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Journalism of Courage
Strengthening the Chhattisgarhi identity through local iconography and co-opting Hindu deities and religious symbols have been part of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s well-established, twin-pronged approach to consolidating the Congress’s position ahead of the Assembly elections next year.
As part of this strategy, the Chhattisgarh government on Saturday confirmed that each of the 33 districts would have a statue of the Chhattisgarh Mahatari (“mother” in the Chhattisgarhi dialect) displayed prominently. In June, the Baghel administration announced that displaying the Mahatari’s portrait would be mandatory at all official events and in government offices.
What “Bharat Mata” is for India, Chhattisgarh Mahatari is for Chhattisgarh. Dressed in a green lugra (saree), wearing a crown of plants, and holding paddy, the image was drawn in the mid-1990s. Shown to be in chains, she became a symbol of the movement for a separate state. As the movement gained steam, temples dedicated to Chhattisgarh Mahatari sprang up across the state, including one in Raipur. But after the state was formed, the use of the image for political purposes declined. For years, her image graced some government offices and was celebrated only during local festivals and the state’s formation day. But, Baghel has brought back the Mahatari into prominence and accorded the image a special place as part of his strategy of using regional identity and pride to keep the Sangh Parivar’s overarching Hindutva project at bay.
Baghel, who maintains his son-of-the-soil image, started the trend of celebrating local festivals such as Hareli and Teeja-Pora as state events. People close to him said he wants to build on this regional identity and connect with voters while shaping his “Chhattisgarh model” of governance. “He takes pride in what he believes in, what he wears and what he eats. All these things make him who he is, a farmer’s son from Chhattisgarh,” said an official close to him.
The second part of the Congress leader’s game plan is to project his Hindu identity and take on the BJP at its own game. One of the Baghel administration’s ambitious projects is the Ram Van Gaman Paryatan Paripath. It is a tourism circuit envisaged to map the route that devotees believe Hindu deity Ram traversed in Chhattisgarh during his 14-year exile from Ayodhya. On April 10, Baghel inaugurated the revamped Shivarinarayan temple complex as part of the project. It was the second of the nine temples across the state the government plans to construct or renovate in the first phase of the project at a cost of Rs 134 crore. The renovation or construction of 75 temples is planned as part of the entire project.
To celebrate the first anniversary of its government in 2019, the Congress embarked on a Ram Van Gaman Path Paripath Yatra. As part of the second-anniversary celebrations, Baghel inaugurated a renovated temple in Chandkhuri, near Raipur, on December 17, 2020. It is the country’s only temple dedicated to Kaushalya, Ram’s mother and was the first temple to get revamped under the Ram Van Gaman scheme. A devout follower of Ram, Baghel has consistently described the deity as “bhancha” or “bhanja”, a reference to a belief that Kaushalya was a princess of the ancient Kosala kingdom that encompassed areas that constitute present-day Chhattisgarh.
This May, the government announced it would launch a Krishna Kunja scheme on Krishna Janmashtami. Under the scheme, plantation drives would be conducted in all urban areas. The CM is now trying to find ways to establish the state’s connection with the deity. At the All India Professional Congress Conclave held in Raipur last week, Baghel claimed that Krishna had visited Arang, a village near Raipur. Asked about it by the media, Baghel reiterated, “Yes, Shri Krishna had come here. You will find out when you read the scriptures.”
But, Baghel’s “soft Hindutva” line has received pushback from the tribal community, which makes up 31 per cent of the state’s population, and even his 86-year-old father Nand Kumar Baghel who has criticised the Congress government’s “pandering to politics over Ram”. But the CM has tried to differentiate the version of Hinduism he promotes. In an interview to The Indian Express in May, Baghel accused the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of turning “gentle and benign Lord Ram” into a “Rambo-like figure” and Hanuman into a “symbol of anger”.
Baghel’s strategy seems to be working as it has pushed the BJP to a corner. The saffron party, the original planners of the Ram Van Gaman project, were the first to raise questions about it. At the Budget session, BJP MLAs raised a hue and cry over the authenticity of the claim of Kosala encompassing the areas that constitute present-day Chhattisgarh. BJP leader Ajay Chandrakar said, “The Congress has failed on all issues, including health, education and employment. This is just tokenism, which the government has resorted to.”
According to political experts, the Congress has struck a chord with people that the BJP could not achieve in its 15 years in power in the state. Baghel, they said, had successfully developed the son-of-the-soil image and used his Hindu credentials to counter the BJP at its own game. Political observers said the Chhattisgarh Congress’s “soft Hindutva” had a local tinge, unlike the Hindi heartland version the BJP tried to import to the state.
