The quiet ritual of sindoor, vermilion powder pressed into the parting of a married Hindu woman’s hair each morning, and wiped off if one is widowed. It is as delicate as the first light touching temple stones and has been revered as sacred for centuries. Now, politicians hand it out like campaign flyers.

This vermilion dust, a symbol of private ritual, has been thrust into Indian politics over the past month. In the first week of May, India launched military strikes against Pakistan, codenamed ‘Operation Sindoor’. In the last week of the same month, the ruling party allegedly proposed door-to-door distribution of sindoor. This move transformed the private spousal devotion into a public spectacle, ostensibly to commemorate Narendra Modi’s eleven years in government.

In the corridors of power, it is all too easy to lose sight of the sacredness that once lived in small, everyday rituals.

Within days, the BJP officially denied the reports, calling their campaign ‘fake news.’ One social media user, Ritu, questioned: “Why is the BJP now labelling it as fake news after five days?” The denial came only after opposition leaders like Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak condemned this as a “shameful” manipulation of Hindu symbolism for political harvest and an attempt to hide political and diplomatic failure.

Sindoor is not merely a cosmetic. Like the delicate symbiosis between soil and seed, it had an unspoken understanding between husband and wife. A woman reacted on social media, ‘Isn’t it only the husband’s prerogative?’

The controversy took a personal turn when opposition leaders questioned not just the policy but Modi’s authority to distribute sindoor. As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee pointedly asked: ‘You are not the husband of everybody; why are you not giving sindoor to your Mrs first?’-a barb that highlighted both the ritual’s intimate nature and the prime minister’s complicated relationship with his marriage.

The move was not devotional. It was trespass. The backlash was swift and........

© Daily Times