haryana.
There are posts of many other such events on the Haryana CM’s X page.
In February this year, Khattar posted about an event in Gurugram, presided over by him, organised to celebrate the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas, an icon of the Ravidassia community among the Scheduled Castes.
On 23 April, Khattar posted images from the birth anniversary celebrations of the 15th century poet Dhanna Bhagat, a disciple of Swami Ramanand of Kashi. Dhanna Bhagat was a Jat from Rajasthan.
On 7 October this year, Khattar presided over a function to mark the coronation anniversary of Samrat Hemchandra Vikramaditya, also known by the name of Hemu, in New Delhi. Hemu is considered an icon for Bhargava Brahmin community.
The Khattar government has also organised events to mark the birth anniversaries of Parshurama (Brahmin), Sant Kabir Das (Dhanak community among the Scheduled Castes), Guru Gorakhnath (Nath community), Jyotiba Phule (Maali/Scheduled Caste), Udham Singh (Kamboj), Maharaja Ajmeedh (Goldsmiths) and Dr B.R. Ambedkar (Dalits) in the past one year.
The castes of all the historical figures are as has been claimed by the government.
According to Jaglan, the celebration of icons like Hemu, Dhanna Bhagat, Jhalkari Bai, and Parshuram fits into the BJP’s scheme of soft Hindutava. “But there are inherent contradictions in almost every case. They glorify Hemu for fighting against Mughals, but hide the fact that he fought on behalf of the Afghan Muslim ruler Adil Shah Suri,” said the retired professor.
Jaglan added: “Dhanna Bhagat was a saint who believed in the presence of a single God, which is contradictory to the tenets of Hindutva. According to mythological sources Parshuram, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, was constantly at war with Kshatriyas who are upper-caste Hindus and not Muslims.”
According to political observer Pawan Kumar Bansal, the Khattar government scheme is nothing but diversionary tactics being employed by the BJP-led government in Haryana, to ensure people don’t talk about the real issues of unemployment, inflation and law and order.
“It is not the government’s job to celebrate birth anniversaries of people from history. But the Khattar government has been doing this under its Sant Mahapurush Samman Avam Vichar Prasar Yojna to keep people busy on such issues so that they don’t ask questions about the real issues they are facing,” said Bansal.
While the political observer added that such tactics are followed by all parties, he accused the Khattar government of employing them more than the others.
Speaking at this week’s event to honour Jhalkari Bai, Khattar spoke glowingly of the freedom fighter, recalling how she had “disguised herself as Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, and sacrificed her life to save the queen’s life”.
According to Attrey, “Jhalkari Bai’s greatness and bravery have had a profoundly positive impact on the lives of the Scheduled Castes community in North India, as she emerged as a symbol of inspiration”.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)