Modi's Prayagraj visit reinforced pitch for pan caste Hindu unity: political observers

Lucknow, Dec 16 (PTI) The ship ferrying him was named Nishadraj, he spoke of Lord Ram and Nishadraj and made elaborate references to ‘safaikarmis’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Prayagraj visit also described the upcoming Kumbh Mela as “Ekta ka Mahakumbh”, the many threads stringing together the mantra of pan caste Hindu unity.

The prime minister’s one-day trip on Friday and its messaging also reinforced the RSS pitch of Hindutva unity, said political observers.

“The RSS-BJP wants to showcase the Kumbh as a massive Hindu unity platform and the PM's speech was indeed an extension of the same,” Prof Sudhir Panwar, a well-known political analyst who contested the 2017 UP poll on a Samajwadi Party ticket, told PTI.

“Whether it is picking up a spade to clear dirt mound on the banks of the Ganga to launch a cleanliness campaign that became a nationwide rage or washing the feet of cleanliness workers or felicitating those who built the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, the PM has always showcased unity and oneness of all humanity. His Friday speech also showcased the same spirit,” added Uttar Pradesh Minister for Homeguards Dharamvir Prajapati.

Modi’s visit, laced with much symbolism, came ahead of the upcoming mega Hindu get-together by the Ganga in Prayagraj from January 13 to February 26.

The BJP’s political plan to get Dalits and OBCs to vote for them took a hit in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll in Uttar Pradesh. This, Panwar said, explains the focused outreach to Nishads (OBCs) and safaikarmis (Dalits).

In the 2019 Kumbh at Prayagraj, Modi washed the feet of five safaikarmis or sanitation workers - a gesture that political parties like the BSP, with a base Dalit vote bank, dismissed as a “gimmick” to connect with Dalits. The BJP defended it as an outreach to the marginalised class.

This was referenced five years later too.

From the fact that the ship, requisitioned from Varanasi for his travel down the river to monitor Kumbh preparedness to his speech itself, it was essentially an extension of the RSS unity pitch that got intensified after the Haryana polls earlier this year when BJP belied experts and popular perception to spring a surprise.

Ever since, BJP leaders have used cleverly crafted slogans, tailored to heighten the impact of Hindu unity, a move that paid off handsomely in the recent UP by-polls as well as in the Maharashtra elections.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won six of the nine bypoll seats and its ally RLD won one to make it an impressive seven-nine show. In Maharashtra, the BJP-led-NDA alliance stormed to power with a massive mandate winning 233 of 288 seats.

“Since the 2022 UP polls and 2024 Lok Sabha polls when BJP despite winning the elections witnessed a sizable loss of its OBC and Dalit vote bank, the RSS-BJP has pressed the accelerator on its plans to bridge the caste divide and to unite the Hindus. "After winning Haryana and Maharashtra along with a clutch of key bypolls, the BJP-RSS think tank wants to aggressively showcase Hindutva unity and what better than the mega Mahakumbh to stage it, especially in the face of opposition’s push for caste census and the loss of Faizabad Lok Sabha seat months after the high profile Ram Temple consecration,” Panwar argued.

Dalits and OBCs have been the mainstays of a “Modi-fied BJP’s” phenomenal wins across the country and in UP, since 2014.

Modi's messaging included a generous mention of the Nishads, a politically influential OBC riverine community of fishermen and boatmen.

The PM also remotely unveiled the statue of Lord Ram embracing Nishadraj in Shringverpur, about 40 km from Prayagraj. According to the Hindu epic Ramayana, Ram met Nishadraj - the king of riverine community - who helped him cross the Ganga while serving his 14 year exile period.

With BJP ally Sanjay Nishad, the chief of the Nishad party and a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government sharing the dais with him, Modi referred to Kumbh as one that “bridges caste and sectarian divide”.

According to the Ramayana, Lord Ram in his earthly avatar was born into a high Kshatriya caste while Nishads are an OBC, now pushing for inclusion among Dalit sub-castes.

“The statues of Lord Ram and Nishadraj in embrace does showcase unity and which we definitely will showcase,” said Sanjay Nishad.

Modi expanded on the subject himself.

“The statues of Lord Ram and Nishadraj in Shringverpur would serve as a reminder of “samta aur samarasta (equality and harmony) for the coming generation,” Modi said to amplify the message he played up through slogans like ‘ek rahenge toh safe rahenge (unity assures safety)’ during the recent elections.

Adityanath, too, has been playing on the same theme with slogans like ‘batengey toh katengey’ that set the narrative for the recent assembly and by-elections. The “spirit” was also endorsed by the RSS, BJP’s ideological fountainhead.

“I think the RSS has always advocated unity among the country, among the people and the country’s PM too has been advocating the same spirit. I see it as encompassing and not limit it to any one thing, community or event,” an RSS leader said.

“I think as the prime minister who has just won a third consecutive term, Narendra Modi-ji’s appeal should be seen in context of social integration, a tradition since the Ramayana days but forgotten as caste dynamics prevailed,” added Prof Manoj Kumar Tripathi, head of political science department of the Swami Vivekananda Subharti University, Meerut.

"If you want to see politics in this unity outreach, you also have to factor in the fact that a national party like Congress forgot its classic slogan ‘Jaat par na paat par, mohar lagegi haath par’ that used to denote its unity push and has started advocating caste census," Tripathi said.

During his Prayagraj visit, Modi referred to safaikarmis as his “bhai-behan (brothers and sisters)”.

He said, “I want to compliment 15,000 sanitation workers, who have been tasked with ensuring cleanliness at 2025 Kumbh in advance. It would only be through your efforts that the world would be able to participate in this mega gathering of piousness, cleanliness and spirituality and hence you too would be blessed.” “Just as Lord Krishna had picked up used ‘pattals’ (leaf plates) to give the message that each task is important, similarly your involvement would elevate the importance of the event. Back in 2019, people had first witnessed such a clean Kumbh event and that is why I had washed your feet to convey my indebtedness towards you,” Modi said. PTI MAN MIN MIN