Modi is anticipated to satisfy the dera chief, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, whom he had met in Delhi in February this yr, forward of the Punjab meeting elections. Quickly after, Union House Minister Amit Shah had visited the dera.
This would be the Prime Minister’s first go to to the dera, stated Subhash Sharma, state basic secretary, BJP Punjab. The go to features political significance because it comes within the run as much as the Himachal meeting polls, scheduled to be held on 12 November.
The dera Beas is certainly one of six distinguished deras in Punjab and enjoys an enormous following not simply within the state, however in a number of states of North India, together with Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and in addition Rajasthan.
The followers — numbering in lakhs — embrace each Hindus and Sikhs, largely Dalits, who take non secular steerage from Dhillon whereas persevering with to establish with their respective religions.
The followers embrace distinguished personalities resembling former Delhi Lt Governor Tejendra Khanna, who adopted in his father’s footsteps and have become a religious follower of the dera. His father Ok.L. Khanna was the secretary of the dera administration at one time, stated sources.
Former Punjab chief secretaries Ishwar Puri and Rajan Kashyap and 1984 batch IPS officer from Punjab and RAW head Samant Goel, are additionally followers, the sources added.
Inside Punjab, the dera has an enormous following within the state’s Majha area.
It is usually fairly lively in Himachal Pradesh, the place it runs a charitable hospital in Bhota (a city within the state’s Hamirpur district) and several other satsang centres that are concerned in group work.
In April this yr, Himachal Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, had attended the dera’s satsang in Paror and met Dhillon.
Whereas the dera has the potential to affect voters in a number of constituencies within the hill state, its administration has constantly claimed to be completely apolitical, owing no allegiance to any political or business organisation.
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Politicians make a beeline for dera
The declare has, nevertheless, not stopped politicians from throughout events from making a beeline for the dera, particularly round election time.
In 2001, forward of the meeting elections in Punjab the next yr, former Congress president, Sonia Gandhi had visited the dera.
BJP veteran chief Lal Krishna Advani had visited the dera in 2014, whereas senior Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh visited the Dera in 2016, forward of the 2017 meeting polls in Punjab.
Amarinder Singh visited the dera once more in 2019, forward of that yr’s basic elections.
Shiromani Akali Dal president and former deputy chief minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal, and his spouse, former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, had visited the dera forward of the 2017 meeting elections.
Former Punjab income minister Bikram Singh Majithia’s (Sukhbir Singh’s brother-in-law) spouse, Genieve Grewal, is a detailed relative of Dhillon.
Different leaders to have been to the dera and met its chief embrace Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Social gathering chief Arvind Kejriwal, forward of the 2017 Punjab elections, former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi forward of this yr’s meeting polls, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in 2019 and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in 2012, 2014 and 2018.
Influential and highly effective
The dera Beas has 5,000 branches throughout India and in addition owns giant tracts of land in a number of states. It has centres in 90 international locations the world over.
The dera attracts its legacy from the Radha Swami non secular custom, began by Baba Shiv Dayal Singh within the mind-Nineteenth century. His disciple Baba Jaimal Singh began the Beas dera within the late Nineteenth century, which is why it’s also often called Dera Baba Jaimal Singh.
The dera, which Modi is ready to go to Sunday, is unfold throughout 3,000 acres and is a mini township in itself, full with an enormous satsang advanced, residential areas, a faculty and a hospital.
In response to info on the dera web site, the satsang advanced can maintain a gathering of as much as 5 lakh folks and the langar (group meal) corridor can feed 50,000 folks at a time. Other than holding non secular congregations and large langars, the followers are concerned in group and social work.
The railway station on the dera Beas, the cleansing of which is completed by dera volunteers, was declared the cleanest railway station in India in 2017.
In 2016, then Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had inaugurated the world’s largest single-roof-top photo voltaic facility on the dera.
Controversies
Though the dera encourages its followers to stay non-controversial, based on sources, it bumped into a significant controversy in 2012 when its followers had reportedly demolished a historic gurudwara close to the dera. The matter was resolved after the dera apologised and provided to reconstruct the gurdwara.
Within the first week of September this yr, Nihang Sikhs (an order of Sikh warriors) clashed with the dera’s followers, leaving a dozen folks injured. The Nihang Sikhs had let their cattle free to graze on the dera’s land which led to the conflict.
Dhillon took over as the top of the dera in 1991 from his uncle Baba Charan Singh. When he was introduced because the successor, Dhillon was primarily based in Spain and moved to India to take over the reins of the dera.
A most cancers survivor, he has been embroiled in a high-profile case involving former Ranbaxy house owners Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh. The latter had advised the Delhi Excessive Courtroom and the Supreme Courtroom that Dhillon owed his firms crores of rupees
Baba Charan Singh was Shivinder and Malvinder’s maternal grandfather.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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