New Delhi: Amid a lingering din of communal fear-mongering and provocative speeches targeted at Muslims, a “Sanatan Dharma Sansad” of Hindu religious leaders at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj on January 27 gave its nod to a draft of a Waqf board-like “Sanatan Board” for the management, maintenance and control of properties of various Hindu temples and mutts in the country.
Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Hema Malini, the saffron party’s controversial MLA from Telangana T. Raja Singh, Hindutva leader ‘Sadhvi’ Prachi, known for her anti-Muslim slurs and priest of the Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya, Mahant Raju Das, who is facing legal action for asking visitors to the Maha Kumbh Mela to urinate on a statue of Samajwadi Party’s founder the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, were among those on stage when the resolution was passed.
The Sanatan Dharma Sansad, convened by Mathura-based katha vachak or story-teller Devkinandan Thakur, proposed the formation of a “Sanatan Board” that would have the power to declare any property as temple property if there existed “sufficient evidence” or “historical basis” for it. The proposed Sanatan Hindu Board Act, 2025 would also have the power to constitute a tribunal to settle legal disputes on funds and temple property by their own ‘judges’ through the “Sanatani tradition.”
“We will not go to other courts. We will have our own courts,” said Balyogi Arun Puri, a self-claimed seer from Kanpur, who had in 2017 claimed to have raised a people’s army to fight ‘stone-pelters’ in Jammu and Kashmir, reading out the draft of the proposal.
The Sanatan Board Tribunal would also have the mandate to free the land “forcibly occupied” by the Waqf boards in the country and arrange for punitive measures against movies, statements and comedy that is anti-Sanatan by enacting a law against blasphemy.
Sanatan Dharm Sansad. Photo: Facebook/Devkinandan Thakur
Not all are takers
The Sanatan Dharma Sansad was convened after the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the apex umbrella body of the 13 Hindu sects in India, last week gave its nod to the idea of a centralised “Sanatan Board.” However, the heads of most of these akharas were not present at the Dharma Sansad, for reasons unexplained, raising questions about the acceptability of a “Sanatan Board” among the larger Hindu seer community. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath, have already expressed their disapproval of the idea of a centralised board to manage Hindu temples and mutts.
Many of the senior Hindu religious leaders were busy hosting Union minister Amit Shah who visited the Kumbh Mela with his family, meeting top seers and offering prayers. Shah later had dinner with them. When Shah took a dip at the Sangam, prominent Hindu religious leaders Adveshanand Giri, the head of the influential Juna Akhara, Ravindra Puri, the president of the ABAP, and Kailashanand Giri, the head of the Niranjani Akhara, were by his side.
However, several well-known Hindu religious leaders participated in the day-long Sanatan Dharma Sansad, where speaker-after-speaker raised the bogey of the far-right conspiracy theory of “love jihad,” concerns about the ‘decreasing’ population of Hindus, attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, the “conspiracy” of the Waqf boards to occupy all the land in India and how money collected by the governments from various temples were used to fund Haj travel, “land jihad,” “love jihad” and religious conversions of Hindus to disempower them. Several speakers used the word “vidharmi” for Muslims, while others proposed that Muslims had no right to stay in India and should go to Pakistan. The speakers at the event also claimed that Hindus would inevitably claim the Mughal-era mosques in Varanasi and Mathura just like they had done in Ayodhya and built a Ram Mandir. One Sadhvi Saraswati referred to the Waqf board as “rakshas” or demon.
Hate speech
Priest Raju Das of Ayodhya, mentioned above, asked why Hindus, whose “homes and temples were being burned” in Bangladesh and were on the “verge of becoming a minority in nine states,” could purchase an expensive mobile phone but not keep a weapon at home. The 2013 Maha Kumbh Mela was held under the care of the previous Samajwadi Party government’s senior Muslim leader Azam Khan. Das referred to this and said that the operation of the previous Maha Kumbh was handed to “suar ke bacchon” or children of pigs. Das said he would push for the proposals of the Sanatan Board to be accepted by the Narendra Modi government, even if he has to “sit on a dharna, climb to the gallows or kill someone.”
“Hindus, listen to me with open ears, you will be saved only if the Sanatan Board comes up. Can’t you see what happened in Jammu and Kashmir and Bangladesh? We all know the situation whenever the population of ‘chadar’ and ‘father’ is more,” he said. ‘Chadar’ and ‘father’ are communally-laced slurs used by a section of the right-wing for Muslims and Christians, respectively.
