New India: Babagiri replaces Dadagiri, which needs to be tackled severely

Dadagiri is a much publicised word closely associated with former India captain Sourav Ganguly in his heydays. The Prince of Kolkata used it on-field to achieve success for India. Of late, the word has been replaced with Babagiri which is mostly used to pursue rape, molestation and other criminal activities in the garb of religious worshipping. For the last few days, a question that’s been bothering me to no end is why these self-proclaimed Babas have started surfacing with their shenanigans so much in the recent years?

I still don’t have a definite answer as to ‘why’. But by stretching my imagination further I have reached a conclusion that it is the endorsement of the ‘men who matter’ that has given them the right to abuse the system and preach unconventional ideas. Have we ever seen people in administration paying visits to these Babas for blessings or inducting them into the cabinet? Not so many in the past, but many in current dispensation do that without much ado.

For the record, as many five Babas have been drafted into the Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet as the MoS. This may have sparked controversies, but the unfazed CM of MP batted for the move the way a certain Virender Sehwag used to do against bowlers around the world in his prime.

“We want every section of the society to work towards development and welfare of people and that is why we have attempted to bring together each section of the society,” Chouhan was quoted as saying by the media months back while defending the move. It’s not clear though what kind of development he meant, it’s a proven fact that most of these Babas (not all) are religious crooks and among them, majority have only two motives – women and money.

Rapists Ram Rahim and Asaram are already behind the bars, but there are many others who will follow suit sooner than later if there’s a proper mechanism in place. The kind of violence that gripped Panchkula last year with the conviction of Ram Rahim says it all about how common man is conned and influenced by these crooks. Now if there are political endorsements to such activities by the religious fraudsters, it will only draw more people to be conned.

With Daati Maharaj from Delhi making the coveted list of Babas charged with rape on Wednesday, some for-and-against debates on national television will still see few vehemently defending the Babas come what may. That is what needs to be addressed at the earliest, and must be done from the administration.

Sans the dispensation’s backing, these frauds will find no takers in a society that is desperately trying to shed superstitions with each passing day. When the comments like “mangoes from a particular orchard will help producing babies” should be tackled with severity and not with trolls or ridicule.

Now the question is who will bell that cat as there remains a chunk of votes which swings like pendulum with these religious gurus. The Left parties had all along stayed away from religious activities, but other parties didn’t have the guts to do so fearing a receding vote bank. The dispensation’s stand on amalgamating politics and religion is the crux of the problem. There’s a clear divide in the country in terms of religion. And these Babas fuel the split by spewing more venom. This is where the government has to pull the plug rather than downplaying or staying mum.

Last but not the least, one thing that has always disturbed me is the colour of cloth these babas use – saffron – the colour which is one of the three colours our national flag has. The colour belongs to us and our motherland, and it cannot be the patent of any political outfit for their Babagiri.