Lord Hanuman could do with a break in Madhya Pradesh. The state was still recovering from the controversy over a cake that BJP leader Uma Bharti did or did not offer Him on His birthday, which did or did not have eggs, when Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has stirred up a hornet’s nest by inaugurating an elaborate Hanuman temple on a hospital campus here that no one in the administration is willing to explain.The temple was inaugurated on June 12 on the grounds of the state-of-the-art, Rs 64-crore, 800-bed government hospital and medical college named after Sanjay Gandhi, inaugurated last year by Sonia Gandhi and set up with OPEC funding.The Chief Minister may find it hard to explain the temple considering that his soft-Hindutva approach, which he believes can help him take on the BJP in the coming assembly elections, had come in for a rap from the Sonia at the recent Srinagar conclave. She may not take too kindly to his using a hospital associated with her to further that campaign.A marble slab unveiled at the inauguration of the temple bears the name of Digvijay, apart from those of Speaker Sriniwas Tewari, his son MP Sunderlal Tewari, the Commissioner and Collector of Rewa and the director of the hospital. Yet none of these officials can explain how this temple was allowed to be constructed on government land on the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital (SGMH) campus.The director of the institute, Dr C.B. Shukla, does not want his name mentioned in the context of the temple and only says he has no knowledge of how it was set up. Commissioner Manoj Goyal directs all queries to the hospital. Ask him about his name on the marble slab, and he says: ‘‘I think it was with my permission. I can’t say it was without my permission, can’t deny it when the CM was there.’’Collector S.K. Mishra has an explanation, one that surprises locals who have been living in the area for long. He claims there was an old structure at the spot, and ‘‘it has just been renovated with people’s funds’’. He adds: ‘‘There are lots of temples on government land.’’Not if you ask old-time residents of Rewa, such as Meera Patil of the Nari Chetna Manch. ‘‘I delivered my son at this hospital 20 years ago. There was never any mandir at the spot.’’Across the road from the temple sits Dalbir Dwivedi at the Annapurna Nedical Agency. He coordinated the efforts to raise funds from chemists in the city for the temple. ‘‘There was a pipal tree at the spot and a small idol of Hanuman had been placed there,’’ he says. ‘‘Just over one and a half years ago, a doctor from the hospital visited a Swami near Morena and he was told to get this temple constructed. We all pitched in to help and then the Speaker got involved.’’
