Serving life sentence in Rohtak jail for rape and murder, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has once again walked out of prison, on parole and ahead of an election. While the Election Commission has banned him from indulging in any political activity, and he hasn’t spoken a word in public, it seems the message from his dera is going to be loud and clear.
The dera has seen a beeline of politicians before polls in the past, ostensibly in the hope that the dera chief could make his followers vote en bloc – he wields considerable influence among Dalits in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
The dera had a political wing affairs, but it was dissolved in March last year, said a member of the dera’s press wing. However, members of the sect told Newslaundry that they have often received instructions to vote en bloc for a party in the run-up to elections before. And a source in the dera claimed that its supporters are already holding meetings in villages to decide on a party, ahead of the Haryana polls.
The record
Ram Rahim’s parole condition states that he is meant to stay in an ashram in UP’s Baghpat. And the Election Commission has set strict terms, including a prohibition on his entry in Haryana and against indulging in any political activity.
Authorities in Haryana reportedly told the state CEO that the dera chief’s parole plea cited his father’s death anniversary on October 5, the health condition of his relatives, and a blood camp. The parole follows an order on August 10 by the Punjab and Haryana High Court lifting a ban on granting him furlough.
But it’s not the first time that a parole to the dera chief has triggered allegations about his influence on voters. This is his 12th parole – he has spent over 255 days on parole – and the fifth ahead of an election, after the first court sentence in 2017.
Ahead of the February 20 elections in Punjab, the dera chief got parole on February 7, 2020. Ahead of the Adampur bypoll in Haryana on November 3, 2022, he got parole on October 15 for 40 days. Ahead of the Rajasthan polls on November 25, he got a 21-day parole on November 21, 2023. He got 50-day parole on January 20 this year, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. And ahead of the Haryana polls on October 5, he was granted parole twice – once for 21 days on August 13 and then for 20 days this week.
The dera has millions of followers across the globe and has tried to reinvent Ram Rahim’s image after his conviction through virtual satsangs and speculation that he was a victim of the drug mafia’s conspiracy.
The mechanism
According to sources from the dera, a decision to vote for a particular party is taken at the top level after discussions at various levels – the village, block, district and state.
Sources claimed that the first discussion happens at the level of a loose gathering of the dera’s supporters within a village. The choice of the party is then communicated to the premi sewak, who is in-charge of carrying out the dera’s activities in a village. The premi sewak then informs the block premi sewak, who in turn discusses it with a 15-member district panel. The decision of the district panel is passed on to an 85-member state committee, which conveys it to the top management. The final decision is then relayed back to the followers through the sangat – the network of the dera’s supporters.
However, dera spokesperson Jitendra Khurana said, “Pitaji (Ram Rahim) has nothing to do with the decision of the sangat. The sangat takes the decision at its own level. Pitaji has never made any decision about voting for any political party.”
Dera supporters refer to the chief as “pitaji (father)”.
But Anurag Tripathi, a journalist who has written a book on the dera, claimed that Ram Rahim is “very politically savvy”. “Before 2011, he used to give his support according to the area. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi started getting branded as a national leader. Gurmeet realised that there was benefit in going with the BJP. There was more space for religious politics there. In such a situation, he openly supported the BJP. After that, the BJP and dera have been together.”
According to an Economic Times report, ahead of the assembly polls in Haryana in 2014, the BJP’s state election in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya had taken 44 party candidates to the dera headquarters in Sirsa district to meet Ram Rahim, who reportedly asked them to meet the dera’s political wing.
A Times of India report last year had claimed that the dera used to organise meetings of followers which used to be attended by political leaders.
‘Decision not by one’
Rajendra Prasad, a premi sewak from Bambura village of Rania assembly constituency of Sirsa district, has a picture of Ram Rahim on a wall, at the centre of a heart symbol. “I had nothing. Today, because of pitaji (Ram Rahim), I have a battery company. I rent land and do farming by paying Rs 1 crore annually. Everything is due to pitaji.”
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year, the sangat appealed to vote for the BJP and this was communicated a day before the election, claimed Prasad, who is associated with the dera since 1988. “The decision is taken by everyone who is part of the sangat. I am equally involved in it. It is not one person who decides.”
“Many times it is also said by the sangat that you should vote for the candidate you think is the best. Then we see which candidate is speaking against drugs, who will help us. Pitaji has ordered that wherever you live, live with unity.”
There are around 900 dera supporters in Bambura village of Sirsa district, which houses the dera headquarters. Ram Rahim hasn’t visited the dera in Sirsa since his conviction but hundreds throng the spot each day to listen to recorded sermons played on screen.
About one kilometre away from the dera, the Shahpur Begu village has 7,000 voters, nearly half of them linked to the sect.
Balkrishna, a 55-year-old grocery shop owner from Shahpur Begu, has been associated with the dera since he was 12 years old. “No decision has come so far about this election. Many times it has happened that the decision came on the morning of the election. Many times it is said to split a family’s votes between the BJP and Congress…such decisions come when people from both parties come here to seek votes,” he claimed.
Gurudayal Kamboj is the dera’s premi sewak in Shahpur Begu and has been associated with the sect since 1989.
“The followers vote unitedly. In the last Lok Sabha elections, we voted for the BJP. In the last assembly elections too, we were asked to vote for the BJP. We get information from the management a day or two before the election. But we are so well-connected that the message reaches every supporter within 10 minutes.”
“There are about 500 voters in my village, out of which 400 vote as per the dera’s instructions,” said dera follower Antu Ram Insan, in Talwara village of Ellenabad constituency. “True devotees vote as per the dera’s instructions.”
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