The Gold Rush in Unnao

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

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

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 commentgiving 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

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.