After MoS status, two religious leaders cancel stir against MP govt’s Narmada programme

Bhopal: After much hullabaloo, five religious leaders had been accorded Minister of State status by the BJP-led government in Madhya Pradesh. Of them, Hariharanand Maharaj and Bhaiyuji Maharaj have refused the offer.

Stating that he has not yet received any order, spiritual leader Bhaiyuji Maharaj said that even if he receives a communication he will not accept the same. He said he is a common man and wishes to work in a similar fashion. “A post holds no importance for a saint. All he thinks of is the service of the people. When a post or status does not touch your mind, intellect or conscience, why think about it, said Maharaj. He also said he had no fondness for a particular party or community.

He is one of the five saints who are members of a special committee entrusted with the task of spreading public awareness about conservation of Narmada. All of them had been offered the special status. Sources said that Hariharanand Maharaj from Amarkantak has also conveyed to the state government that he does not want any elevated status. It is understood that the grant of similar status to Computer Baba and Yogendra Mahant had made other religious leaders unhappy.

Also Read: MP govt gives MoS status to five religious leaders, Raj Babbar says move shows Shivraj Chouhan’s ‘weakness’

Significantly, a day after the announcement, both the aforesaid sadhus had cancelled their proposed campaign against the  alleged Narmada plantation ‘scam.’ It is no coincidence that Computer Baba (Swami Namdev Tyagi) and Yogendra Mahant were planning to crisscross the state and take out a ‘Narmada Ghotala Rath Yatra’ from April 1. Needless to say, the yatra has been called off.

Detractors see in this sudden fondness for godmen Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s clever gambit to stall attempts to rake up alleged corruption in the Narmada conservation campaign. The state government launched a hugely hyp-ed plantation drive along the river. As many as seven crore saplings were reportedly planted on both sides of Narmada during the “Seva Yatra” in a bid to create the world record of maximum plantation in 12 hours. Both sadhus had alleged a scam in this mammoth exercise. The special status, critics said, was aimed at placating them.

According to media reports, Computer Baba had created a flutter in 2013 when he asked Kumbh Mela authorities to allow him to arrive in a helicopter and take a dip in the river; he had claimed this would help him serve the cause of river conservation better. Narmada is the lifeline of central Madhya Pradesh and flows through 96 of the 230 Assembly constituencies. Whatever the motivation, the appointments had caught the Congress unawares. Congress leader Raj Babbar said in Delhi: “They want to use these saffron-robed babas to win elections. They should draw a lesson from what happened when they made a saffron-robed priest a Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh.”