Self-styled Godman’s Absconding Without Being Named in FIR Exposes Fascist Link with Obscurantist Cults !
P J James
As the death toll from Hathras stampede, the most horrific and tragic over a decade hits 121, in which except one male, all victims are reportedly women and children, the Yogi government has revealingly excluded self-styled godman Bhole Baba alias Suraj Pal Singh, the main culprit heading the Hindu ‘satsang’ (the cult-gathering) from the FIR. And, even as Pal is allowed to issue public statements accusing “anti-social elements” for the tragedy, the chief minister’s own indirect a of it, hinting at the possibility of a “conspiracy”, reveals the direction in which the case is moving.
The utter dereliction of duty on the part of the regime including that of local administration in the whole issue has already come out in the open. The place where the stampede happened was too small to accommodate the crowd that had gathered. It is reported that though permission was granted for 80,000 people, the actual attendance was more than 2.5 lakh, vast majority of them from most downtrodden sections of society. There was no adequate deployment of police while the godman’s private army called ‘sevadaars’ blocked ‘devotees’ running behind his car to gather the dust as a token of blessings. Pal’s men also obstructed people from moving and then escaping from the stampede when it occurred, and was only concerned with the safe exit of the godman. Security outside of the gathering should have been that of the regime for which no arrangement was made. The administration should be called to account for this.
Of course, as all cult leaders like Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of Dera Sacha Sauda who was punished for rape and alleged to have committed murder and forced castrations, Sooraj Pal is also reported to have a notorious background. Though he has often claimed as a former staff of Intelligence Bureau, according to reports, Sooraj Pal was posted as a head constable in Etawah about 28 years ago, but was terminated from services after allegations of rape against him. And multiple cases have reportedly been filed against him in various jurisdictions including Agra, Etawah, Kasganj, Farrukhabad, and Rajasthan. As such, his own comment that “anti- social elements” created the stampede suits him well than anybody else.
In this context, it is to be noted that, like all fascist regimes the world over, Indian fascists are also adept in utilising religious cults, superstition, and many obscurantist traditions significantly influencing people’s behaviour. Like fortune tellers and lucky charms, cult leaders too, in malicious nexus with the regime, play a significant role in manipulating people’s consciousness and depoliticising them. Proliferation of cults and superstitious beliefs are indispensable tools for diverting people’s attention from the horrors imposed on toiling and oppressed people in the process of sky-rocketing corporate-loot.
This has a broader political context in contemporary India. Eversince the ascendance of fascist Modi regime in 2014, followed by the coming of fascist “double engines” like that in UP, obscurantism coupled with pseudoscience has become integral part of the Hindutva discourse. The glorification of pseudoscience as manifested in Modi’s own rhetoric on prevalence of plastic surgery in India 2000 years ago citing god Ganesh’s elephantine head, among other things, is just an example. Other Hindutva leaders claim of “Hindus” having stem cell and test-tube technology, “Vishnu Chakra,” as a form of missiles, prevalence of aeroplanes and airports before thousands of years, and even the claim of cow urine as remedy for cancer, and such other falsities including the cult around yoga provide the fertile field for the of intensifying obscurantism in the country.
Today what happened in Hathras is just an instance how several Hindu godmen with their cults flourish with the patronage of ruling regime across the country. Thus, Bhole Baba’s “safe” absconding and the Yogi regime’s reluctance to file criminal charges on him for the present horrific crime, unravels the unholy nexus between Hindutva cult leaders and the fascist regime.
