PATNA: While Tamil Nadu sports minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s controversial remarks about Sanatan Dharma continues generating much political heat across the country, RJD chief Lalu Prasad has suddenly gone on frequent temple hopping these days, triggering speculations as to if that is aimed at wooing the Hindu voters through "soft Hindutva" ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Both Stalin’s DMK and Lalu’s RJD are part of the newly-formed opposition INDIA block.
On Sunday again, Lalu accompanied by his wife and former CM Rabri Devi left for Deoghar town in neighbouring Jharkhand to offer prayers to Lord Shiva. He will visit the temple on Monday and offer prayers there. Lalu himself has revealed how Shiva once visited in his dreams while he was in judicial custody and advised him to quit non-vegetarian foods although he shrugged off his advice later and started relishing fish and mutton.
During Krishna Janmashtami a couple of days back, Lalu had visited ISKCON, Banke Bihari and other temples in the state capital and was also seen whispering something into Nandi’s ears. Nandi, the bull, is considered the carrier of Lord Shiva.
Prior to that, Lalu had visited a Thawe temple in Gopalganj dedicated to Goddess Durga, Baba Hariharnath temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva at Sonepur in Saran and Sidhi Vinayak temple in Mumbai during his recent trip aimed at attending the third meeting of opposition parties.
"Lalu had not visited temples for long due to his health complications and jail terms (awarded by the court) earlier. Now that he is fine, he is going there to thank the deities," state RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said. "Apart from that, quite many of his supporters had promised to offer prayers if Laluji had successful kidney transplant surgery. He is going to oblige his supporters," he informed. He said the RJD never questioned any religions; rather it criticized only the attempts to "link religion with politics".
BJP spokesperson Manoj Sharma said the idea is apparently aimed at keeping the Hindus in good humour but that won’t help INDIA block. "Laluji has resorted to 'dhurt Hindutva', rather than soft Hindutva. On the one hand, he instigates the INDIA’s allies to target the Sanatan Dharma, on the other he visits temples. The people are very much aware of his act," Sharma told the TOI on Sunday.
Not only Udhayanidhi but his own party leaders, such as state president Jagadanad Singh and education minister Chandra Shekhar have been found making uncharitable remarks towards Hindu religion and Ramcharitmanas, annoying Hindu voters, it is said. Analysts say Lalu's temple visit move could be an attempt to limit the damage.
