Lucknow, Sept. 20: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit a village in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi this Saturday to do " gau pooja" before inaugurating a cowshed as part of a slew of cattle-related events possibly aimed at scoring two goals with one shot.
Over 40 per cent of the residents of Shahanshahpur, the venue of Modi's cow worship, are Dalits - a community the BJP has been trying to draw into the Hindutva fold.
The Prime Minister would also inaugurate a cattle health camp in the village on the banks of the Ganga.
Veterinary doctors would treat free cattle owned by villagers of Varanasi and adjoining districts in east Uttar Pradesh at the month-long camp.
The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for a cow semen bank in Shahanshahpur.
Dr V.B. Singh, Varanasi's chief veterinary officer, said cows born in Shahanshahpur are called Gangatiri because the village is on the banks of the Ganga. "These cows adjust in any weather. They go a long distance for fodder and return on their own," Singh said.
This is possibly the first time that Modi would be involved in so many programmes connected with cows on a single trip. Several BJP sources this paper spoke to said they too had not heard of such a trip by Modi where so many cow-related events had been packed into one visit, but refused to go on record.
A senior party leader said the idea was to make up for the loss of support from a section of traders and the upper castes. "We have annoyed the Baniyas and some other upper castes by implementing the demonetisation drive and the goods and services tax. The Dalits are the only caste left to be wooed. We can bring them into the BJP fold by reminding them somehow that they are also Hindus," the leader said.
Lalla Devi, a Dalit woman in Shahanshahpur, told reporters today she was happy that a Prime Minister would visit her village.
"Some Dalits vote for the Bahujan Samaj Party but many of us don't have time to visit polling booths. We have to earn every day to feed our children. But it is good that Modi is visiting our village. Officials have ordered that our houses be whitewashed. They have also ordered construction of inter-locking roads around our hamlet. We may think of supporting him in the next elections," she said.
BSP state unit chief Ram Achal Rajbhar wasn't impressed. "It is like trying to reverse the course of the Ganga that the PM is going to do gau pooja in a village which has more than 40 per cent Dalit population. The Dalits know that Hindutva is an ideology that promotes untouchability. It is unfortunate that the BJP is treating Dalits as milch cows," Rajbhar said.
Modi, who would be in Varanasi for two days from September 22, will also visit a Musahar hamlet on the outskirts of Shahanshahpur to attend a programme on cleanliness. The Musahars are the poorest among Dalits.
The Prime Minister will address a public meeting before wrapping up his visit.
While Dalits as a community have never been BJP supporters, they were furious when some Musahars were forced by state officials to apply powder and perfume before being allowed to go to an event chief minister Yogi Adityanath attended this May in Kushinagar district, 250km north of Varanasi.
On July 3, over 45 Dalits from Gujarat, Modi's home state, were arrested from Jhansi railway station while they were on their way from Ahmedabad to Lucknow to gift the BJP chief minister a 125kg soap bar.
The gift - "to cleanse his mentality" towards the community and "stop practising untouchability" - was shaped in the image of Gautam Buddha.
In Dehradun, Uttarakhand, BJP national chief Amit Shah today broke bread with a Dalit family. He visited the house of Munne Singh, a dhobi (washer man), and had lunch with him and his family.
Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat accompanied Shah.
