Mumbai: In the last one year, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, popularly known as Bageshwar Dham Baba, of Madhya Pradesh has held at least five major ‘satsang’ (religious congregation) programmes in Maharashtra.
His growing prominence across the state is reflected in the packed darbars from Nagpur to Mumbai where his followers immerse in the chants of ‘Sita Ram’, ‘Siya Ram’ and are left gobsmacked on seeing his ‘miracles’
But, it is not just the common man under some sort of a spell of the ‘miracle-maker’ from Madhya Pradesh. Unlike in some states such as Bihar where he is held with scepticism, the ruling BJP and its ranks — on the face of it — in Maharashtra hold in high esteem.
That said, it is widely known that not very long ago, the ‘godman’ was said to be running away from rationalists of the same state.
Most of these ‘satsangs’ in Maharashtra are either organised by the state BJP and often the BJP leadership is seen at these events. While the Pune event organised in November by BJP Pune president Jagdish Mulik where Union minister Raosaheb Danve was present, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar event was hosted by Union minister Bhagwat Karad the same month. Union minister Nitin Gadkari had attended one such event in Nagpur in the first week of January.
On the record, Maharashtra Cabinet minister and senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar denied that there were no ulterior motives behind hosting Shastri.
“This has no political relevance. These events are not political for us,” Mungantiwar told ThePrint. “Bageshwar baba is not for political gains, but for bringing minds together. It is for making our mind pure. If he would have had political influence, then everyone would have called him instead of PM Modi.”
This story was originally published in theprint.in. Read the full story here .
