Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday attended the one thousand years of the birth anniversary Mahamahotsava of 11th century sage Swami Ramanujacharya and an international Dharma Samamelan and Maha Yagna at Chandwa in Bhojpur district. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also attended the same event but the two avoided sharing dais.
Three hours after Nitish’s arrival and two hours after CM’s return to Patna, Bhagwat arrived at the venue. He was escorted by Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Raj Kumar Singh and Ashwini Kumar Choubey and some Bihar Ministers and addressed the conference for over half an hour. This was RSS chief’s first visit to Bihar after change of Government and JD(U)’s move to join NDA.
There had been speculations that Nitish would have no hesitation in rubbing shoulders with Bhagwat after rejoining the BJP led NDA. But the CM made his programme carefully not to clash with RSS sarsanghchalak’s programme.
Earlier, taking a swipe at Nitish, RJD chief lalu Prasad had tweeted, “Munh me Ram, Dimag me Nathuram, Tabhi toh bana Palturam.”
Taking the advantage of a huge crowd and presence of hundreds of seers, Nitish sought their blessings for his campaign against dowry and child marriage, which he launched on October 2. He said, “A message sent from this venue will be a milestone in the elimination of the social evils like child marriage and dowry and also influence people in other States to shun these practices. It will help make this campaign a big success,” the CM said.
Starting from September 25, two-days international Dharma Sammelan began on Wednesday which is being attended by Dharmacharyas, saints and scholars from across the country. So far about one crore people have attended the ongoing Chaturmas lakshminarayan Mahayagna conducted by Sri lakshmi Prapann Jiyer Swami ji. At the venue 1,008 mandaps around a huge mandap and 1,132 havan kund have been erected.
Paying his respects, Nitish said Swami Ramanujacharya, born in 1017 AD, had started the practice of Guru and Shishya and among his disciples were Soordas and Kabirdas. He had preached equality saying no one was superior on the earth and the earth was for all living beings.
Union Minister of law Ravi Shankar Prasad told the saints that Ram temple would be built at Ayodhya. Saying that he was lawyer of Ram lalla in Allahabad High Court, he said he won the case and now the case was before the Supreme Court.