When I almost got baptised into Baba’s fold
controversial imitation of the 10th Sikh Master, Guru Gobind Singh, in 2007.
This law and order imperative had prompted the Election Commission to go in for a two-phase poll in Punjab. Despite facing three CBI cases for rape and murder and being ostracised by the Sikh clergy, the dera chief was the man of moment not just for election, but even for tenuous peace in Punjab.
SURREAL SCENE
Upon a midnight touchdown in the dera premises, I was hosted graciously by Aditya Insan, a young, smooth-talking eye surgeon who doubled as Baba’s Man Friday and spokesperson. Next morning, a view from the firstfloor window revealed swarms of ‘premis’ (as the dera devout call themselves) walking into the dusty, sprawling complex for Sunday’s ‘naam charcha (spiritual discourse)’. My request for an on-the-record conversation with ‘Pita ji’ – as Ram Rahim is reverentially addressed – was granted after a lot of back and forth messaging, with two riders: submit your questions beforehand and attend the religious congregation. Sensing that the interview will happen after the discourse, I quickly jotted down questions before being escorted through the crowds and ushered to the front row of a huge pandal (tent), neatly divided in the middle into enclosures for male and female faithfuls.
The scene was surreal and surcharged. It reverberated with high-decibel devotional songs set on filmy tunes, eulogising ‘Pita ji’ and his miracles. Many a follower danced deliriously, while others clapped in frenzied symphony. The music touched a crescendo at Baba’s dramatic entry on a golf cart. For the next 45 minutes, all eyes were on the eight-foot high canopied rostrum from where a gaudilyattired godman with the trademark peacock plume in his hand spoke in Hindustani to pindrop silence of what, a while ago, was a raucous assembly.
OPEN ENCOUNTER
The moment the sermon was over, Baba made an announcement that left me dumbfounded.
“We have with us an ‘editor sahib’ from Chandigarh. He has asked me a few questions and I will answer them, one by one, in the presence of the entire ‘sangat (gathering)’,” he said, pulling out my handwritten list of questions from his pocket.
For the next 20 minutes, he held forth on each question, some of them tough and pointed. It was the first – and since last – interview I ever got through a public address system in front of thousands of people.
SURPRISE IN STORE
The surprise was not over yet.
When the crowd began dispersing, I was gently escorted to a large room where a group of men and women waited for the ‘initiation ceremony’. “Pita ji will be here soon. Will you like to be baptised?” asked a middle-aged devout, who seemed to be the master of ceremony.
Finding me nonplussed, he patronisingly reeled off a whole sheaf of boons in the life and after-life that accrue for an initiated disciple. I dodged and ducked his sugar-coated spiritual pitch with a worldly mumbojumbo before the Baba, gleam in his eyes, walked in to baptise and bless the new disciples.
By then, Baba too had sensed my demurral. So, we briefly exchanged pleasantries before I made a hasty exit. Even for a hard-nosed hack, the encounter with the Baba of Bling was baptism by fire.