New Delhi: Sakshi Maharaj who created uproar by describing Mahatma Gandhi's assassin as a patriot, saying Hindu women should give birth to four children to ensure the religion survives and by calling for Hindus who convert to Islam and Christianity to be given the death penalty has given yet another debatable statement.
The priest-turned-politicians said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government ignores Hindu nationalist demands, then Modi will have to be a boatman.
The Hindu priest, who has been charged with rioting and inciting communal violence, is the embodiment of hardline religious elements in Modi's party whose strident behaviour is dragging on the government's economic reform agenda.
Hardline Hindu politicians impatient with Modi's refusal to champion their cause are beginning to advance their own agendas. Maharaj, for example, wants to make it illegal for Hindus to change religions and seeks death penalty for slaughtering cows, an animal revered by Hindus.
Sakshi Maharaj is charged by police with rioting and inciting a mob after helping tear down a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, an event sparking riots in which around 2,000 people died. Maharaj says most Indians, including Modi, privately share his views, and he will continue promoting Hindu supremacy.
"The only difference is he is refined and maybe we are crass," Maharaj says of Modi. "We may have to fine-tune the message but the message will remain the same." With a self-proclaimed following of 10 million people, Maharaj, a four-time member of parliament, draws support through a network of dozens of ashrams and colleges.
"I am aware that I am a powerful man," Maharaj says. "I can make or break the government."
The battle for the government's direction is particularly acute for Modi, because he and his party are ideologically rooted in Hindutva, or Hinduness, a concept sometimes defined in strident opposition to Muslims and Christians.
