‘Emphasis on social harmony in UP, Bihar, and Bengal’: VHP to launch ‘Community Feast’ campaign

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has initiated efforts to intensify its social harmony campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal. As part of this initiative, community feasts will be organized for people of all castes in areas where incidents of caste-based division have recently occurred.

According to VHP sources here on Wednesday, the organization has decided to hold workshops on the birth and death anniversaries of prominent Dalit leaders such as Sant Ravidas, Jyotiba Phule, and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar to strengthen its outreach to the Dalit community. Through these events, the organization will attempt to unite Hindu society by spreading the message of ‘social harmony’.

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The organization has urged its workers to include people from all castes and communities in these programs. This initiative is considered politically significant, especially in West Bengal, where assembly elections are due in the coming months, and in Uttar Pradesh, where panchayat elections and assembly elections are due in 2027.

This move comes after a high-level appeal for social harmony made by the RSS. The RSS, as part of its centenary celebrations, is emphasizing five pillars of social transformation, including social harmony, along with ‘Kutumb Prabodhan’ (family awakening), environmental awareness, emphasis on ‘self’ (identity), and civic duties.

A senior VHP official said, “Bringing figures like Sant Ravidas, Phule, and Ambedkar to the forefront is indicative of a strategy to increase dialogue with the Dalit community – a segment that has traditionally been influenced by non-saffron ideologies.”

According to experts, this VHP initiative is set against the backdrop of the political challenge posed by the Opposition’s ‘PDA’ (Backward-Dalit-Minority) strategy, which reduced the BJP’s seats in Uttar Pradesh from 62 to 33 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It is worth noting that the VHP had previously conducted a similar campaign in October 2024, ahead of Valmiki Jayanti.

During this four-day campaign, “community meals”, “girl child worship ceremonies”, and “harmony yagnas” were organized at 10,000 locations across the country. In Uttar Pradesh alone, the campaign reached out to the Dalit community at approximately 500 locations.