Pawan Khera, the vocal Congress spokesperson, turned up the heat on the BJP during a Monday media interaction in the capital. Labeling the administration as steeped in ‘dysfunction everywhere,’ he focused his ire on the desecration of sacred customs.
At the heart of his diatribe was the barring of Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand from the prestigious Shahi Snan at Mahakumbh – a ritual untouched by historical invaders. ‘The British and Mughals respected it; why can’t this government?’ Khera thundered.
He spotlighted the irony: RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat enjoys top-tier security and a convoy of 50 cars, yet a revered saint is blocked. ‘Who’s superior here?’ Khera probed, questioning the priorities.
Khera detailed allegations of elite privileges at the event, with ordinary devotees sidelined and saints manhandled – even dragged by hair. ‘Government’s devotion is now a marketplace,’ he charged, where power trumps piety.
He linked this to broader failures: BJP backers in Odisha rallying with Hanuman Chalisa for a killer’s freedom, and unfulfilled justice in Rajasthan’s Kanhaiya Lal murder. ‘Power and profit define them, not Ram or responsibility,’ Khera scoffed.
Amid the Shankaracharya’s hunger strike and a government-backed troll offensive, Khera delivered his punchline: ‘The king bows to the saint, not the reverse.’ Inaction, he vowed, would label them ‘wealth fanatics,’ not faith protectors.
This confrontation highlights simmering tensions between politics and spirituality, with Congress positioning itself as tradition’s true sentinel.