RAIPUR: A BJP minister in Chhattisgarh has performed a ‘havan’, a religious ritual, to please Lord Ganesh so that the wild elephants, which venture in villages and cause damage to life and property, would go to some other place.State’s labour minister Bhaiyalal Rajwade was on a visit to elephant affected villages on Wednesday to distribute immediate relief funds to victims who lost their family members, houses and crops in tusker attacks. Holding a camp at Matijharia village to give away relief compensation to affected families of Tengni and neighbouring areas, the minister is seen performing 'havan' on the spot. The minister gave cheques of Rs 15 lakh to 24 victims late night at the camp.Korea district has been witnessing human-elephant conflict and the situation gets worse with herds of tuskers damaging houses of villagers, leaving them homeless.The viral video on social media shows Rajwade wearing his hat and shades, sitting on a chair surrounded by security, is offering ghee to the havan and pandit chanting mantras in the background, leading to criticism from the opposition parties.When contacted state labour minister Bhaiyalal Rajwade told TOI, "The villages have suffered immense loss in elephant attacks and they look towards me for relief during my visits, what is the harm in performing a small puja brings them respite? There was a pandit from Ambikapur at the camp who insisted saying that I should do a havan to please Lord Ganesha who would help chase out the elephants from Korea district. I simply agreed. What is the point of argument here? Everyone worships God, no?"He explained that there was no finances involved in the havan either, just some ghee and coconut."As elephants are symbolized as Ganesha, it was a simple gesture of worship for 10-15 minutes, lending out some relief to villagers. They also felt good. If all these things are superstitious then what are lakhs of temples doing in this country. Many things are based plainly on belief systems that brings respite at times of trouble, one shouldn't make a mountain out of a molehill," Rajwade said.Taking a dig at Rajwade, Congress leader Charandas Mahant said, "If elephants were to leave Chhattisgarh by doing havans, they would have left long back. Instead of finding out concrete scientific and technical solutions to handle elephant attacks, it's absurd that BJP ministers have to take refuge in tantra-mantra practices to keep going."Mahant said that recently, there was a vociferous-looking tantrik seen at Vidhan Sabha during monsoon session who claimed that he was performing yagna for BJP's win this elections. The ministers were also seen clicking photographs with him. He added that encouraging superstitious beliefs among people, state's home minister visits 'kambal wale baba' for treatment of his diabetes and other ministers also perform rituals for good rainfall, is an irresponsible act towards the mass.

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