My Opinion

The chilling account of sex pervert Gurmeet Ram Rahim narrated on India TV on Wednesday night by a former sadhvi brings out the weaknesses inherent in our society. The sadhvi alleged that the baba used to rape a woman every six hours and he must have raped nearly 2,000 women till date. One thing is clear: Gurmeet Ram Rahim was a criminal disguised as a fake godman. His followers knew about his shenanigans and dark secrets, but Gurmeet Singh had created an atmosphere of terror among his followers and nobody dared to speak out. Anybody who did so was liquidated. One question arises: when followers knew that the baba was a serial rapist, a criminal and a murderer, why did more than a lakh people gather in Panchkula in a show of solidarity? Why did these followers tell the media that they had come to have a ‘darshan’ (glimpse) of the baba, whom they called ‘pita’ (father)? What can one say about such blind devotion? The moot question is: what can we, as a society, can do to save people from blind devotion? How can we create awareness in our society against such fake godmen?

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the visiting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe took out a roadshow from the airport in Ahmedabad yesterday and were greeted by thousands of admirers. Those who understand politics know that Abe’s visit will prove to be beneficial to BJP in the forthcoming Gujarat assembly elections. But what happened in Ahmedabad on Wednesday was a trailer. The real picture was unveiled on Thursday, when Abe and Modi laid the foundation for the bullet train project. The date for launching the first bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has been fixed at August 15, 2022. Since the Japanese have taken up the project in their hands, one hopes the project will be completed on time. Japan has been running its bullet train for the last 50 years. It is so punctual that any body can coordinate one’s watch with its arrival and departure timings. In its 50-year-long history, the Japanese bullet train was seldom delayed by barely one minute. Japan will be giving a soft loan of Rs 88,000 crore to India for this Rs 1,10,000 cr project. The loan will be repaid in fifty years, and the repayment will begin after 15 years. The interest rate is at its lowest 0.01 per cent. Naturally, the bullet train will not be a drain on the nation’s treasury or on public finances. The bullet train will take two hours to cover the distance between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The project will provide jobs to more than 20,000 people.

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Many of the questions relating to the brutal murder of Pradyumna seem to have been resolved as of now. There was only one killer, the child’s neck was slashed twice with a knife, the victim could not scream because his vocal chord was bleeding, and the killer helped in taking the child to the hospital in order to show that he had nothing to do with murder. The killer was caught, but one vital question begs an answer. What was the motive? Why did the murderer kill the child? He had no enmity with the child, nor was there any sign of sexual assault. The accused had no previous criminal record. What was the reason that triggered the attack? What did the victim see which the killer did not want the world to know. Police is still trying to find the real motive, and we hope the answer will come soon.

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The brutal murder of seven-year-old Pradyumna in Ryan International School, Bhondsi near Gurugram is a stark reminder of the dangers lurking before our school going children across India. There have been many reports of murders, unnatural deaths and sexual assault of minors in schools and other institutions. After nationwide outrage on the streets and in media, the Haryana police has constituted 14 teams to investigate the gruesome murder. Two officials of Ryan group have been arrested. One team has reached Mumbai to question the promoters of the group.

As more revelations are awaited, this reminds us of the infamous Ayushi murder case in Noida several years ago. Ayushi was at her home with parents. She was murdered in cold blood in her bed, but nobody knew. Her body was found the following morning. Till date, the circumstances leading to that murder remain a mystery.

Similarly, facts leading to the murder of Pradyumna seem to be shocking. There were nearly 1,000 students and teachers along with non-teaching staff in the school that day, but nobody heard or saw the boy’s throat being slit inside a washroom. Haryana police have arrested a bus conductor, but police in our country have created such an image about themselves that people seldom trust their investigation. In this case, the conductor was charged with murder within hours and sent to custody. It seems the police hurried up its investigation without tying up all the loose ends. This has raised doubts in the minds of parents. It is not the question of a mother. Every mother has a question about her children studying in schools. Safety of students in schools must be of prime concern to all.

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On Thursday, the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced two accused Tahir Merchant and Firoz Khan to death, two others Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan to life term imprisonment and a fifth accused Riyaz Siddiqui to 10 years imprisonment. One accused Abdul Sheikh was acquitted of all charges. I have one comment to make in this regard. It took 24 long years to convict criminals accused of killing 257 innocent people. Those who have been given death sentences have the options to move the High Court and the Supreme Court, and later seek clemency from the President. It is really shameful that the due process of law took such a long time to punish the guilty. Justice delayed is justice denied is an oft-quoted saying. In this case, justice has been delayed for an inordinately long period. This could have been avoided.

