Maha Kumbh 2025: ‘Dharm Sansad’ seeks scrapping of Waqf Board as Akharas boycott meeting

Lucknow: The much publicised proposal for establishing at ‘Sanatan Board’, on the lines of the Waqf Board, at the ‘Dharm Sansad’ (meeting of seers and saints), at the ongoing Maha Kumbh, ran into obstacles as a majority of the 13 Akharas boycotted the meeting, which began on Monday with the demand to scrap the Waqf Board and freeing the temples from the government control.

The ‘Dharm Sansad’ was convened by prominent religious preacher Devki Nandan Thakur to discuss and approve the proposal for setting up a Sanatan Board and was being attended by many seers and devotees.

The Akharas had earlier consented to attend the meeting and also agreed to the proposal to set up the Sanatan Board.

The division between the saint community over the formation of the Sanatan Board came to the fore when All India Akhara Parishad (AIAP) president Mahant Ravindra Puri said that the Akaharas would keep away from the Dharm Sansad owing to the ‘’large crowds’’ at the Mahakumbh..

Sources, however, said that the AIAP apprehended that Thakur wanted to head the Board and keep the Akaharas out and therefore decided to boycott the meeting.

Speaking at the ‘Dharm Sansad’, Thakur said that the Waqf Board claimed that the land on which the Mahakumbh was being held, was theirs’. ‘’Tomorrow they will stake claim over the entire country .....we will not tolerate such things,’’ he added. ‘’Are their Hindu Boards in Bangladesh and Pakistan? Then why is there a Waqf Board in India?’’ he said.

Thakur also referred to ‘love jehad’ (Muslim youths marrying Hindu girls on false pretenses) and said that the ‘Naga Sadhus’ were enough to deal with such cases and that the Hindus did not require the police or the Army for it.

He said that a Sanatan Board was required to protect the Sanatan Dharma and its traditions.

While the Akharas kept away from the meeting, BJP MP and Bollywood actress Hema Malini said that the proposal to set up a Sanatan Board was a ‘historic’ step in the direction of protection of Hindu traditions and culture.

The organisers said that the proposal would be discussed at length at the dharm sansad and the seers would be asked to give their views on the same. The proposal, once adopted, would be  sent to the Centre and the state governments,

Among the objectives of ‘Sanatan Board’ were to ensure protection of temples, mutts and the followers of the ‘sanatan dharma’. ‘’The Sanatan Board will fight legal battles to retake the demolished temples and the temples which have been converted into mosques....the old temples will be renovated,’’ one of the seers said.