Hanuman takes centre stage in UP politics

LUCKNOW Chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s alleged remark suggesting Lord Hanuman was a Dalit has spiralled into a full blown political controversy in Uttar Pradesh.

A Congress activist prepared a poster, put up at several road crossings in the state capital that shows Hanuman disapproving of attempts to drag him into caste politics for vote gains. And Dalit groups continued to stage protests across Hanuman temples, saying they had first claim over the Dalit god’s shrines.

What’s more, it has given the opposition parties, including the SP, the chance of saying that BJP leaders were even dividing the gods on caste lines. These opposition parties were earlier accused of being casteist by the BJP.

Adityanath hit back, saying the opposition was frightened by the power of ‘Bajrangi’. He said so at an election rally in Kota, Rajasthan, a day after identifying a wrestling move as ‘Hanumanti’ while inaugurating a wrestling championship in Gonda. Some even see Adityanath’s remark as a deliberate attempt to communicate the message of ‘samrasta’ or social harmony.

“One is blessed with infinite ‘bajrangi’ power if one leads a disciplined life and at the moment our political opponents are scared of this,” he said.

“Irrespective of whether CM Yogi described Hanuman as Dalit or not, the narrative suits the BJP as it helps them build the theory that Hindu scriptures didn’t propagate caste divide for Ram, an upper caste Raghuvanshi god whose love for his loyalist Hanuman is well known,” said Athar Siddiqui of the Centre of Objective Research and Development, an NGO. This narrative helps debunk the theory that Hindu gods held no appeal for Dalits, Siddiqui said, adding this means they had their own mainstream deity.

Since Tuesday, when Adityanath allegedly claimed Hanuman was a Dalit at a poll rally in Raj asthan, the controversy has gr own. Adityanath’s minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, with whose party the BJP inked a pre-poll pact in the 2017 UP elections, was the latest to join the controversy. “So now Hanumanji is a Dalit and some even claim that Lord Krishna was a Yadav and then what was Lord Ram’s caste? Some claim he was born a Kshatriya,” Rajbhar said.

In the posters, the Congress has sought an apology from Adityanath while Dalits groups have begun protests outside Hanuman temples. One half of the posters show Hanuman admonishing those politicising him for electoral gains while the other shows Adityanath addressing a rally announcing that Hanuman, whom Hindus revere as god, was a Dalit. “We have first right over the temples of Dalit god Hanuman,” says Narendra Gautam of Dalit Uthan Samiti whose organisation held protests outside a Hanuman temple at Hazratganj. “I don’t think it’s right to attribute caste to gods,” said rebel SP MLA Shivpal Yadav, who has floated his own political outfit after falling out with nephew and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Referred by various names, including Bajrang Bali and Pawan Putra, Hindus believe Hanuman wields infinite power. He finds a detailed mention in the Ramayana.

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