India, once known to be the world’s epic centre of spiritualism and saints has today become the abode of many self-styled godmen who have managed to command influence among the downtrodden and deprived backward classes by mesmerising the gullible with their manipulated ‘spiritual’ and ‘miracle powers’. They make their followers see God in them. They have amassed huge assets. The phenomenon reminds one of what Desmond Tutu, South African social rights activist and recipient of Nobel Prize for Peace had said that “When the white missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land”.

It is an irony that many of such self-styled godmen also indulge in criminal activities. Some of them are facing serious cases including murder and rape and law-breaking. Among such ‘holy’ souls is the controversial preacher Rampal.

A week can be a long time in politics. But in the case of Rampal, even 10 days proved to be short to expose his ‘saintly’ activities. He is now facing 21charges including under arms Act, attempt to murder, waging war against the government and defying the High Court’s orders. His residence in his sprawling 12 acres Barwala-based Satlok Ashram has all luxuries of a five-star hotel. When the police went to arrest him under non-bail warrants issued by the High Court, Rampal’s armed goons attacked the police. In the clash, five women and one child were killed. Ultimately the police succeeded in arresting him and presented him in the High Court which cancelled the bail granted to him in the 2006 murder case. He was sent to judicial lockup upto November 28.

Apart from Rampal, there are other ‘gurus’ like the chief of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and self-styled godmen like Asaram who are allegedly involved in serious crimes. Ram Rahim Singh is facing charges of rape, murder, forced castration and blasphemy. Asaram has been charged with raping some of his women devotees.

There are some other “noble souls” also who make use of India’s ancient knowledge like yoga and ayurveda to amass crores. This helps them in fulfilling their political ambitions. Among such yoga gurus is Baba Ram Dev whose pro-BJP campaign during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections helped him establish close proximity to the BJP leaders. During the campaign he used derogatory utterances against India’s legendary national leaders. Addressing a press conference at Chandigarh on April 3 he called Jawahar Lal Nehru as “biggest ‘khalnayak’ (villain). Citing Ramayana and Mahabharata, he said Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were worse than Ravana, Surupanakha and Pootna. The irony is that after the BJP won the Lok Sabha polls, its veteran leader Arun Jaitley on May 18 compared Ram Dev’s efforts in supporting BJP in the elections with the struggles undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan. A case of equating the pygmy with the colossus.

Despite the criminal records of some of the self-styled godmen, our politicians aspiring to ride the power ladder, flock to them for securing their support during elections. Although the Congress and the Akali Dal have also been seeking support of such ‘godmen’ particular Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh during earlier elections, the BJP has beaten their record. The grateful senior leaders of the party including its Haryana elections in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya visited the dera to express their gratitude to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for his support to their party.

There were reports in a section of the media that the saffron party had also clandestinely sought support from Rampal during Haryana Assembly elections. Critics suspect that this was the reason for the Haryana government’s going slow on the Rampal arrest.

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. The Rampal episode is the first black spot on the functioning of Haryana’s month-old BJP government. Its failure to deal with the situation in Barwala may be because of the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the Modi-Amit Shah’s protégé, being the first time MLA lacking experience in governance. Given such a situation, the main duty to deal with Haryana’s explosive situation lay with the central BJP leadership. The party chief Amit Shah who was Gujarat Home Minister during Modi’s chief ministership had the experience of dealing with the 2002 riots. He should have guided Khattar in dealing with the Barwala situation, the task he failed to perform.

As for the Prime Minister Modi, he has been more occupied with undertaking foreign tours than taking care of the happenings in his home country. He has beaten the records of India’s all previous prime ministers in going abroad 7-8 times during the six months he has been in power. It is too early to conclude to what extent he has been able to improve India’s global standing. But one thing is obvious that he has been able to improve his personal global image!

It is time that Modi pays more attention to his home country’s problems and work for fulfilling the promises he had made. (IPA Service)