Joshi at home, his deputy at work with a cobra necklace

As a first step towards this, Paswan honoured 51 ojhas, gunis and bhagats—village exorcists, shamans and charmers or, in the minister’s words, ‘‘healers’’—yesterday. Of the 51 honoured, 11 were women.

Incidentally, in Bihar and Jharkhand, dozens of women are stoned to death every year after being branded witches. But Paswan is unfazed. ‘‘We will correct the distortions if any, but they are healers who give relief to the people. The WHO defines health as being physically fit, mentally alert and emotionally balanced. Modern doctors can only take care of your physical fitness. Traditional healers will give you mental and spiritual comfort.’’

However, one person who will certainly be healed by the exercise is Paswan, who has been trying to emerge as a Dalit leader. Most of the practitioners of the craft are Dalits, and they will return to their villages and tell others about the BJP leader who danced, chanted and beat the drums with them.

Like Ambika Das, a bhagat from Makhdumpur in Nalanda district. ‘‘We are always sought after in the villages, but hardly honoured. We are grateful to the minister,’’ she says. While the bhagats propitiate the village deity, ojhas exorcise evil spirits and gunis protect one from potential evils.

However, the roles, not surprisingly, often overlap. ‘‘We want to modernise these practices,’’ says Paswan. ‘‘Like the way Ayurveda has become internationally accepted now.’’

He doesn’t even approve of the word exorcists for ojhas. ‘‘They heal broken hearts and humans. It’s about spiritual enlightenment,’’ Paswan says. ‘‘I want this included in school curriculum to bring this ancient wisdom closer to modernity.’’

The minister’s next plan is to form a national-level forum for healers. There are plans to hold a meeting in Delhi in November, after which he hopes to start two institutes, one in Darbhanga and another in Patna to do research on these topics.

These institutes will prepare a data bank of different types of healing practitioners in Bihar, have a website and build a team of teachers for those aspiring to learn the practices.

Paswan even tries to convince you that employment opportunity is high in the field. Talk about how promotion of superstition would help the Dalits whose cause he professes to espouse and Paswan says: ‘‘If psychosomatic studies are internationally accepted as scientific, why should we hesitate? Let there be a debate.’’

Of that, he can be sure.