To Make Villagers 'Sanskari', Haryana Govt Is Now Taking Help Of Babas
The Haryana government led by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has turned to "babas," to make the villages "adarsh (ideal), sanskarwan (well-cultured) and tanavmukt (stress-free)."
The Haryana government led by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has turned to "babas," to make the villages "adarsh (ideal), sanskarwan (well-cultured) and tanavmukt (stress-free)."
Haryana's development and panchayats department organized a special camp on Monday in Bhiwani that required compulsory attendance of all sarpanches and secretaries of panchayats in the district to hear Swami Giananand, head of Kurukshetra-based Global Inspiration and Enlightment Organization.
Interestingly, the district development and panchayat officer (DDPO) Bhiwani, had sent an official communication on July 25 to the block development and panchayat officers (BDPOs) of several blocks of Bhiwani district to ensure the presence of all village sarpanches and secretaries at the event.
The DDPO letter, which listed the agenda of the event as making the villages "ideal, cultured and stress-free," addressed the religious leader as "maha mahim (His Excellency)," a term exclusively used for the governors in the states.
Addressing the gathering of sarpanches and other government officials of the panchayat department, Swami Giananand said the Bhagavad Gita is heritage and culture of the country and should be spread to every household and every person. He added that only Gita can inculcate cultural values in a child.
He also appealed to the gathering that besides Gita, they should also respect cow, Ganga and Gayatri mantra.
"Impatience, physical deformities and other problems in the society are rising because people are running away from Gita. It is Gita only that helps in attaining spiritual enlightenment," he added.
He also informed the gathering about an upcoming event, Yuva Virat Chetna Utsav, in Kurukshetra for which five youths from every village would be selected and asked to pledge to follow the cultural values.
During this event, other representatives of his organization also addressed the state officials.
When TOI asked Bhiwani DDPO Ram Singh how would a spiritual guru's lecture help the state officials and sarpanches, he had no answer.
He disconnected the phone, saying that lecture had been organized by the Haryana Sanskrit Academy and Bhiwani deputy commissioner Anshaj Singh was the chief guest at the event.
Criticizing the event, former Haryana bureaucrat and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) national secretary R S Chaudhary said immediate action should be taken against the Bhiwani DDPO and DC because only a government official can address an official gathering. "Calling an official meeting for a religious guru to deliver his lecture is gross misuse of official machinery," he added.
Ran Singh Maan, former chief parliamentary secretary and Congress spokesperson, said, "Unfortunately, instead of focusing on public administration, the government is focusing on imposing saffron ideology on the public representatives and government officials."