Bhopal: Congress veteran and former chief minister Kamal Nath on Saturday successfully wooed ‘controversial’ seer Dhirendra Shastri, known among his disciples as Bageshwar Baba, to hold a religious programme in Chhindwara, considered his pocket borough, in Madhya Pradesh.
The head priest of Bageshwar Dham, who has publicly vowed to work for a Hindu Rashtra inviting ridicules from a section of Congress in Madhya Pradesh, started a three-day “Ram Katha” programme at Samariya on the outskirts of district headquarters of Chhindwara on Saturday to narrate life of Lord Ram before his disciples present on the occasion.
The programme has ‘officially’ been sponsored by Mr Nath’s eldest son Nakul, a sitting Congress MP representing Chhindwara.
Seventy five years old Nath unveiled the religious event in Samariya by addressing the crowd gathered on the occasion.
“The former chief minister Mr Nath had earlier come to Bageshwar Dham in Chhatarpur district in Madhya Pradesh to invite me to come to Samariya. I am dedicating the Ram Katha programme in Samariya in the honour of the tribals”, Mr Shastri said.
The 27-year-old seer arrived at Imlikheda airstrip by a private aircraft where he was received by Mr Nakul Nath.
He along with Nath Junior then straight proceeded to the former chief minister’s residence in Shikarpur in Chhindwara city by car.
Nath Senior welcomed the seer to his house by performing ‘Aarti’ of him.
A huge waterproof dome has been erected in Samariya in an area of 2.5 lakh sq ft to accommodate around two lakh devotees at a time. Arrangements have been made to serve food free of cost to the seer’s followers who attended the programme.
According to Chhindwara district superintendent of police Vinayak Verma, around 1,000 police men have been deployed at the venue of the event to hold the programme smoothly.
Incidentally, the former chief minister hosted the seer in his home turf amid criticism of the latter by two senior Congress leaders and former ministers Sajjan Singh Verma and Dr Govind Singh who had called the seer as ‘BJP agent’.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a dig at Mr Nath for playing host to the seer reminding him of the criticism of Mr Shastri by some of his party colleagues.
Mr Chouhan described it as an ‘opportunistic Hindutva agenda of Congress’.
“BJP has focused on Chhindwara to win the seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Hence, Mr Nath is trying to play Hindutva card to influence the voters”, BJP spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said.
