After MP Pappu Yadav's protest dressed as a fake sadhu inside the Parliament House premises, along with demonstrations by Samajwadi Party leaders in the same complex, the Vishva Hindu Parishad has announced a sweeping response. The organisation will now send sadhus to nearly 3.5 lakh villages across the country so they can go door to door explaining what it describes as the real motives of these leaders.
Hemant Jambekar, a senior VHP office-bearer and the organisation's Vidarbha general secretary, shared details of the campaign. He said the sadhus would tell villagers how these leaders are attempting to tarnish the image of sadhus and the saffron colour itself. According to him, the same people who once opposed the construction of the temple are now dressing up as sadhus to mislead Hindu society, and the VHP strongly condemns this behaviour.
Sadhus to cover 3,500 villages in Vidarbha
Jambekar said that under this campaign, sadhus alone will reach about 3,500 villages in the Vidarbha region. He pointed out that the VHP was founded on the day of Janmashtami, and that in this very fortnight these leaders have handed the organisation a cause to take up. He said the VHP will now go village to village exposing how these leaders are defaming sadhus and the saffron colour.
Allegation of an electoral motive
Jambekar said all the sadhus involved have already been consulted, and they will tell people how fraudulent sadhus wearing saffron robes are damaging the image of Hindu society. He alleged that this entire protest is being staged with elections in mind, and that sadhus travelling village to village will expose this reality.
Outreach planned in service colonies too
As part of the drive, VHP workers will also take sadhus into seva bastis, or service colonies. Citing Nagpur as an example, Jambekar said the city alone has around 400 seva bastis, where VHP workers will bring sadhus along. He added that sadhus would similarly be sent to seva bastis across the entire country.
Pointing to the example of Bengal
Jambekar said these leaders have forgotten the example of West Bengal, where sadhus played a major role in ousting Mamata Banerjee. He said sadhus had awakened society back then, and the same sadhus would once again show these leaders their place across all of India.
