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The latest controversy over the birthplace of the revered saint Sai Baba of Shirdi apparently has its basis in revenue.
Last week, a fresh war of words broke out between community leaders and people in two towns after the Maharashtra government decided to allocate Rs100 crore for the development of Pathri in Parbhani district.
This town lies about 250 kilometres from Shirdi in Ahmednagar district where the Shirdi Sai Baba temple is located and the reported death place of the saint (1838 to 1918).
Pathri is considered by many as Sai Baba's birthplace, although there are no credible records to establish this fact, reported The Times of India.
The reference to Pathri by the Maharashtra government as Sai Baba's birthplace was opposed by the Shirdi Sai Baba temple trust and the locals who protested with an indefinite lockout on Sunday.
The lockout was called off after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray agreed to meet the protesting groups.
The issue was resolved after he assured the people of Shirdi that the allocation of Rs100 crore for the development of Pathri is not going to lessen the importance of Shirdi, reported the Press Trust of India.
His party, Shiv Sena, on Tuesday, while noting that the Sai Baba temple trust's assets are worth over Rs2,600 crore, said that Shirdi became "rich" because of the saint and none can snatch away the richness of the town where he died.
The trust receives more than Rs400 crore a year in donations from devotees.
Shirdi, with a population of 40,000, is one of the richest religious destinations in India with the Sai Baba temple at the centre of its overall economic growth.
The town attracts thousands of devotees every day and has single-handedly contributed to Shirdi's financial growth. The locals have been the biggest beneficiaries.
Although the Sai Baba temple trust is controlled by the state government, the influx of money, thanks to the constant flow of devotees from the northern and southern parts of the country, has made the locals prosperous over the years, reported the Hindustan Times.
So it is natural that they are opposed to the proposed development of Pathri by the state government.
People in Pathri, which is a backward town, have been demanding the development of their town as Sai Baba's birthplace with an eye to making it a prominent pilgrim centre.
"The people of Shirdi fear they will lose out on tourism if Pathri is developed," Nationalist Congress Party's legislative council member Babajani Durrani, also a trustee of Pathri's Sai Baba temple trust, told the Hindustan Times.
Tourism has contributed immensely to Shirdi's overall growth with the town getting an airport, rail connectivity, financial institutions, hotels and other infrastructure.
Historians say there is no credible record about Sai Baba's birthplace.
"All that we know based on books written on Sai Baba is that the saint appeared in Shirdi and decided to make this town his karma bhoomi (the centre of his humanitarian work)," Shirdi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, told the Hindustan Times.
He, however, rejected local economic interests as the reason for Shirdi's opposition to Pathri.
Meanwhile, villagers of Dhoopkheda in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district are demanding Rs50 crore for the development of the town claiming that Sai Baba was first spotted there.
This isn't the first time that a controversy has erupted over this popular saint's birthplace.
In 2005, a Shirdi resident moved a local court to have a public event around Sai Baba cancelled.
More recently, President Ram Nath Kovind's bid to get a development project going at Pathri was opposed by locals in Shirdi.
Indo-Asian News Service
