Mumbai: The controversy over Bhageshwar Dham chief Dhirendra Krishna Shastri's remark on Sai Baba of Shirdi has escalated with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) jumping into it.
On Tuesday, senior NCP leader and ex-minister Jitendra Awhad came down heavily on the godman and said he had no business passing remarks against Sai Baba. Shastri had stated during the course of a discourse in Jabalpur on Sunday that Sai Baba was not God and at best he was a fakir or saint.
NCP has decided to mobilise thousands of Sai Baba devotees
Awhad said, like him, Sai Baba had millions of followers all over the world and they regarded him as God. "I myself perform pooja of Sai Baba daily and touch the feet of his idol before leaving home every day," he stated. The high-profile leader said the god man has deeply hurt the religious feelings of Sai Baba devotees by his unwarranted remark.
As a mark of protest, the NCP has decided to mobilise thousands of Sai Baba devotees on Thursday, April 6 at 7.00 p.m. at the Vartak Nagar Sai Baba temple and perform aarti. The entire development is seen by observers as a political slugfest since the godman is perceived to be pro-BJP. On Monday, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, minister of the BJP, did criticise the godman, but that was apparently more because Shirdi is located in his constituency in Ahmednagar. BJP spokespersons kept a studied silence on the controversy in the hope that it will die down on its own.
Rahul Kanal criticises Shastri
On Monday, Rahul Kanal, a member of the core committee of the Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray, had also vehemently criticised Shastri and he wrote a complaint to the deputy commissioner of police to register an FIR under IPC section 153 A, which deals with promotion of enmity between groups. He had also written to the CEO of the Shirdi temple trust. Anti-BJP parties are using the godman's statement to push the BJP into a corner. The effort is to pit millions of Sai Babadevotees against the godman's huge following which appears to be growing daily.
Awhad said Sai Baba was from Maharashtra and his devotees will not tolerate any insult to him. The number of Sai Baba's devotees had burgeoned specially after a television serial based on his life. The Shankaracharya of Dwarkapeeth had also appealed to people not to regard Sai Baba as God. However, his statement did not result in a bitter controversy as a similar statement by Shastri has done. The controversy has particularly assumed deep political undertones in view of the upcoming elections to civic bodies.
