MANTRAS FOR SUCCESS
How did Madhya Pradesh become the goto state for Babas with ambitions? Meet religious leaders who have positions in government, own Bentleys and copters; sway ministers with the promise of a prayer
Madhya Pradesh is where you go if you are a religious leader with material ambitions. You don’t have to hide who you are. Computer Baba, nicknamed for the fact that he always has a laptop with him, also owns a chopper and wants to be an MLA. Bhaiyyu Maharaj was a one-time model with a Mercedes and a following that cut across party lines. Rawatpura Sarkar runs and heads a rash of mainstream educational institutes and has multiple ashrams.
“Politicians in the state are not shy to wear their relationship with spiritual leaders on their sleeves. It is an accepted culture,” says Rasheed Kidwai, writer, political author and visiting fellow at the thinktank, Observer Research Foundation.
Which is why not many in Madhya Pradesh were shocked when five godmen were offered minister-of-state-level berths in the state government in April.
Here’s how it went. On March 31, religious leaders in the state announced a Narmada Ghotala Yatra that would “expose the state government’s false claims of conservation of the Narmada river”.
On April 3, five spiritual leaders were offered the positions on a committee to conserve the Narmada; on April 4, the march was called off.
It’s not unusual for the lines to blur between church and state in MP. Going back hundreds of years, this was part of a larger region — present-day MP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh — dotted with princely states governed by local royalty, with usually a priest or two on the panel of advisors or in key advisory positions.
After Independence, religious leaders continued to win positions in government — dating back to the first state and national elections. When they weren’t standing for office, they were helping bring in the crowds, addressing rallies, performing yagnas for politicians looking for a good monsoon, an election win, or the fall of a foe. Towns like Ujjain, Jabalpur and Bhopal are dotted with the ashrams and compounds of religious leaders who count the state’s most powerful among their disciples and followers.
Rawatpura Sarkar has had chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visit his ashram to perform yagnas. Swami Avdeshanandji Maharaj of Ujjain is known to be close to senior BJP leaders Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Chouhan.
Politicians, for their part, organise bigger and bigger kathas or readings of scripture, and bhandaras or religious feasts. It’s a closed circuit of power, money and influence, but it’s not that closed to those who know the password.
CRISSCROSSED LINES
The biggest change in the past 10 years has been in the everyday influence of godmen over the running of the state government, says Kidwai. “The kathas and bhandaras have swelled in size as political leaders compete with each other. It has become one of the primary ways for politicians to reach out to their voter bases,” he adds.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Govind Malu describes the statesponsored religious events as a way to “do good for society”. “BJP leaders, enlightened by teachings of the Rashtriya Sway- amsevak Sangh, have been seen to be at the forefront. It is a positive activity,” he says.
On the matter of inviting the religious leaders onto the Narmada conservation committee, he adds: “These people are steeped in our culture and their inputs would be really valuable.”
Dipak Tiwari, a political analyst and author of two editions of Rajneetinama Madhya Pradesh (1956-2003 and 2003-2018), points out that the mingling means that the government is spending public money on events that are purely religious.
While the state BJP government’s relationship with Babas is the most extensive, the Congress, when in power, appointed and offered tickets to religious leaders too.
“Pawan Diwan, a godman, was a Congress minister in 1977; Mini Mata became a Congress MP in 1955,” Kidwai says.
A turning point was the day Uma Bharti became BJP chief minister, in 2003. “She was a sanyasin and the front row at her swearing-in was full of ascetics. This marked the beginning of a more direct intervention of religion,” says Tiwari.
“Today, the Makhanlal Chaturvedi university of journalism has religious leaders giving sermons. The state culture department organised a festival for Shaivites in Ujjain this January. At best, this defined pattern of legitimising public spending for one religion shows a very narrow agenda.”
A NEW WAVE
As the possibilities grow, the range of babas in Madhya Pradesh is booming too.
In Indore, Radhe Radhe Baba, who moved here from Uttar Pradesh and heads a temple complex, spends hours in his inner chamber, watching fairly unchanging CCTV footage of the complex and the streets outside. “One never knows what may happen. The population of Muslims is increasing rapidly,” he says. Muslims constitute 7.41% of the population of Indore. In Ujjain, Yogi Peer Ramnath, head of a 20-acre temple compound, has started a group called Hindu Vahini, “which will defend any attack on the Hindu religion”.
It’s a potent mix — the desire for visibility, paired with a growing stage and politicians eager to court the religious leader and their followers.