BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharati never ceases to surprise. At a time when the Congress is faced with an unprecedented crisis on the power front and every BJP leader from Union Law and Justice Minister Arun Jaitley to party general secretary Pramod Mahajan have insisted the entire election campaign will focus on development, Bharati has chosen to revive the dormant Bhojshala/Kamal Maula Masjid topic once again.Her Sankalp Yatra, which started in a blaze of negative publicity from a Hanuman temple in Pandurna, will wind its way to Dhar on Monday night, just in time for Bharati to offer prayers at the Bhojshala/Kamal Maula Masjid on Tuesday, the day set aside for Hindus by a controversial Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) order. That Dhar is no mere stop on the way is also apparent because joining Bharati at the monument will be a dozen BJP MLAs as well as Bhavna Chikalia, Minister of State for Tourism, a department under which comes the ASI. Apart from offering puja at the shrine, she is also expected to address worshippers and leave Dhar after lunch.While the issue doesn’t make it to the headlines anywhere, the BJP has been making efforts to ensure it is kept simmering. Tourism and Culture Minister Jagmohan only recently wrote to External Affairs Minister Yashwant Singh asking for the return of what is alleged to be a statue of Saraswati at the London Museum. The Hindu Jagran Manch, the RSS front organisation spearheading the campaign to repossess the monument, has been demanding the return of this statue so it can be installed at the Bhojshala/Kamal Maula Masjid. So far, no historical proof has been provided that it was recovered from this monument and some historians even dispute the claim that it is a statue of Saraswati.Bharati’s controversial foray comes close on the heels of charges levelled by MP Chief Minister Digvijay Singh at the Pachmarhi summit that between now and the elections, the BJP will leave no stone unturned to foment communal trouble in the state. He had cautioned Congress workers to be alert for any such trouble which will work to the BJP’s advantage.In the past two months of the campaign, the BJP had deliberately sought to distance itself from any suggestion of an emotive campaign based on Hindutva, but Bharati’s move will only strengthen the charges levelled at Pachmarhi.In the first bout of this RSS-sponsored agitation, three persons had lost their lives and curfew had to be imposed at several places in the district. Even at Dhar, interest in the monument was falling after the initial enthusiasm at the gates being thrown open on Tuesdays. While attempts had been made to violate the ASI order and Hindu Jagran Manch activists tried to carry carpets inside and install a bell close to the entrance, the moves had been foiled by the district administration.In order to ratchet up the interest, apart from 50 or so regulars from the town who visit the shrine every Tuesday, a few trolley-loads of people from different parts of the district were being ferried each week to the shrine. Fearing trouble, the district administration which had scaled down security at the monument has once again beefed it up.
