Bhopal, (Samajweekly) A week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to arrive in Sagar district to lay the foundation of Rs 100 crore grand temple dedicated to the Bhakti Movement saint and Dalit icon Sant Ravidas — just four months ahead of the assembly polls, a group of people belonging to Ahirwar caste and Ravidassia sect have demanded the temple be built at an alternative site in the same district.
The Ahirwar community — a Scheduled Caste group that has a sizeable presence in Bundelkhand region along with the members of the Ravidassia sect — recently handed over a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, demanding the proposed temple be built at Karrapur village instead of the Badtuma village, where PM Modi is scheduled to lay the temple’s foundation on August 12.
Led by religious guru Sant Pancham Das and office bearers of the Ahirwar Mahapanchayat, the delegation submitted that Karrapur village (which is around 15-18 km from Badtuma village, where the temple will be built) has a 600 year old association with Sant Shiromani Guru Ravidas.
“Around 600 years back, while Sant Shiromani Guru Ravidas was travelling from Banaras to Chittorgarh, he had taken a night halt at Kuntalpur (modern day Karrapur village) and addressed the Ravidassia sect people.
“As Karrapur village has a centuries-old association with Guru Ravidas, his temple should ideally be built in Karrapur instead of Badtuma, which has no association with him. If the temple is built in Badtuma village instead of Karrapur, it would hurt the sentiments of the Ahirwar caste as also the religious leaders following Guru Ravidas,” the delegation submitted.
Sagar district collector, Deepak Arya, said: “We know the importance of Karrapur village, but the vast tract of land (around 12 to 14 acres) needed for the grand temple wasn’t available there. Therefore, Badtuma was selected for building the temple. We hope to convince one and all shortly about temple construction in Badtuma.”
Both Badtuma and Karrapur are part of the same Naryoli assembly constituency — one of the eight assembly seats in Sagar district. Reserved for scheduled caste (SC), the seat has been a BJP bastion since 2003. Engineer Pradeep Lariya has been winning the seat for the ruling party since 2008.
In February this year, while addressing the Sant Ravidas Mahakumbh in Sagar district, CM Chouhan had announced a Rs 100 crore temple dedicated to the Bhakti Movement saint Sant Ravidas at Badtuma village of Sagar district.
As a run-up to the August 12 foundation laying ceremony, Sant Ravidas Mandir Nirman Samrasta Yatras are passing through 46 of 52 districts in the state, carrying soil from villages and water from rivers for the foundation of the temple.
Notably, the Dalits constitute 16 per cent of the state’s population. Of the total 230 seats, 35 are Scheduled Caste-reserved seats — a major part of which are in the Bundelkhand and adjoining Gwalior-Chambal and Vindhya regions.
Bundelkhand region (particularly Sagar district) houses a predominant population of the Ahirwar-SC caste, accounting for 20-25 per cent of total voters.
In the 2013 Assembly elections, when the BJP bagged 165 seats, it had emerged victorious on 28 or 80 per cent of those 35 seats, while the Congress could manage just four seats. The BSP got three seats.
However, five years later, in the 2018 polls, the BJP’s tally in the 35 SC-reserved seats fell to just 18, while the Congress’ count jumped more than four times to 17 seats.
