Guwahati: “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram”, the Ram dhun, reverberated in Assam’s Nagaon town as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sat in protest with a handful of party workers early Monday around 8.15am — after being stopped along the way to Batadrava Than (shrine), the birthplace of Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardev, in Assam.
The main street in Nagaon was otherwise quiet as the state celebrated the Ayodhya Ram Mandir’s ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony along with the rest of the country.
While the consecration ceremony of the Ram Lalla was underway in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi continued to lead the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Assam for the fifth day.
Rahul’s visit to the than, dedicated to 15th-16th-century Assamese saint-scholar Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankardev, triggered a controversy over his plans to pay obeisance there on the day of the pran pratishtha.
While the shrine requested him to visit after 3pm, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the two events happening together would project a competition between the two sites.
The Congress, however, stuck to its guns. Stopped from visiting the Nagaon shrine, Gandhi’s yatra moved to Morigaon district through the Nagaon-Morigaon state highway.
He would be halting for the night in Jorabat, a junction at the Assam-Meghalaya border.
‘What crime have I committed?’
For almost two hours in Nagaon, Gandhi found support from Congress workers who sang bhajans and ‘Hari Naam’ in praise of Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankardev, a social-religious reformer, poet and playwright who is a towering figure in the cultural and religious landscape of Assam.
Faint chanting of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogans could be heard in the background as Congress protesters donning Assamese gamusas gathered at the site.
Later, as Gandhi waited, Congress MP from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi, visited the than and offered a ‘xorai (traditional symbol)’ as a mark of respect and worship.
On behalf of Shri Rahul Gandhi I visited the birthplace of Saint Srimanta Sankardeva. Rahul Gandhi was denied permission to visit Batadrava Than by the police citing law&order and pre scheduled program. The fact is the opposite because there was no program taking place. pic.twitter.com/zcF30bMhD4
— Gaurav Gogoi (@GauravGogoiAsm) January 22, 2024
Batadrava falls in Gogoi’s constituency.
Speaking to reporters at the protest site, Rahul said, “We want to visit the temple. What crime have I committed that I cannot visit the temple? Earlier, we were invited, but now the administration is saying that we cannot go.”
Without making direct references, he added, “Maybe, today, only one person can go to a temple in this country…”
On Sunday, the Batadrava Than management committee had requested Gandhi to visit the shrine after 3pm.
This was conveyed by the committee through a letter written to the local legislator, Shiva Moni Bora — which cited the “ambience of the than and the current situation” as the reason for the request.
“We have come to know through you that Rahul Gandhi wants to visit the than from 8-9am on 22 January. In this respect, the managing committee of Batadrava Than took a decision in a meeting at 11am (Sunday),” the letter signed by the president of the committee, Jogendra Narayan Dev Mahanta, stated.
“The same day (22 January), the Ram Mandir pratishtha proceedings will take place at Ayodhya and a lot of people will also assemble at Batadrava,” he added.
“…Taking into consideration such events, we have decided that the honourable parliamentarian should reschedule his visit after 3pm. He won’t be allowed to enter the than premises before 3pm,” the letter said.
Earlier Sunday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said Rahul Gandhi should avoid visiting the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardev at Batadrava on 22 January as “it will portray Assam in the wrong light”.
“In India, there should not be any competition between Ram temple and Batadrava Than. Television channels would broadcast two-window images of Ram Temple and Rahul Gandhi at Batadrava — this does not go well with Assam’s image,” the chief minister said at a press meet.
“We would like it if you reschedule the timings of your visit.”
However, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said if the party didn’t visit Batadrava or any of the religious sites of Srimanta Sankardev, the government would label it “anti-Hindu”.
“The chief minister has an illness — he loses his mental balance at the sight and mention of Rahul Gandhi. If we had not visited, the chief minister would have attacked us, called us anti-Hindu,” Ramesh said at a press meet in Sonitpur district Sunday.
“This visit (to Batadrava) should not be seen politically,” he added.
Later, when a journalist questioned Rahul being stopped from visiting the temple, and asked “what is happening in Assam”, Sarma replied on X: “Ram Rajya”.
‘A good suggestion from CM’
On its fourth day, Sunday, Rahul Gandhi’s yatra moved from Biswanath district to Nagaon district, as “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised along the route.
A team of Congress leaders was allegedly attacked — by “BJP workers”, according to the party — leading to chaotic scenes.
The controversy is being described by observers, including Assamese intellectuals, as unnecessary, saying no political party should attempt to create a row around Batadrava Than.
“It was a good suggestion from the chief minister (postponing the visit) — because Rahul Gandhi’s visit is party-centric, a political thing,” Mrinal Kumar Boruah, an assistant professor for performing arts at Dibrugarh University, said.
“But Ram Mandir is not so — it is a government effort, respecting the sentiments and emotions of the people of India. To stay away from any political activity in this phase is not anybody’s loss,” he added.
It was in the 15th century that Sankardev established a new religion on the basis of Sanatan belief.
Explaining that the religion propagated by Sankardev, the ‘Mahapuruxiya Dharma’, had its roots in the Sanatan belief, Boruah said the Vaishnava saint was “never far from Sanatan, India’s heritage”.
“He never opposed the Sanatan heritage, but from within this Sanatan belief, he gathered the substance and propagated a new religion — in sense of ideology and school of thought, which is different from today’s Hindutva beliefs,” Boruah said.
“Sankardev’s philosophy is to worship Lord Krishna through ‘Eka Sarana Hari Naam Dharma (in the feet of one God)’,” he added.
This was in the tradition of liberal spiritual humanism manifested through ‘bhakti’. His was the way of ‘naam dharma’, which is based on ‘shrabana (listening)’ and ‘kirtan (praising the name of one God)’, said another Assamese intellectual on condition of anonymity.
Boruah added, “The means of tapasya, jap, yagya, puja associated with Sanatan structure is not found in Sankardev’s religion — to him, Sanatan is ‘Param Brahma’ and the only mode of worship is Krishna.
“That’s the difference,” he said. “But the main belief in Sanatan is a part of Sankardev’s religion, too. He absorbed these beliefs from Vedas and Upanishads.”
Speaking about Sankardev’s philosophy regarding Lord Ram, Boruah said, “The way Ram is an idol for Indians, and the way he is respected and lives in every Indian’s heart and mind, it is with this truth that Sankardev consecrated Ram in Assam.”
“In his last drama, popularly known as Ram Vijay Nat, which is part of his own creation called Ankiya Nat, Sankardev carried the ideology to the ethnic people of Assam that Ram is a God.”
Boruah said no political party should attempt to create conflict around the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardev.
“People can do politics, create parties, form government, and rule for years, but Lord Ram and Mahapurush Sankardev should not be dragged into any controversy,” he said.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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