Kanwar woes

Kanwar woes

Religious pilgrimages and events need better regulation.

The ugly side of the annual kanwar pilgrimage hit home on Tuesday with a group of devotees vandalising a car in Delhi’s Moti Nagar. The incident began as an altercation between kanwariyas and a motorist – the car is said to have brushed past one of the devotees – but escalated into full-blown hooliganism with police standing by. On Wednesday, a fresh case of kanwariya violence was reported from UP’s Bulandshahr where the devotees attacked and vandalised a police vehicle. Add to this the massive traffic jams kanwariyas cause all along the Delhi-Dehradun route.

Clearly, the kanwar pilgrimage needs to be better managed. Devotees can’t disrupt public life and indulge in hooliganism just because they feel they have numbers on their side. If kanwariyas continue to be unruly, then they won’t be any different from those who enforce bandhs. No modern democracy can allow a group of people, no matter what their political or religious justification, to hold public order to ransom. And this includes religious processions like the kanwar pilgrimage or Shab-e-barat celebrations.

This time around there’s a sense that the police are going easy on kanwariyas. This is especially true in UP where chief minister Yogi Adityanath showered flower petals on kanwariyas from his helicopter. Prashant Kumar, additional director general of UP police (Meerut zone), performed the same stunt, ostensibly to keep the yatris in good spirit. Plus, unlike the previous UP administration, the Yogi government hasn’t banned DJs and loud music during the yatra. Perhaps kanwariyas think they have the blessings of the administration to do as they please. And with general elections not far away, it’s possible that the party in power is viewing kanwariya youths as a vote bank. But this could backfire as lack of public order affects everyone. Better regulation of kanwariyas is a must.