New Delhi: The Sanatan Dharma is “one large banyan tree” and cannot be compared to a “bush”. With this allusion, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on January 25 seemed to express his disapproval of the growing demands by Hindu religious leaders for the formulation of a Waqf board-like ‘Sanatana Board’ for the maintenance and control of properties of various Hindu temples and mutts.
Adityanath was speaking at an event organised at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj by the extreme right-wing organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Although he did not directly speak about the ‘Sanatan Board’, Adityanath made a slant reference to the matter while addressing the ‘Virat Sant Sammelan’ of the VHP, which has, as of now, not given a nod to the idea of a Sanatan Board.
“Do not confine Sanatan Dharma to any narrow boundaries. Do not compare it to those tiny little boards,” Adityanath said a day after the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the apex umbrella body of the 13 Hindu sects in India, announced that it would declare a Sanatan Board at a ‘Dharma Sansad’ at the Maha Kumbh on January 27.
The Akhara Parishad and the VHP, a frontal unit of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), both agree that temples and Hindu mutts should be freed from government control and that Waqf Boards of the Muslim community be abolished. However, the VHP does not seem to share the opinion of the Akhara Parishad that temples be managed through a centralised board.
Alok Kumar, international president of the VHP, has said that the idea of a Sanatan Board needs more deliberations. Talking to a news website, Kumar said, “It’s important to know what the content of the Sanatan Board will be. We will try to understand this and then make a decision,” he said. The Telegraph reported that Kumar categorically rejected the idea of a Sanatan Board, bringing to surface a difference of opinion between the VHP and the Akhara Parishad. “We don’t want a Sanatan Board. Rather, we want the government to abolish the Muslim Waqf boards too. There is no need to have such boards,” Kumar said.
The Akhara Parishad is gearing up to reveal the contours and structure of a Sanatan Board on January 27. Ravindra Puri, Akhara Parishad president, while addressing journalists at the Mela on Friday, argued for the need for a centralised board. “When there is a Waqf board, why shouldn’t there be a Sanatan board? The law should be the same for everyone and justice should be given to all. Through the Sanatan Board we will take back possession of all the mutts and mandirs that have been occupied,” said Puri.
Devkinandan Thakur, a katha vachak from UP leading the demand, said that the Sanatan Board would have a representative from every akhara, the four shankaracharyas and the four jagadgurus. “Some big organisations will also be included in it. We will not go back from the Kumbh without a Sanatan Board,” said Thakur.
On Friday, the VHP’s Kendra Margdarshak Mandal held a meeting at the Kumbh Mela and affirmed its demand to “free” Hindu temples from government control. The management of temples should be handed over to the devotees of the faith, the VHP’s board decided, reiterating that it had launched a nationwide awareness campaign for the cause, starting from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.
The VHP also welcomed the Modi government’s amendments limiting the powers of the Waqf Board, said Vijay Shankar Tiwari, the VHP’s publicity head in the Maha Kumbh camp. The VHP’s brief of the meeting did not include any reference to the “Sanatan Board” and its spokespersons focused on the abolition of the Waqf boards in the country.
“The Waqf Board is immoral and against the constitution,” said Avdeshanand Giri, the head of the Juna Akhara, the largest sect of sadhus and seers in the country, at the VHP’s meeting.
Amid this apparent difference of opinion between the Akhara Parishad and the RSS-backed VHP, Adityanath preached about the grandness of the Sanatan Dharma and how maintaining its unity was beneficial for all Hindu religious leaders.
“If Sanatan Dharma is safe, our mutts, temples and sects are safe,” said Adityanath. “Sanatan Dharma has a viraat swaroop (grand character). Maintain that grandeur. Your grandeur and divinity lies in that, as does your honour and the self-respect of the country,” said Adityanath.
In his address, Adityanath, who is himself the head priest of the Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur, warned Hindu sadhus and seers against “impatience” and said “forbearance is necessary for enlightenment.” What turn this takes, would be clear after the Akhara Parishad’s announcement at the Maha Kumbh Mela on January 27.
