VHP to promote social harmony with community feasts in UP, Bihar & WB | Lucknow News
Lucknow: The Vishva Hindu Parishad is planning to intensify its social harmony campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal by holding ‘sahbhoj’ (community feasts) of all castes in locations where incidents of caste divide were evident in recent times.VHP sources said that the organisation has decided to intensify its outreach towards Dalits by organising workshops on occasions marking the birth and death anniversaries of prominent Dalit icons like Sant Ravi Das, Jyotiba Phule and BR Ambedkar.The saffron outfit has asked its cadre to mobilise people across all castes and communities to take part in events envisaging ‘samajik samrasta’, to consolidate the Hindu community.“There is an urgent need to step up efforts on the social harmony front, especially in states where caste divides have been sharp. We will mobilise cadre to intensify the campaign in the coming days,” said VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal.Experts said that by focusing on states like UP, Bihar and West Bengal — where caste faultlines are politically evident —VHP aims to prioritise regions that are socially and electorally crucial.Like West Bengal, where assembly elections are due in the next few months, UP is heading for panchayat polls next year, followed by state polls in 2027.The step comes close on the heels of RSS making a high pitch appeal for social harmony to unite Hindus as part of its centenary year celebrations. Social harmony happens to be one of the five pillars of social transformation that the Sangh has been pressing for —the other four being ‘Kutumb Prabodhan’ (family awakening), ‘Paryavaran’ (environmental awareness), emphasis on ‘swa’ (selfhood) and citizens’ duties.Sources said that the VHP’s bid to invoke Sant Ravi Das, Phule and Ambedkar signalled an attempt to engage Dalits by recognising their icons, a space that was traditionally dominated by non-saffron narratives.According to experts, VHP’s social harmony plan is driven by challenges that the saffron camp faces, even as an assertive opposition flexes muscles while pushing its PDA poll narrative which — in the case of UP — dented the BJP by pulling down its tally from 62 to 33 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.VHP was at the forefront of a similar campaign which it launched just before Valmiki Jayanti in Oct last year. It reached out to Dalits at 10,000 locations across the country during a four-day campaign which included ‘sahbhoj’, ‘kanya pujan’ and ‘samrasta yagya’. In UP alone, VHP reached out to Dalit communities in at least 500 locations.
