Being faithful is different from being a fanatic, always defending the unsaid and unspoken. The Markaz happened, Kumbh took place, leading to an exploit in COVID numbers with the common and ordinary falling prey to the mutating virus.
But for our short-sightedness, we chose to stick and side with the presumptions and positions of our leaders than debating a possible remedy and response to the crisis.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has been careful in not toeing the line, suspending the annual Kanwar Yatra to Haridwar where devotees of Lord Shiva gather to collect holy water from the Ganges. It is contrary to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s decision to allow the Kanwars to visit Haridwar for the said ritual.
Though the Supreme Court overturned his government’s decision for the better, Yogi tried to test his political capital ahead of the crucial UP assembly elections next year. But this isn’t done for the Muslims of the state who were barred from offering namaz on the occasion of Eid-Ul-Adha citing COVID restrictions in place in an attempt to pacify those upset with the imposition on the Kanwar Yatra.
States should follow principles of equidistance from religion, neither against it nor for it to balance the interests and objectives of a constituency for the purpose of vote bank. Maintaining order is different from appeasing and polarising a particular sect or tribe for one’s vested goal.
Politicians are afraid, burying it deep down as for their populism and propaganda, which thoroughly rests on it, paused and reset. Politics is all about alterations and arrangements with features of who gets what, when and how. Overcoming it is but a competitive contest, if for any.