A TURNING POINT WAS THE DAY UMA BHARTI, A SANYASIN, BECAME BJP CHIEF MINISTER, IN 2003

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.” 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.

‘If someone who calls himself a saint enters politics for personal gain, he is a danger to everyone, including himself,’ says Laxman Das Maharaj, who heads an ashram in Indore.

Yogi Peer Ramnath talks of starting an organisation called Hindu Vahini in Ujjain three years ago. Its aim is to “defend Hindus from any attack,” he says.