New Delhi: A cruise ride on the Yamuna , a minister riding a jetty along its banks, a BJP MP swimming in it and AAP MLAs floating his effigy at another stretch. In the run-up to Chhath this year, Yamuna cleaning has taken centrestage in Delhi.
Delhi govt declared Chhath Puja a public holiday for the first time in 2014. Delhi govt is also setting up 1,482 Chhath ghats across 996 locations, the scale of the arrangements reflecting how the festival has become part of the city’s civic calendar.
Sources said this was done to appease the Purvanchal community. Pavan Chaurasia, assistant professor at DU’s Shivaji College, said the capital’s political transformation over the past couple of decades is closely linked to demographic and economic changes. Over the years, the festival’s institutional recognition has grown.
This year, with the evening arti falling on Sunday, govt has declared Monday a holiday for the morning arti.
Sidharth Mishra, author of Delhi Political 1947–2013, said the festival’s character in Delhi has acquired a distinctly political dimension. Later, when AAP entered the fray in 2013, it gave tickets to a large number of people from the community. In 2016, BJP made Manoj Tiwari its state president.
This week, CM Rekha Gupta took the inaugural ride on a cruise launched on the Sonia Vihar-Jagatpur stretch while minister Parvesh Verma rode a jetty.
For instance, you will hardly see politicians’ banners at ghats in Purvanchal, but in Delhi you will see large hoardings of them,” he said. Days later, AAP MLAs floated an effigy of Tiwari at Kalindi Kunj, challenging him to take a dip there instead — a stretch they claimed was far more polluted. “If you see the way Chhath is celebrated in Bihar and Jharkhand, it is very different from Delhi. The essence of the festival has been simplicity and cleaning of the river or ghat. But in Delhi, it has also become a reach-out occasion for politicians. Former MP Mahabal Mishra of Congress was the first to speak of Purvanchalis in Delhi and had demanded a Chhath holiday. The current BJP govt has given Pankaj Singh, who comes from Buxar, a place in its cabinet.
A week earlier, BJP MP from North East Delhi Manoj Tiwari swam in the Yamuna to demonstrate its water was clean.
From being categorised as lower middle class or working class, they have now joined elite groups like diplomats, bureaucrats, professors, doctors and lawyers, making them both a social and economic force,” he said, adding that the community’s growing influence is often reflected in its cultural celebrations. “People from the eastern part of India, especially Bihar and eastern UP, have settled in Delhi in huge numbers, thereby making them a significant vote bank. Secondly, the community itself has witnessed a massive economic transition in past two decades.