Chhath Puja 2018: Festival has always been political flashpoint, bone of contention between parties in Maharashtra

The Mumbai unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party requested the Maharashtra government on Saturday to make arrangements so that Chhath Puja, a festival celebrated by people of Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh, can be conducted smoothly. A delegation led by Mumbai BJP general secretary Amarjeet Mishra met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday and apprised him about the demands and requirements of devotees for the festival, to be celebrated on Tuesday and Wednesday. After the meeting, Mishra said Fadnavis directed the officials concerned to facilitate the smooth conduct of the celebration. Chhath Utsav Mahasangh leader Mohan Mishra said they requested the chief minister to facilitate arrangements for tents, drinking water, mobile toilets, lifeguards and medical camp at the festival venues in the city. [caption id=“attachment_4179281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of a devotee performing Chhath. Reuters[/caption] A large number of people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have settled in Mumbai and they celebrate the two-day Hindu festival by observing fast and making offerings to the sun God near a pond or sea. What is Chhath Puja? Chhath Puja, the festival dedicated to the Sun God and his wife Goddess Usha, is celebrated on the sixth day of the Kartik month of the Hindu calendar. This year, Chhath Puja will be celebrated from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning. Every year, the festival commences with paying oblation to the setting sun and concludes with paying obeisance to the rising sun. It is believed that the celebration of Chhath Puja may predate to the ancient Vedas, as the rituals performed during the puja are similar to the ones mentioned in Rig Veda, in which the Sun God is worshipped. It is an important Hindu festival that is mainly celebrated in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and certain regions of Nepal. During this period, devotees perform a puja to thank the divine couple for blessing the earth with their light and for supporting life on earth. People celebrate the festival by following a rigorous routine that lasts for four days, including fasting for 36 hours. It also requires abstention from drinking water. Devotees take a holy bath in a water body and offer prayers to the rising and setting sun. Politics over Chhath Puja in Maharashtra For years, Chhath Puja has been the source of a political flashpoint in Maharashtra. Every year, thousands of people gather at the various beaches in Mumbai to celebrate Chhath Puja, which usually comes six days after Diwali. Reports suggest that since 2008, no major incident was reported during Chhath. However, since the 2008 anti-Bihari clashes, when emotions against migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar ran high in Maharashtra, every year around Chhath Puja, officials are usually on alert. In the past, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and several leaders of the Congress and BJP have scored brownie points while attempting to keep their respective vote banks happy. However, in the last couple of years, politicians have been quite civil about the festival. In 2015, the Bombay High Court had told authorities to ensure that the Chhath Puja does not become a rock concert. The court’s order was in response to a petition filed by former MP Sanjay Nirupam then demanding cancellation of two conditions imposed by authorities while granting permission for Chhath. The two conditions were — no celebrity should be invited on the stage to perform, while the other was that there should be no barricades erected to create a dry zone on the beach. In 2016, when Hindu nationalist parties like the BJP were attempting to wash away the communal polity of other Hindu outfits like the Shiv Sena and the MNS, and trying to atrract the North Indian migrant vote bank, a Shiv Sena functionary had told The Times of India that the party can’t think of simply winning elections based on the Marathi voters. “We can’t think of winning the BMC elections on the strength of Marathi voters alone for two reasons. The Marathi voters percentage in Mumbai is fast dwindling and the Marathi population gets fragmented between the Sena, the Congress, NCP, MNS and the BJP.” However, in the years leading up to this, the anti-Bihari sentiments were not as mellow. In an interview in 2008, Raj Thackeray ridiculed north Indians settled in Maharashtra and derided Chhath puja as drama. Raj had said, “It is the cultural hegemony which some north Indians want to impose on Maharashtrians that I oppose.” Asked to comment on migrants’ contribution towards developing Mumbai, Thackeray said, “Mumbai’s development is more due to Parsis, Gujaratis, Marwaris and to some extent Punjabis.” “But look at the people who come from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar: They enter the city with nothing and then after gaining a foothold they never mix with the local people. In fact, after some time, they start organising Chhath Puja and Uttar Pradesh Day and I object to this cultural hegemony.” The comments made by the MNS chief was not taken well by leaders from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Soon after the comment, RJD chief and then chief minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav said that he would come and perform Chhath in front of the MNS chief’s home. “Let Lalu come and does Chhath Puja outside my house. He will not go back,” Raj had responded. MNS had also launched a scathing attack on actor Amitabh Bachchan, whom the party supremo had accused of being more loyal to his home state of Uttar Pradesh than Maharashtra. “What did I say wrong about Amitabh Bachchan? He fought the first election in Uttar Pradesh. Didn’t he act only in Bhojpuri outside? He became the brand ambassador of that state. All the goons from Uttar Pradesh are in Mumbai. The first school in Aishwarya’s name is in Uttar Pradesh. What wrong did I say?” he asked. “I only said that if Amitabh can have love for his state, why cant I?” he continued. With inputs from agencies