Sadhvi Prachi, the president of the extremist outfit Bhagwa Kranti Sena, said that if Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were not the prime minister and home minister of India, respectively, Uttar Pradesh would have turned into a Bangladesh long ago. While issuing threats of conquering and destroying Pakistan, Prachi said it would ensure that a “shaitan” or devil like Muhammad Ali Jinnah is “never born again.” Prachi claimed that the population of Hindus, who make up three-fourths of India, was dwindling and that while the majority community people were only having one child, Muslims were producing “40” children. From the mantra of ‘hum do hamare do (we two, and our two),’ the Hindu community had regressed to ‘bacha na bachi, neend aye achi (no son or daughter, we care about our sleep),’ she said.
BJP MLA from Telangana T. Raja Singh, who has delivered several hate speeches in the past, accused Waqf boards of illegally capturing lands of Hindu mutts and farmers. The money collected through donations at temples such as Tirupati was being spent by the governments on those “vidharmis” who engage in “love jihad,” conversions and “land jihad,” Singh said. Accusing the Waqf boards of amassing property across the country, he said, “There is a second Pakistan right here in our country.”
If a Sanatan Board is formed, the money of Hindus would be spent on empowering gau rakshaks and act as a shield against “land and love jihad,” he said. Singh also referred sympathetically to Dara Singh, the Bajrang Dal leader serving life in jail for brutally murdering Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor children. Calling him the “Kanpur ka yodha,” who is “rotting” in an Odisha jail, Singh said the Sanatan Board would work for Dara Singh and his family.
Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi sitting on dharna with Suresh Chavahanke after not being allowed to meet Dara Singh in jail. Photo: Shared on social media
Devkinandan Thakur, the organiser of the Dharma Sansad, alleged there was a “conspiracy” to capture all of the land in India through the Waqf boards. “All you Hindus at home, the day the Waqf Board says all of India is theirs and claims all the land, what will happen to us? Where will we go? Which country will give us refuge,” he asked, provocatively.
Thakur asked why there were no “Hindu Boards” for Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh. “Why is there a Waqf Board in India,” he asked.
Thakur also said that Hindus should only marry Hindus. Bollywood actor and MP from Mathura Hema Malini, delivered a comparatively restrained speech even as she endorsed the “Sanatan Board.” Malini referred to the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, “problems” in gaushalas, “atrocities” on temples and the “crisis” faced by the “shared heritage” of crores of Sanatanis across the world.
Jagadguru Ballabhdas Maharaj of Ayodhya said Hindus wanted the “establishment” of a Sanatan Board and the “immersion” of the Waqf Board. “If a thorn walks along with us, it can prick us anytime. If the Waqf Board is abolished, love jihad will come to an end. Our teerth sites and temples would also be saved, as would the land across India. All the mosques in India that were built in place of temples, would continue to remain temples and the mosques would cease to exist,” said Ballabhdas.
He also improvised a popular slogan of the 1980s and 1990s of the Hindu right, Ram Lalla Hum Ayenge, Mandir wahin banaenge’, to push the demand to evict Muslims from other historical mosques. “Now our slogan should be, Ram Lalla Hum Ayenge, Mandir Har Jagah Banaenge,” said Ballabhdas.
While stressing that “every corner” of India belonged to Hindus, he also proposed that when India got partitioned along religious lines, “Pakistanis” had no right to stay in India and should go to Pakistan. Ballabhdas compared the Waqf Boards to “dacoits” who captured land of mutts and temples at gunpoint. “We must be prepared to sacrifice our lives for the protection of Sanatan Dharma,” he said.
Another prominent Jagadguru, Vidya Bhaskar, hoped that the Sanatan Board would have the power to declare the country as a “Hindu Rashtra.” He appealed Prime Minister Modi to abolish The Places of Worship Act, 1991. “There is no need for such a law which prevents us from reinstalling our temples after removing the mosques,” he said. Bhaskar said that while the Hindus had initially demanded only three temples–Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi–now they wanted more. “Sambhal, Mathura, Vishwanath, teeno lenge ek saath (Sambhal, Mathura and Varanasi, we will take all three at once),” he said.
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Jagadguru Swami Raghav Acharya played the pun on the word “khuda”, which means “god” as well as “dug up,” to suggest that the almighty was providing Hindus clues about where to dig for temples under the mosques.
The Sanatan Dharma Sansad proposed that the Sanatan Board would manage properties of Hindu temples and protect and monitor Sanatan religious traditions. The primary objective of the Board was to protect Sanatan Dharma and its cultural heritage, manage temple resources through transparency and ensure accountability. The four shankaracharyas would be its main patrons, while an 11-member national board would be formed including the four jagadgurus. An advisory board of the Sanatan Board would include retired lawyers and judges, retired officials and police officers and journalists with a “Hindutva ideology.”
Temple properties would be sold, leased or transferred without the permission of the Sanatan Board.
Thakur said they would send the draft proposal to the government for its consideration, and were willing to consider amendments if the government wished so. “We hope we get a positive result,” he said.
