Five religious leaders have been given ‘Minister of State’ (MoS) status by the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, a move seen by the opposition Congress as linked to state elections this year. Narmadanand Maharaj, Hariharanand Maharaj, Computer Baba, Bhayyu Maharaj and Pandit Yogendra Mahant will have the perks enjoyed by ministers because of their membership of a committee set up for the conservation of the river Narmada.
The opposition Congress in the state has called it a gimmick by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government to score political points and exploit the following of these babas.
“This is also an effort by the chief minister to wash off his sins. He ignored the conservation of the Narmada,” said the state Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi.
These five religious leaders in the Narmada committee should find out whether the state government has planted six crore saplings along the banks of the river, as claimed by the chief minister, said Congress the spokesperson.
State BJP spokesperson, Rajnish Agrawal, scoffed at the criticism and said the opposition dislikes anything related to religious leaders. “Saints and seers were accorded the Minister of State status to make their work of river conservation easy. The saints were roped in for the Narmada conservation work to ensure public participation,” Mr Agrawal said.
One of these leaders, Computer Baba, had announced that he would be taking out a Narmada Ghotala Rath Yatra, to expose the massive corruption in Narmada conservation work.