New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh Congress has a new strategy to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh this election year — a pujari prakosht or priest cell.
Congress leaders told ThePrint that the cell, set up in July-August last year, would help them counter the BJP’s allegations that the party engages in appeasement politics towards religious minorities. The pujari cell will also enable the Congress to build some political cache among Hindu priests and their followers in MP, they added.
The cell has gained particular significance since the MP Congress’s Dharam Samvad, or religious conference, Sunday. Held at the state Congress headquarters in Bhopal, the event, according to its organisers, saw as many as 1,600 priests from various temples and mutts in attendance.
Speaking to ThePrint, K.K. Mishra, the media head of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), told ThePrint that the purpose of such a conference was two-fold.
“First, we wanted to tell the BJP that religion is the cornerstone of our faith as well. Second, they keep saying that we are doing appeasement politics. That is not true. We are just as committed towards our religious beliefs,” Mishra said, adding that all potential legislator candidates in the state have been advised to organise such conferences in their areas.
J.P. Dhanopia, the MP Congress vice-president and the leader in charge of all its cells, denied that the Dharam Samvad was a “vote-gathering exercise”, instead claiming that the party was only trying to address the grievances of priests.
“The pujaris and temple organisations are discontented with the BJP. Their land has been encroached upon, they don’t have any assets of their own, they have been reduced to living a hand-to-mouth existence,” Dhanopia claimed.
“The BJP only wants to portray that they are religious and speak of religion to get votes. But the grievances of the priests show us that they don’t do anything to promote religion or religious values,” he added.
The development comes a few months before assembly elections in the state.
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‘Getting Hindu votes’
According to Shiv Narayan Sharma, the president of the MP Congress pujari prakosht and a priest at a temple in Ujjain, the cell was formed in July-August last year and consists of pujaris or priests who, like himself, currently serve in temples.
There’s only a state-level cell at present — Sharma told ThePrint that the party is still appointing heads for different districts.
Speaking at the Dharam Samvad conference Sunday, MPCC president and former chief minister of the state Kamal Nath said that the BJP had not taken the “theka” (contract) to be the sole representative of the “bhagwa” (saffron).
“Every time the Congress organises a religious programme or a Congress leader participates in any such event, the BJP gets rattled,” Nath said at the event, also reminding the assembled priests that it was his government that had started an honorarium for them.
Despite the Congress’s denial that the cell is an attempt at capturing Hindu votes, however, party sources from MP say that it’s a strategic move, especially given the influence that local priests wield on the Hindus in their areas.
“For example, if the pujari in the local temple is happy with the Congress, he will spread the message to those coming into the temple daily,” a Congress functionary said. “If the BJP is not fulfilling their demands, then it’s a good opportunity to convert them (to the Congress).”
Another Congress functionary also said it was a way of countering the RSS.
“Priests are also unhappy with the politicisation of religion that’s happening because of the close relationship of the BJP and RSS. Because of this political relationship, they’re not being able to raise their religious demands. We’re trying to capitalise on that,” the functionary told ThePrint.
Dhanopia also said that the priests in the Congress cell came from all castes.
“There are Vaishnavas, priests from lower castes, as well as tribal priests. Our prakosht includes all of them,” he said.
‘BJP govt went back on promises to priests’
Shiv Narayan Sharma said that he had nothing to do with the Congress until he was appointed as the president of the pujari prakosht last October.
It was he who had approached Nath last year for help after the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in the state “went back” on its promise to pujaris, he told ThePrint.
“(Chief Minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan had promised us at Ujjain’s Mahakal that we (priests) would be given control of the land we’ve received as inaam (gift) from the temples. We had three meals at the CM’s house and were promised help there as well,” he claimed.
He further said: “After exhausting our options, we went to Kamal Nath ji last year and he said that he will open a cell for us and that when he becomes CM, he’ll fulfill our demands.”
The first of the demands is that the control of temples should be given back to priests. Since 1974, the control of several temples has been vested in district magistrates through a state law.
The second demand is that gift land should be transferred to them according to the laws of kinship.
“Our ancestors have been attached to some temples for over 400 years. Our families were given small pieces of land at the time by the kings who operated the temple,” Sharma said. “But after hundreds of years, these lands are now controlled by the government and are not passed down to us. This means we’re left with nothing after hundreds of years of service.”
Kamal Nath & ‘Hindu push’
The last few months have seen the Congress seemingly pursue the Hindu agenda, with Kamal Nath in the lead.
The former chief minister has, over the last few years, carefully cultivated an image as a Hanuman bhakt (devotee).
In 2018 — just before the last assembly election — Nath built a 101-foot-tall Hanuman statue in his constituency, Chhindwara. An Economic Times report quoted locals as saying he’s also built a number of temples in the area.
In 2022, he courted controversy after he cut a four-tier temple-shaped cake featuring Lord Hanuman’s portrait on his birthday.
In February this year, Nath met self-styled godman Dhirendra Shastri at his Bageshwar Dham in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district. Shastri openly advocates for a Hindu Rashtra.
When asked about his visit, the former MP chief minister was evasive. “India is run by its Constitution, which was drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar,” he had said then.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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