Mumbai News: Warkaris Refute Abu Azmi’s Traffic Remarks, Defend Pandharpur Pilgrimage As Peaceful 800-Year Tradition

Warkaris, Lord Vithal's devotees who are currently on their annual walking pilgrimage to the deity's abode in Pandharpur, criticised Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi's claims that the pilgrims obstruct traffic. 

As proof of how the warkaris shared the road with vehicles without obstructing motorists, Arvind Bhosale, a warkari, also spelled varkari, from Mumbai, shared live visuals of lines of pilgrims walking at Jejuri, a pilgrimage centre south of Pune on the route to Pandharpur. Vehicles passed along the road as the pilgrims walked in a neat row along the margins of the highway.

The annual trek of processionists from the holy towns of Alandi and Dehu to the Lord Vithal shrine in Pandharpur started last week, and pilgrims will reach the shrine on Ashadhi Ekadashi day on July 6. The pilgrims carry palkhis or palanquins with the holy sandals of saints Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram, in a centuries-old tradition. The tradition has grown to include the relics of other saints, especially those from the Bhakti tradition, a religious reform movement.

Bhosale, who runs Mauli Charitable and Medical Trust, which provides medical services to pilgrims making the grueling trek, said, "Azmi made a political statement. We know he is speaking on behalf of people who will benefit from the controversy. Earlier, he praised Aurangzeb during the controversy over the Mughal's tomb. The Ashadhi Ekadashi pilgrimage is an old tradition conducted in a way that does not affect traffic."

Azmi has compared the wari to the controversial practice of namaz on public streets, saying that when Hindus spill over the roads to celebrate their festivals, Muslims do not complain. "When mosques are full, some devotees have to pray outside. This is only for five to ten minutes. Similarly, Hindus celebrate festivals on the roads when there is no space in the temple. But the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh says that passports and driving licences of people offering namaz on the roads will be cancelled. I think that this is being done purposefully to squeeze Muslims into a smaller and smaller space," Azmi had said.

He added that the remarks were a reaction to advice from a fellow party member who asked him to leave a venue in Pune early to avoid traffic. "I was told to leave early as the roads will be blocked for wari towards Pandharpur. But we (Muslims) have never complained (about it). Muslims and Hindus walk shoulder to shoulder like brothers. But deliberate attempts are made to create a divide," Azmi, MLA from Mumbai's Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar constituency, told the media.

Warkaris contested the claim that the processions create traffic obstructions. "This man (Azmi) is out of his mind. The pilgrimage is an 800-year-old tradition. The pilgrims do not create any problems. They walk along, chanting 'Jai Jai Ram Krishna Hari'. As far as I know, they do not create any traffic problems. There is traffic management," said Dr Deepak Mohite, a medical practitioner from Mumbai who is taking part in the pilgrimage.

Azmi's remarks evoked a sharp reaction from politicians. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis accused Azmi of seeking publicity, adding that Azmi was not worth a comment. Shiv Sena Member of Parliament, Naresh Mhaske, said that anti-national people should not be allowed to vote or contest in elections. "People of such a mentality should be made to sit at home," said Mhaske.

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