Today in Politics: As PM Modi arrives in Varanasi, why the focus is on celebrating Sant Ravidas

The PM is first scheduled to participate in a prize distribution programme for the winners of a Sansad Sanskrit Pratiyogita at Banaras Hindu University. Then, at 11.15 am, Modi is scheduled to perform pooja at Sant Guru Ravidas Janmasthali. Next, he will attend a public function commemorating the 647th birth anniversary of Sant Guru Ravidas who enjoys a massive following among Dalits and who has been one of the historical figures the BJP has strategically celebrated over the years. Then he will inaugurate a newly installed statue of Sant Ravidas at the Ravidas Park. He will also lay the foundation stone of a Sant Ravidas Museum and the beautification project of the Sant Ravidas Park.

Around 1.30 pm, Modi will visit a milk processing unit of the Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd, followed by a public function where he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of the development projects.

In context: The PM and the BJP’s focus on Sant Ravidas is nothing new. In 2022, the PM visited a Ravidas temple in Delhi and participated in a kirtan. Last August, ahead of the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh in November, Modi unveiled a Ravidas temple in Sagar district that marked the culmination of the BJP’s five ‘Sant Ravidas Samrasta (harmony) Yatras” launched the month before.

In a message for the BJP’s support base, Modi spoke of Ravidas’ life under Mughal rule. “The strength of Indian society lies in producing great individuals, saints, and leaders who emerge … to eliminate these challenges. Sant Ravidas was one such great saint. He was born in an era when Mughal rule prevailed over the country, and society was grappling with instability, oppression and injustice. Even during those times, Sant Ravidas was awakening society, showing it the path, and teaching it to combat its flaws.”

As Adrija Rowchowhury wrote at the time, “Placing Ravidas in the context of the Mughals is interesting because it is often forgotten, or rather ignored, that the Bhakti tradition, to which Ravidas belonged, emerged and even flourished in large parts of north India at a time that coincided with Muslim rule in the Subcontinent … As historians have noted, not only did the Bhakti movement in the north carry influences of the culture introduced by the Muslim rulers, it, in fact, flourished to a large extent thanks to the politico-administrative structure envisaged under the Sultanate and Mughal rulers.”

In UP, the outreach to the followers of Sant Ravidas also ties in with the BJP’s attempts to consolidate its position among its OBC and Dalit support base and negate the Samajwadi Party’s “Pichhde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak”, or PDA, pitch.

Recommended readings:

Prime Minister’s full schedule in Varanasi

How the Bhakti movement flourished under Mughals

Farmers’ agitation continues

After the death of 22-year-old farmer Shubkaran Singh at the Punjab-Haryana border on Wednesday, farm leaders have appealed for Friday to be observed as a “Black Day”.

Bharti Kisan Union (Sidhupur) president Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee convener Sarvan Singh Pandher led the demand for the Punjab government to declare Singh a “martyr” and appealed to people to hoist black flags atop their homes, shops and vehicles as a mark of protest against his “murder”.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which led the 2020-’21 protests against three farm laws, has also demanded that an FIR under murder charges be lodged against Haryana government officials and the state Home Minister.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association has also decided to abstain from work on Friday to “condemn the tragic incident in which a young farmer tragically lost his life due to police excesses”.

Among the things to watch out for on Friday will be how the Union government responds to the farmers’ central demands, if it does, and the Opposition’s response. All rounds of talks between the farm unions and the Centre have failed till now.

Recommended readings:

Loan waiver among demands, how Centre has allowed it only twice

Beyond MSPs and protests, some basic facts about Indian farmers