PM Modi UP rally to have Kabir touch

Lucknow: On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kickstart his Lok Sabha campaign in Uttar Pradesh with a rally at Maghar, a nondescript town in UP known as the place where Kabir, the 15th century poet, was laid to rest, with his mazar and samadhi built by Muslims and Hindus respectively.

With Kabir’s teachings even more relevant today as religious intolerance is growing, the PM’s speech at Maghar is expected to give a new angle to his politics. Thursday, incidentally, is also Kabir Jayanti.

Mr Modi’s “Sabka aaath sabka vikas” concept matches Kabir’s principle of humanity above religion. Kabir, who was born in Varanasi, is also known for communal amity and rationality. He chose Maghar to die as it was believed that anyone who died there was reborn as a donkey.

At a time when the ruling BJP is facing flak over the aggressive Hindutva propounded by a section of party leaders, the PM clearly wanted to rise above this and adopt a more acceptable line of tolerance. This will help him counter the Congress, which is nowadays opting for soft Hindutva.

Another factor that makes the choice of Maghar for the PM’s rally significant is that the BJP is eyeing the weaver community, to which Kabir belonged. Party sources said the PM, in his speech, will try to reach out to weavers as well as Vaishnava Nagas as Kabir was widely believed to be the disciple of Bhakti poet Sant Swami Ramananda in Varanasi. The Vaishnava Nagas have a huge presence in the region, panning Varanasi, Chandoli, Gorakhpur and Sant Kabir Nagar.

The BJP is preparing to bring around 2.5 lakh people to the rally and all 11 eastern UP BJP district chiefs have been given targets in this regard. Prime Minister Modi will visit the shrine of Kabir after the rally. UP Tourism has, meanwhile, already initiated steps to promote Maghar as a tourist destination where Hindus have built a temple in memory of Kabir and Muslims have constructed a mausoleum in his memory.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to include Kabir’s shrine in the tourist map of Uttar Pradesh. The state government has also made an allocation of `25 crores for Kabir circuit project in 2018-19 which will have an interpretation centre, public gallery and exhibition, tracing the journey of Kabir from his childhood onwards.

The archaeology department has been roped in by the UP government to curate all memorabilia from Varanasi or elsewhere on Kabir, which would be showcased at the mausoleum.