Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday paid a visit to the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj in Delhi, staging what appeared his latest attempt to reach out to Punjab’s Sikh farmers who are leading the protest against the new farm laws.

“This morning, I prayed at the historic Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, where the pious body of Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji was cremated,” Modi said, posting a series of tweets and pictures of his visit.

“I felt extremely blessed. I, like millions around the world, am deeply inspired by the kindness of Guru Teg Bahadur Ji.”

Modi, whose extensive homage to Guru Nanak on his birthday last month too had been interpreted as an attempt to mollify the Sikh farmers, posted the tweets on his gurdwara visit in Punjabi apart from Hindi and English.

It was an unscheduled visit and even the gurdwara authorities were apparently informed at the last moment. If Modi has visited a gurdwara in New Delhi since becoming Prime Minister six years ago, no one this newspaper asked could readily recall such a visit.

Among the many videos and pictures of the visit circulated on social media, one video posted by a few journalists stood out.

It shows Modi interacting with the gurdwara authorities as a priest, the granthi, recites from the holy Guru Granth Sahib in the background: “No matter how many religious texts a man reads, it is all a waste unless he thinks about the welfare of humanity…. And when the end comes, where and how long will he run?”

Critics questioned Modi’s wooing of Sikh farmers at a time when his government was stonewalling the protesters’ demands to repeal the new farm laws and his party colleagues were maligning the protesters as “Khalistanis”.

“Who is Modi trying to fool by going to the gurdwara? The Guru’s Sikhs are sitting in lakhs on the roads. Instead of going to the gurdwara, go to the farmers and apologise,” Congress MP Ravneet Bittu said during a TV debate with the BJP’s Harjit Grewal. “What do we say, who does God reside in? In humans. People have been forced to sit on the roads....”

For all the government’s efforts and ploys to break the farmers’ agitation that has besieged Delhi’s borders since late November, the movement continues to grow and intensify.

That Sikh farmers from Punjab, known for their grit and valour in battle, are at the forefront of the protests has made matters particularly difficult for the authorities.
Gurdwara Rakab Ganj stands at the site where the body of Guru Teg Bahadur, the ninth Sikh guru who was beheaded on Aurangzeb’s orders for resisting persecution of Hindus and Sikhs, was consigned to flames.

The government recently brought out a booklet to highlight Modi’s “special relationship” with the Sikh community, but Sunday’s gurdwara visit was his first direct attempt at using religious symbols to court the farmers.

“It is the special kripa of the Guru Sahibs that we will mark the special occasion of the 400th Prakash Parv of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji during our government’s tenure,” another tweet from Modi said.

“Let us mark this blessed occasion in a historic way and celebrate the ideals of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji.”

None of the outreach efforts seems to have worked so far on the farmers, who have expressed outrage at BJP leaders’ slander and what they see as the government’s efforts to fob them off with empty words.