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Surprises never cease when one enters Ram Rahim’s sprawling ‘dera’ (ashram) in Sirsa, Haryana. India TV reporter Abhishek Upadhyay was the first to sneak into the dera on Tuesday and Wednesday, even before police and the High Court-appointed team was to enter. After careful study of the visuals of the dera, one arrives at a conclusion that there were two main faces of Ram Rahim’s dera. One: when Ram Rahim’s predecessors opened school, college, hospital, eye bank and meditation centre to provide succour to their followers, and Two: the swanky ‘wonderland’ where cheap replicas of Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, St. Peter’s Basilica and Disneyland were erected, along with a huge cricket stadium, a shopping mall and a cinema theatre, among other such luxuries. Ram Rahim spent billions and amassed all the luxuries of life to dazzle the world, particularly his followers. He also built a mysterious cave, a place where he indulged in carnal pleasures, that included rapes and sexual assaults. In short, Ram Rahim converted an ashram doing social work into a vast, sprawling space to mint millions of rupees. Simple, gullible followers went to the dera in search of spiritual enlightenment and education for their offspring, took patients there for treatment, but were befooled in return by their guru. With the masses at his beck and call, Ram Rahim considered himself God, or Messenger of God, and the anti-climax came when the guardians of law caught up with him. He will now have to spend twenty years behind bars.

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The naming of Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Haqqani network, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and sundry other terror groups operating from Pakistani soil in the joint declaration adopted at the BRICS summit recently in Xiamen, China, is another blow to Pakistan’s image on the world stage. But it needs to be pointed out here that the very same terror groups were named identically in a similar paragraph in the Amritsar declaration issued at the Heart of Asia Conference last year, soon after the Uri attack. And the signatory to that declaration also included Pakistan. If one compares the two declarations, the paragraph on terrorism looks almost identical. Nevertheless, terror outfit leaders in Pakistan are worried over Pakistan’s “all-weather friend” China not backing its “trusted” neighbor on the issue of terrorism.

Not only terror outfits, but most of the Pakistan media have now begun to worry over the dent in the country’s image. It was only three weeks ago that Pakistan had been crowing about its friendship with China during the Doklam standoff. The Pakistani media was singing hosannas to Sino-Pak friendship, and the Pakistani leaders were expecting China “to teach India a lesson”. But the situation has changed 360-degree within a span of 24 hours. Chinese President Xi Jinping seems to have realized that this is not the India of 1962 which can be browbeaten by shrill war cries.

The Chinese leadership has begun to accept that India’s cooperation was necessary if their nation wants to dominate world economy. If terror outfits are a threat to India, they cannot be angels towards China. Chinese President Jinping has spoken about the Panchsheel principles of peaceful co-existence, but India will have to be on its guard.

There is an oft-repeated observation among Indians that Chinese products are normally neither reliable nor durable. So is China’s policy towards India. On one hand, it issues the joint declaration against Pakistani terror groups and on the other hand, China refuses to acknowledge Masood Azhar as a terrorist.

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In her explosive interview on my show Aap Ki Adalat (telecast Saturday 10 pm), film actress Kangana Ranaut has hit out at Bollywood biggies in a manner which normally film stars avoid. You will be surprised to know that Kangana spoke for nearly 40 minutes about Hrithik Roshan and disclosed several details, hitherto not known. To be fair, if Hrithik desires to reply to Kangana’s questions, he should also appear in Aap Ki Adalat to put the record straight. If he thinks he had been fair, he should come forward and reply to Kangana’s charges. This is what honesty demands.

Kangana has also hit out at Bollywood heavyweight Karan Johar in my show. Karan had hit out at Kangana several times on television, through social media, and on stage shows. At times, he made fun of her English diction, her rise from an obscure village in Himachal Pradesh to the tinsel world of Bollywood. I would also publicly request Karan Johar to appear in my show Aap Ki Adalat and reply to Kangana’s charges if he has the courage. Is it Kangana’s fault that she has no godfather in the film industry? That she does not hail from a ‘big’ family? Is it is her fault that she comes from a small village? Is it her fault that she did not study in a reputed English medium public school? Kangana replied bravely to all these questions, by winning laurels from the public for her superb acting in superhit films like ‘Queen’ ‘Tanu Weds Manu’. Kangana proved to the world that she could become a star on her own by making her films click at the box office.

