A verdict that shook a nation, bringing down the most vital, sacred thing(supposedly our culture and values) of the country to its knees.
So a court verdict came on 22nd of August founding a man, a spiritual leader,a saint, head of Dera Sacha Sauda(so called, cult group and non-profit social welfare organisation ), a guy who preaches all the goods in the world, of guilty of rape of two women. This was be a story of blind-following, broken faiths which shook the country's morals and wisdom.
Yes i am talking about this guy:
GURU RAM RAHIM SINGH a.k.a Pitaji
So the story is that in 2002 this guy was accused for rape for 2 women under the name of religious acts and those women were said that it was a blessings..
Later, a complaint was logged in the same year about the events that occurred by the first victim, the primary complainant, whose anonymous letter to Atal Bihari Vajpayee(then Prime Minister of India) , became the basis of an FIR by CBI in 2002, told the CBI court that she was called by Pitaji (that's what they call him) into his gufa (cave) in the intervening night of August 28 and 29, 1999 for granting maafi (pardon). He threatened to kill her if she did not give in. The rape made her realise the reality of the dera. She complained to her brother, who revolted and escaped with her. He was later murdered.
The second complainant had grown up in the dera where her parents taught in a school. She was guarding the cave residence of the guru. He called her and she went in. The so-called Pitaji was in bed, apparently naked. She was shocked and tried running away. But it was too late. Nobody came to help her. She was raped. She managed to escape later. She lived to tell her story to the CBI court.
It took the court 15 years of time to declare Guru as a convict and guilty, but the aftermath was more terrifying.. The supporters of the Guru started protesting against the decision that thier Guru was a rapist. Supporters rampaged in response, setting fire to government buildings, attacking railway stations, petrol stations and television vans in towns across the northern states of Punjab and Haryana soon after the verdict was announced, witnesses said.
Hundreds of Indian police and soldiers patrolled Panchkula, the town where the court gave its verdict on Singh, as local officials feared an outbreak of violence.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters.
The violence left at least 28 dead, including some with bullet wounds, and more than 250 injured, according to BS Sandhu, a top Haryana police official.
He said more than 1,000 of the guru's supporters had been detained in Panchkula on charges of arson and destruction of public property.
Now you see, how a simple(saint) man with just the power of false superstition and prejudice created a havoc in a state and made the daily life stop, with people dying. How, for a simple False guru, a fake leader and an evil man, people lost their minds and created such chaos, neglecting the fact that he has been literally convicted for rape of 2 women(even more), how the lives of those women were nothing compared to thier Guru going to jail for the crimes he did actuallly commit... Such is the state of Indian spiritualship and its not the first time even that something this bad has happened, but just that it got soo much flung by media that everyone is talking about it..
His organization’s balance sheet for the current year showed assets worth 202 crore Indian rupees or more than $31 million US dollars:The Baba on song. Religion pays in India. Could it be the complete surrender of mind, body, and ‘soul’ of the emotionally vulnerable to these babas? Perhaps. When you are emotionally low and the whole world’s turned to shit and all you see are hard challenges ahead in your life, these Babas preach exactly what you want to hear. They know what’s going to touch your soft spots and they play around with these feelings, giving you precisely what you seek.
So what is it that motivates followers to revere such godmen?
I don’t know for sure, but a lack of education is not the only factor.