Kumbh: Amit Shah to take ‘samrasta snan’ alongside Dalits

BJP president Amit Shah and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with his cabinet colleagues, Dalits and tribals will take a holy dip christened as the ‘Samrasta Snan’.

BJP president Amit Shah and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with his cabinet colleagues, Dalits and tribals will take a holy dip christened as the ‘Samrasta Snan’ (harmony bath),apparently in a bid to win over the twin communities, in Shipra river on May 11 during Simhastha-Kumbh mela underway at Ujjain district.

Devotees attend a aarti of holy river Kshipra during month long Simhastha Maha Kumbh Mela in Ujjain.(PTI)

The move has come at a time when RSS is organising a series of functions to draw Dalits and tribals to its fold, apparently after the Sangh Parivar head Mohan Bhagwat stirred a hornet’s nest by calling for review of reservation policy during run up to the Bihar assembly polls last year. The statement had boomeranged and apparently led to BJP’s drubbing in the caste-ridden polls.

“Shah, BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Chouhan, BJP MP chief Nandkumar Singh Chauhan and other state ministers are going to take part in Samrasta Snan on May 11. We have invited Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot (a BJP Dalit face) also to the snan,” a RSS outfit - Deendayal Vichar Prakashan - Vice President Ajay Pratap Singh said.

Shah and other leaders will reach the camp of Deendayal Vichar Prakashan set up near the Mela site and in a procession go to Ramghat where they will bathe.

“The Dalits and tribals will participate in the snan in large numbers. Members of other communities too will take the ‘Samrasta snan’. The snan will be followed by Samrasta Bhoj (harmony lunch),” he said.

RSS is running a nationwide campaign this year to promote what it calls “social harmony” among Hindus apparently with an eye to win over Dalits and tribals which are key to BJP’s hopes of wresting power in Uttar Pradesh which is going to polls next year.

The RSS had already held discussions on ‘samajik samrasta’ (social harmony) in its shakhas (morning get-together classes) from January 3-10.

“We have also organised common meals and get-together in which Dalits and tribals participated,” a RSS leader said. Besides, Samajik Samrasta yajnas are being organised, he added. (MORE) PTI LAL DK RCJ