The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday in its annual report disclosed that 99 per cent of demonetized currency notes returned to the bank’s post demonetization, and only one per cent, amounting to nearly Rs 16,000 crore did not return. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sought to clarify that only these unreturned currency notes were not black money. Nearly Rs 3 lakh crore currency notes came back to the banking system, and along with this nearly two lakh shell companies were traced. Most of these currency notes were black money being held by shell companies. Jaitley also explained that another big benefit of demonetization was that 56 lakh new taxpayers have joined the tax net. The real motive behind demonetization was (1) bringing black money back to the banking system (2) expanding the tax base and (3) switching the economy to digital mode. According to Jaitley, on all these three counts, the objectives were achieved.

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The stunning revelation made by IG India Reserve Battalion K K Rao about a diabolical plan hatched by Gurmeet Ram Rahim to escape from Panchkula court minutes after he was convicted, speaks volumes about the criminal nature of the fake godman. It was clear that Ram Rahim knew he would be convicted by the court, he had asked his men to store firearms inside the vehicles, had brought goons in his cavalcade, and had planned to escape, taking advantage of the bloody mayhem that would have ensued. He could have then posed a big challenge to the establishment, but his plan was nixed in the nick of the time by alert police officers like Rao.
I would also praise retired CBI officer Narayanan who diligently investigated both the rape cases, gave confidence to the rape survivors and ultimately justice prevailed. Narayanan revealed how he was literally forced by political leaders to weaken the case. It exposes the rot that has set in our system. The fake godman was clearly reaping benefits from politicians by offering them support in elections. That is why Ram Rahim was cocksure he would not land in jail because of his ‘high’ political connections. But he was proved wrong. The Punjab and Haryana High Court was very much alert, along with the media this time, and the Special Judge of CBI court did not give him any leeway.
The most surprising thing in the entire sordid episode is how fake godmen like Ram Rahim manage to fool gullible devotees despite committing heinous crimes. He was literally robbing them in the guise of faith. He was using his devotees as shields and was goading them to carry out bloodshed. The irony is: even if one fake godman is exposed, another godman crops up and starts fooling gullible people. The saddest part is that eminent spiritual leaders in our society fail to prevent such fake godmen from engaging in nefarious activities. They are unable to create awareness among the people. This is a work which no government nor any government official can perform. It is the responsibility of spiritual and religious heads. It is the responsibility of the entire society, which includes all of us, including the media. It is only then can we prevent fake godmen from carrying on with their business in the guise of religion and faith.
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On Monday, the CBI court’s special judge sentenced Gurmeet Ram Rahim to a total of 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment for raping two female devotees more than 15 years ago. But this seems to be only the tip of an iceberg. I interviewed Ram Rahim’s former manager Khatta Singh and a former sewadar Gurdas Singh Toor live on television, and what these two ex-employees revealed was chilling. One feels sad and also angry on listening to such revelations. A fake godman rapes his female devotees, intimidates them and carries out forced abortions. One wonders how this baba can carry out such crimes in the guise of religion. The two ex-employees revealed how the fake godman had a gang of killers with him, they had code words assigned for specific acts, the hospital which he was running ostensibly for social service, was being used as a den to castrate his male devotees. The fake godman used to pay off the parents of his rape victims, and those who refused, were put to death. Is Ram Rahim a human being or a demon? Twenty years of imprisonment are nothing considering the gravity of his crimes. I hope more rape survivors would come forward to testify against the fake godman, who must get the punishment he truly deserves.

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A rape survivor gets justice after fighting a powerful self-styled godman for 15 long years. At last, the real face of Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been exposed in the CBI court verdict. The baba will go to jail and serve his sentence, but the sad part is that thousands of his followers are so much blind and superstitious that they are unable to accept that their fake godman is a rapist. These followers have now turned to arson and lawlessness, throwing normal life in Haryana, Punjab and other neighbouring states in disarray. So long as these gullible followers live in our country, fake babas like Gurmeet Ram Rahim will continue to fool them.

In the wake of widespread arson committed by the baba’s followers in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, questions are now being raised over Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s role.

The first question: why was such a huge crowd of over one lakh supporters allowed to assemble in Panchkula? Everybody knew what these supporters would do if the baba was convicted, they had swords, arms, diesel, petrol and lathis with them. This was not a marriage party. It was a crude show of strength by a powerful self-styled godman. Police and paramilitary forces were present, but the arsonists carried on their work with impunity, only because they were numerically stronger and were well-prepared. The chief minister must answer this question.

The second question is directed towards the supporters who had assembled to defend a rapist. Till yesterday, these supporters were claiming that their baba has taught them lessons of love and brotherhood, but the moment the judgment was announced, they resorted to stoning and arson. It is a crying shame that thousands gathered to support a rapist and created a reign of terror. Justice demands that the losses caused to properties by these hooligans must be compensated by attaching the properties of the billionaire self-styled godman.

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