Giriraj Singh’s Hindu Swabhiman Yatra organised in personal capacity: BJP

PATNA: The Bihar unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has distanced the party from the proposed Hindu Swabhiman Yatra organised by union minister Giriraj Singh, saying he had organised the event in his personal capacity and that other BJP leaders too were free to join the yatra in their individual capacity.

The union textiles minister will begin the five-day yatra from Bhagalpur on October 18. The yatra will culminate in the Muslim-dominated Kishanganj district 150km away on October 22.

“This is his yatra. It is not of BJP or the party,” Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal told reporters, adding that it was up to other party members to decide if they too wanted to participate.

To be sure, Giriraj Singh, a three-time Lok Sabha MP, too has insisted that the yatra had nothing to do with the BJP. This is about religion, not politics, he declared on Thursday. “This is not a BJP yatra. Neither the BJP nor JD-U is in any way linked to it. This is being taken out for Hindu awakening,” Singh said.

Opposition leaders trash the claims, saying the yatra was organised with Singh’s single-point agenda to polarise people as part of his “divisive” politics.

Jaiswal said Giriraj Singh’s procession would not hurt Nitish Kumar’s secular image. “The BJP stands with Nitish’s secular image. There is absolutely no need for anyone to panic here,” he said, a message aimed at his ally, Nitish Kumar and his party.

JD-U leaders have indicated their discomfort at Giriraj Singh’s proposed yatra but the party hasn’t put its foot down.

“When everyone is safe in Bihar and communal harmony prevails, then why was there a need for such a yatra?” asked JD-U national spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad. Another JD-U leader, Ghulam Rasool Baliyavi said that only cowards make people fight in the name of religion. Minority welfare minister Jama Khan on the other hand cautioned that there should be no attempt to spoil Bihar’s communal harmony through this yatra.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar has not spoken on the yatra. Addressing a rally at Katihar on Wednesday, Kumar underlined that his government had taken steps for the welfare of Muslims and that they backed him. “We have done a lot of work for Muslims. Earlier, people of the Muslim community used to go astray but now everyone is together.”