These last few months, a new baby has entered the market. The name of the baba isBageshwar Baba. Youd wonder whats special in this baba. Its being claimed that this baba miraculously understands the problems of his believers, and gives them equally miraculous solutions. But thats not all, with an added angle of Hindu-Muslim, the media will automatically get you popularity. Satirist Rofi Gandhi had an interesting take on it. He said that the fraud employed by Bageshwar Baba is the same thats used by Christian and Muslim conmen, so why is everyone censoring Bageshwar Baba? Cant Hindus get conned peacefully without others objecting to it?
Isnt it right?
Some people aim to be IITians, scientists, or IAS officers. But if someone wants to be a fool, why shouldnt they be allowed to? Everyone has the right to be fooled. And people of all religions are aware of this right. People might be divided on religion, but people from all religions are united for superpositions. You can find such conmen from all religions. And some people follow them very loyally.
Come, in this article lets understand this Bageshwar baba. And lets understand the general phenomena of these conmen.
Starting with the Bageshwar Baba, the person donning the persona is Dhirendra Shastri. He is from a village in Madhya Pradesh. There he runs an ashram called Bageshwar Dham. According to the report, his real name isDhirendra Krishna Garg. He is only 26 years old. He was in the news for the first time because of his communal insightful speeches. Last year, in April he was preaching in Madhya Pradeshs Sagar, where he called out to all Hindus to unite and have bulldozers run over the home of sone-pelters. An obvious political reference to the action being taken in Uttar Pradesh. It was quite obviously a communal speech aimed at disrupting public peace. A few days later, Dhirendra called himself a Dhaba. And admitted that he will continue making such hateful speeches. As if it wasnt enough to insult law and order, Dhirendra was back in the news for allegedly practicing untouchability. In another case, when another person came to fall at his feet, he had a different reaction.
Coming to his recent episode. Recently, Dhirendra was in Nagpur for aRam Katha. Here, he did what he normally does. Reading peoples minds and giving them miraculous solutions for their problems. Here Shyam Manav enters our story. Shyam Manav is the national Convenor of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti. An organization founded in the 1980s. As you can understand from the name of this organization, the organization was founded to fight against superstitions. Shyam Manav says he is not against anyones God or religion. He simply opposes the fraud taking place in the name of religion. According to the report, Shyam Manav has busted more than 200 such fraud Babas.
Coming back to our story, Dhirendra Shastri was in Nagpur. Shyam Manav found out that he was there for Ram Katha. He didnt mind that, and in fact, welcomed it. But then, he found out that there were videos of him holding court Divya Darbar. Then he started paying attention to him. And they noticed that there were several illegalities in them. He informed the police about this with proof and asked them to take action against it. But the police took no action. Later, Nagpur police gave a clean chit to the baba claiming that after examining all evidence but they found nothing that went against the Black Magic Act. Apart from informing the police, Shyam Manav challenged Dhirendra as well.
Two challenges:-
- There are 10 people in a room. Dhirendra had to guess their names, fathers names, ages, and phone numbers.
- Predict 10 items kept in the room next door.
Shyam Manav claims that if the baba could answer with even 90% accuracy, he will give him a reward of 3 million. If the baba won, Shyam Manav agrees to bow down to his feet, apologize to him, and disband his organization.
What happened next?
Did Bageshwar Baba accept this challenge?
The event was organized. It was mentioned that it would last till 13 January. But Bageshwar Baba left Nagpur on 11th January.Shyam Manavcalled him a coward. Since he could not accept the challenge, he fled from there. Some Hindutva organizations took affront at this. And they started burning Shyam Manavs effigies. After this, death threats were made to Shyam Manav. In Dhirendra Shastris defense, his cousin Lokesh Garg came forward to claim that they received death threats too.
But what about the challenge?
In his response, Dhirendra claimed that he did not flee. The Ram Katha was scheduled for 11th January. And that if Shyam Manav was keen on giving him a challenge, he can do so in Raipur. In its response, Shyam Manav released a video on YouTube. He says To ensure that no information reaches them under the fraud and proof conditions, we cannot create such an environment. This is why this challenge can take place effectively in Nagpur. There are two reasons behind this. The first is the police and the law and order situation in Maharashtra. Secondly, he claimed that Maharashtras Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis had visited Babas program. So Baba and the Home Minister already have cordial relations. So if the challenge plays out in Nagpur, there cannot be any shenanigans from either side.
Meanwhile, Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand gave an interesting statement. He asked the ones claiming to perform miracles to go to Joshimath and stop the land from sinking. He said that if someone could indeed perform miracles, he needs to prevent forced religious conversions, suicides, disputes, and domestic violence. Any miracle that would benefit our society and nation. Only then one can call someone a miraculous person. He also says that he thinks that Dhirendra should join RAW. He would help discover secret information about other countries. He can also help police to catch thieves and criminals. He claimed to cure cancer with his medicines and blessings.
But, none of this will happen. Because it is a fraud.
James Randi is one of the most famous magicians in theworld. Dhirendras petty tricks are nothing compared to James Randis. But, the difference is that James used his tricks to entertain people and Dhirendra uses his tricks to con people and to form a cult.
Surprisingly, despite all this, people all over the world are attracted to Babas. We see Babas producing gold chains from the air. Someone turns water into petrol. To an extent, superstition can be accepted as harmless, or rather, a self-harming thing, but many of these Babas are involved in heinous crimes. Interestingly, such conmen often have some political connections.
The question arises, why do people fall for these conmen?
Illiteracy can be said to be a reason. But this cannot be the only reason. Because we see several cases where educated people, employed in good jobs are getting conned by these fraud Babas. People believe because they want to. People have no one they can turn to with their problems. And so they go to these conmen.
It is crucial to expose these conmen. It is important to protect people from their ill intentions. This will be beneficial to both religion and science.
More :https://sanepanda.com/news/reality-of-bageshwar-dham-baba/
