What does a case of idol theft in Karnataka, the main culprit of which was nabbed in Odisha, have to do with the politics of Chhattisgarh? The connection might look tenuous, but it is causing a ripple in Chhattisgarh as it heads for polls in a month’s time.
The Jains, a numerically small but electorally influential community, are up in arms against the BJP-led state government for being apathetic to their demand for the recovery of the idols.
What worries the BJP at the moment is that the demand is blurring the political divide between the major Jains sects – Digambars and Shwetamvars. The Digamvaras are seen close to the Congress, while the latter is close to the RSS, and therefore by extension to the BJP.
The story goes like this: 15 priceless statutes and idols, said to be worth thousands of crores, were stolen in Karnataka on the night of June 5 from the Siddhanta Darshan temple of Moodbidri near Mangalore. This is one of the most revered places of pilgrimage for the Digambars. “The statues belong to the period of emperor Chandragupta Maurya,” says Nirmal Kumar Jain Sethi, national president of the Digambar Jain Mahasabha. The reference to Chandragupta takes the origin of the statues to 340 BC- 298 BC.
The Mangalore police acted swiftly, scanned the CCTV camera footage and nabbed the thief from Bhubaneshwar in Odisha. The police traced eight of the stolen statues, three intact, rest melted. The thief had told the police during an interrogation that he sold off seven statues to a prominent jeweler of Chhattisgarh, whose family also owns a jewellery business empire across the country. One individual, Subhash alias Raja Sancheti, was arrested. As it turned out, Sancheti was only the front man for the owners of the jewellery shop. The man behind Sancheti – his brother-in-law, one of the owners of the business empire – was also named by the thief.
The Karnataka police sought to arrest him, but he evaded them, pleading ‘sickness’. Meanwhile, the firm distanced itself from Sancheti claiming he was a franchisee and that the firm was not involved in this case. The police had to go back without recovering the idols.
This has left the Jains a worried lot. They suspect that with every passing day the chances of the recovery of the statues are receding. Some feel it has already been smuggled out of the country. Despite their repeated pleas the state government has not acted against the person. The Jain community here believes he is being protected by one of the powerful ministers in the Raman Singh cabinet.
“They know who has got the stolen statues, so why can’t they simply arrest him and recover the statues,” says Nirmal Kumar Jain Sethi. In the last three months many important seers and community leaders have descended on Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh to make the government face dharnas and processions. The most important visitor was the seer Vivek Sagar, who charged the state government of “protecting the culprits” and announced a fast till the idols are recovered.
Every important person in Raipur visited him during his stay in Raipur including two senior ministers who went specifically to request him (unsuccessfully) to give up fast. One minister who made news by not visiting was Rajesh Munat – the only Jain representative in the Raman Singh cabinet for the last 10 years.
Vivek Sagar has appealed to his followers not to come out to vote in the November-December assembly elections if nothing comes out of his and the community’s efforts to make the government sit up, take action and recover the stolen statues. The incident is bringing both the Jain sects together. Lokesh Kawaria, general secretary of Jain Chaturmas Samiti in Raipur and a Shwetambar himself, claimed that he had participated in the procession to the Raj Bhawan under the leadership of the Digambar seer.
The RSS-BJP has reasons not to be happy with the prospects of the line of political division blurring. “The Digambars have, as a rule of thumb, been closer to the Congress and the Shwetambars to the RSS and through them to the BJP,” says Gajendra Jain, the Chhattisgarh state president of the Digambar Jain Mahasabha. If the stolen idols are not recovered quickly, it could affect the BJP’s poll prospects.
No comments:
Post a Comment