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7/27/2019 The Gold Rush in Unnao
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The Gold Rush in Unnao
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The Gold Rush in Unnao
-Uday Dandavate. October 21, 2013
The events unfolding after the Archeology department of India started
excavation work at the fort of Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh to dig out a
hidden gold treasure, which a seer, Shobhan Sarkar, dreamt is buried
under the fort make for a perfect Bollywood plot. It reminds me of the
1969 comedy McKenna's Gold. I hope someone in Bollywood is
closely following a series of absurdities, ironies, and flat out
opportunism of all the key stakeholders that is being unfolded on a
daily basis in the media.
Its worth reversing the clock and taking a close look at the events of
the past few days. The story unfolded when the seer said the spirit of
King Rao Ram Baksh Singh, who was hanged in 1858 after rising up
against British colonial forces, told him in his dream to take care of
the 1000-tonne treasure hidden under the late king's fort in the
northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Charan Das Mahant, a disciple of the
seer and also Indias minister of state for agriculture and food
processing industry, in the Congress party government immediately
visited the area on September 22 and October 7 and asked the
Archeological department of India to begin excavations. Residents of
the impoverished Daundia Khera village, who have no access to
electricity, said they have long known about the treasure from stories
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told by their elders. A host of interested parties have already lined up
to stake a claim to the treasure, believed to be in gold and silver.
Locals are hoping that Swami Sarkar's vision turned out to be real, as
he is revered as God in this area because he has done a lot for this
place.
Sensing an opportunity to ridicule the Congress government
Bharatiya Janata Partys Prime Ministerial Candidate took a pot shot
at the Congress government by proclaiming, The whole world is
making fun of us. Someone dreamt and the government has gone
hunting for gold. You bring back the money that the looters have
stashed in Swiss banks. That would be more than the value of 1,000
tones of gold.
Offended by Narendra Modis ridicule of the Congress party as an
insult to his vision, the seer wrote and email to Mr. Modi asking So
much money is being spent by BJP on your branding and portraying
you as the next PM. Where is all this money coming from? Is it white
or black?
Narendra Modi found himself in a jam. As a champion of Hindu
Nationalism he could not afford to antagonize the religious
community (Sadhu Samaj). A reprimand from a widely respected seer
could, Mr. Modi realized, damage his prospects more than the
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political advantage he was hoping to gain from ridiculing the
government.
After realizing his misstep, Modi embarked on a damage control
exercise by publicly clarifying, lakhs of people have reposed faith in
seer Shobhan Sarkar over last many years. I salute his austerity and
renunciation. After paying his obeisance to the seer Mr. Modi tried to
direct media attention to the second half of his original comment-
giving importance to the need of getting back black money stashed
away abroad, Modi demanded that the Centre should come out with a
white paper on it. He conveniently dropped the rather than listening
to the dreams of some saint from his clarification.
Well, Mr. Modi has proved to be a bull in the China shop for the BJP.
Watching subsequent commentaries on the TV, it is hard to imagine
the precarious situation both the Congress party and the BJP find
themselves in, who are caught between the devil and the deep blue
sea. They would like to criticize each other, but in doing so they need
to stay clear of offending the religious sensitivities of Indian
population and the influence of the Sadhu Samaj over the electorate.
Will the hunt for gold go on? Will Mr. Modi have to do more than the
words of respect he has expressed for the seer to assuage the
feelings of the Sadhu Samaj? How will the story unfold? While the
gold rush in Unnao does not seem to ebb, media is having a great
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time making political leaders squirm in front of the cameras by asking
them hard questions.
In the recent weeks Mr. Modi has realized the need to woo the youth
and culturally diverse India with progressive sounding rhetoric. In the
Rewari Rally he called the Indian army most secular community, later
he tried to put people at ease on the Ram Mandir issue by
proclaiming We need to construct toilets first and then temples, and
now with a growing fascination with secular rhetoric he put his foot in
the mouth when he indirectly heaped ridicule on his core
constituency- the religious fraternity.
The BJP must be rethinking if it did the right thing in dismissing Mr.
L.K. Advanis advise of not exposing Mr. Modi as a Prime Ministerial
candidate too early. Let us hope that the Unnao fiasco will only be a
beginning of exposing the true contradiction between Mr. Modis
public posturing and his real politics of harvesting the religious
sensitivities and superstitious beliefs.
Bollywood should thank everyone in this unfolding story for laying out
a script for a blockbuster movie.