Feelings of kanwar sanghs should be respected: Yogi

Day after cancellation of this year’s kanwar yatra, CM says it’s appropriate that in the matters of faith society should itself take decisions

A day after the state government announced that the kanwar sanghs (associations of pilgrims) have cancelled this year’s kanwar yatra, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said, “The feelings of kanwar sanghs should be respected.”

“It’s appropriate that in the matters of faith, the society should itself take decisions,” he said.

The yatra was not taken out last year as well due to Covid-19.

This year, the yatra was scheduled to start on July 25.

The state government has to reply on Monday to the Supreme Court on its decision on the yatra in Uttar Pradesh.

Since Friday, soon after the Supreme Court nudged the UP government to reconsider the state’s decision to hold the yatra despite Covid-19 concerns, the Uttar Pradesh government engaged kanwar sanghs in the state in talks and made an appeal to them to cancel the yatra the way they did last year, said a senior state government officer.

The top court had asked the state government to inform it by July 19 whether it would reconsider its decision to hold a “symbolic” kanwar yatra.

“The state government respects the faith of all the people. The kanwar sanghs, after talking to the state government officers, decided to cancel the holy kanwar yatra of Shravan month. It is appropriate that in the matters of faith, the society should itself take decisions. The feelings of kanwar sanghs should be respected,” Yogi said at the Covid review meeting on Sunday.

The kanwar yatra is an annual pilgrimage held in the Hindu holy month of Shravan. It involves devotees of Lord Shiva generally walking barefoot with pitchers of holy water from the Ganga or other rivers hung on kanwars (bamboo or wooden slings) and then offering the water to the deity at Shiva temples.

On Tuesday, the Uttarakhand government cancelled this year’s yatra, but the UP government had said the annual pilgrimage was allowed in Uttar Pradesh with Covid safety protocols. Following this, the Supreme Court took cognizance of the issue and, on Friday, asked the UP government to reconsider its decision to allow the kanwar yatra in the state with a limited number of pilgrims. The apex court asked the government to consider a complete ban on the physical movement of kanwariyas in the state.

Haridwar in Uttarakhand is the main centre for the kanwariyas to collect Ganga water for “jalabhishek” of Lord Shiva. Traditionally in UP, many devotees, instead of going to Haridwar, collect Ganga water from various places in the state itself, such as Unnao, Bijnor or fetch the Saryu water from Ayodhya.

Earlier on Saturday, many kanwar sanghs (organisations) in Saharanpur district of western Uttar Pradesh expressed their helplessness in ensuring Covid appropriate behaviour during the yatra and decided not to organise camps for the pilgrims this year.

They took this stance while the Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP), the apex decisionmaking body of the 13 recognised Hindu monastic orders of the country, urged devotees not to take out the yatra this year too due to Covid-19.

ABAP president Mahant Narendra Giri said that human life was as important as religious practices and thus the best option was that the kanwar yatra was called off this year as well.