BS Yediyurappa, Karnataka Chief Minister underwent an embarrassing situation Yesterday during a public function at Davanagere when Vachananda Swami, the pontiff of the local Panchamasali sect demanded three ministerial berths in the state cabinet.
The yoga teacher turned swami was not content with his single point demand. He warned the chief minister that Murugesh Nirani, former Industries Minister who was also present on the stage, should be inducted to the cabinet at any cost and if not the chief minister will have to face the wrath of the Panchamasali community!
This sort of public admonishing made the chief minister being let down and became furious. He pleaded with the swami in his early forties to give suggestions and not warnings and threatened to walk out, giving back the swami in the same coin.
However, the former local private TV channel's yoga programmer turned swami directed the CM to stay back and heed to the list of demands. The CM with much reluctance stayed back and put forth his tight rope walk situation later.
The incident made the day for the local TV channels and special episodes about the same continued the next day as well and look like getting prolonged further.Well, BS Yediyurappa is no novice to the saffron-clad Swamiji's and more so the hundreds of them belonging to several sub-sects of Veerashiva Lingayats in the state. It was during his first term as CM in 2008 he started wooing the Swamiji's of different sects and communities.
He began the ugly practice of donating a minimum of Rs one crore to the Mutts, most of which were idly resting on copper of money. Many disciples belonging to these Mutts rejoiced the "magnanimous gesture" as if some portion of the money entered their pockets.There were angry protests also in the letters to the Editor column of some papers, press statements, press conferences initially and after a while, every sentiment of dissent got buried.
BS Yediyurappa in a hurry to appease the pseudo politicians in the attire of Swamiji's went out of the way to part with the taxpayers' hard-earned money just like a father gives away peppermints to a weeping child! The strategy of winning over the so-called religious leaders looks to be boomeranging the only mass leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) now.
After the BS Yediyurappa led BJP government came into being any number of pontiffs belonging to many a sub-sect and community have been publicly pressurizing the chief minister to include legislators of their community into the cabinet.
If some of them have been visiting him at his home and office with written memoranda, some of them are challenging him in public of dire consequences in the event of their recommendations not being heeded to! But the latest salvo by a person running Shwaasa NGO for imparting yoga programs to become a pontiff merely a year and a half back is nothing but a public disgrace to the septuagenarian leader and a mockery of parliamentary democracy.
According to his profile, Vachananda swami has been involved in offering yoga courses in India and elsewhere for a disease-free society. He says that people are worried and concerned about their mind and body but very few take into account their breath. Many diseases can go away by proper control of breath. This is the technique he teaches and professes through his organization, Shwaasa.
But after his outbursts to a senior citizen many decades elder and heading the state government, perhaps it is time now to ask the same Vachananda swami whether he has started to forget what he had been preaching all this time.Forget being any swami, his mannerism was unwarranted and condemnable to any right-thinking person. When ordinary people who had assembled in large numbers had remained silent listeners and the aspirant to become a minister was keeping mum on the dais what was the necessity for this so-called swami to shout, scream and issue a warning to the chief minister?
The swami wants to teach people in the whole world how to control the breath for a healthy living but who will advise him on how to behave in public by having sensible control on his own mind?
Looking back it looks the present state of affairs wherein Swamiji's one or the other keeps issuing ultimatums to the chief minister to include their community legislators, it is nothing else but BS Yediyurappa reaping what he had sowed during 2008 onwards.
-Manohar Yadavatti
The yoga teacher turned swami was not content with his single point demand. He warned the chief minister that Murugesh Nirani, former Industries Minister who was also present on the stage, should be inducted to the cabinet at any cost and if not the chief minister will have to face the wrath of the Panchamasali community!
This sort of public admonishing made the chief minister being let down and became furious. He pleaded with the swami in his early forties to give suggestions and not warnings and threatened to walk out, giving back the swami in the same coin.
However, the former local private TV channel's yoga programmer turned swami directed the CM to stay back and heed to the list of demands. The CM with much reluctance stayed back and put forth his tight rope walk situation later.
The incident made the day for the local TV channels and special episodes about the same continued the next day as well and look like getting prolonged further.Well, BS Yediyurappa is no novice to the saffron-clad Swamiji's and more so the hundreds of them belonging to several sub-sects of Veerashiva Lingayats in the state. It was during his first term as CM in 2008 he started wooing the Swamiji's of different sects and communities.
He began the ugly practice of donating a minimum of Rs one crore to the Mutts, most of which were idly resting on copper of money. Many disciples belonging to these Mutts rejoiced the "magnanimous gesture" as if some portion of the money entered their pockets.There were angry protests also in the letters to the Editor column of some papers, press statements, press conferences initially and after a while, every sentiment of dissent got buried.
BS Yediyurappa in a hurry to appease the pseudo politicians in the attire of Swamiji's went out of the way to part with the taxpayers' hard-earned money just like a father gives away peppermints to a weeping child! The strategy of winning over the so-called religious leaders looks to be boomeranging the only mass leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) now.
After the BS Yediyurappa led BJP government came into being any number of pontiffs belonging to many a sub-sect and community have been publicly pressurizing the chief minister to include legislators of their community into the cabinet.
If some of them have been visiting him at his home and office with written memoranda, some of them are challenging him in public of dire consequences in the event of their recommendations not being heeded to! But the latest salvo by a person running Shwaasa NGO for imparting yoga programs to become a pontiff merely a year and a half back is nothing but a public disgrace to the septuagenarian leader and a mockery of parliamentary democracy.
According to his profile, Vachananda swami has been involved in offering yoga courses in India and elsewhere for a disease-free society. He says that people are worried and concerned about their mind and body but very few take into account their breath. Many diseases can go away by proper control of breath. This is the technique he teaches and professes through his organization, Shwaasa.
But after his outbursts to a senior citizen many decades elder and heading the state government, perhaps it is time now to ask the same Vachananda swami whether he has started to forget what he had been preaching all this time.Forget being any swami, his mannerism was unwarranted and condemnable to any right-thinking person. When ordinary people who had assembled in large numbers had remained silent listeners and the aspirant to become a minister was keeping mum on the dais what was the necessity for this so-called swami to shout, scream and issue a warning to the chief minister?
The swami wants to teach people in the whole world how to control the breath for a healthy living but who will advise him on how to behave in public by having sensible control on his own mind?
Looking back it looks the present state of affairs wherein Swamiji's one or the other keeps issuing ultimatums to the chief minister to include their community legislators, it is nothing else but BS Yediyurappa reaping what he had sowed during 2008 onwards.
-Manohar Yadavatti
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