The animosity between Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya has bubbled to the surface once again over the Jyotirmath Shankaracharya’s dharna at the Magh Mela in Allahabad.
The mela administration had on January 18 asked Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand to step out of his palanquin and walk towards the Sangam without his followers to take a holy bath on Mauni Amavasya.
Since then, Avimukteshwaranand has been on a dharna on Triveni Marg in the Sangam area. He didn’t take a bath on Basant Panchami on Friday, stressing that he would take the holy dip in the Ganga only after an apology from the mela
administration.
In the wake of the standoff, the vice-chairman of the mela authority, Rishi Raj, had issued a notice to Avimukteshwaranand, citing a Supreme Court case and questioning his right to use the title of Shankaracharya.
However, Maurya on Friday night referred to Avimukteshwaranand as “Bhagwan Shankaracharya”.
“I bow my head before the revered Shankaracharya and pray to him to take the holy bath,” the deputy chief minister told reporters. “Whoever misbehaved with him would be punished after an inquiry. We don’t have the culture of misbehaving with any saint. I pray at the feet of Bhagwan Shankaracharya to take a bath in the Sangam.”
Sources claimed Maurya told BJP leaders that those “misbehaving” with the Shankaracharya didn’t believe in the party’s tradition and culture.
At a meeting in Haryana’s Sonipat two days ago, Adityanath had said: “Nothing can be bigger than religion and nation for a saint. There may be many Kalnemis (a demon in the Ramayan) who weaken Sanatan Dharma.”
His remarks were seen as an indirect reference to the Avimukteshwaranand row.
Avimukteshwaranand, a trenchant critic of the Narendra Modi government’s policies and who has received the support of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party over the latest controversy, had held his ground and dared Adityanath to “name the Kalnemis”.
“Adityanath should resign because he has failed to deliver on every front. Maurya should be made the chief minister,” he had said.
The BJP had contested the 2017 Assembly elections under Maurya as the party head in Uttar Pradesh. He had fallen sick and was admitted to AIIMS, New Delhi, the day Adityanath’s name was announced for the chief minister’s post.