Politicos powered expansion of Dera empire in Punjab

Jailed for 20 years on Tuesday in a rape case, Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) head Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s fall is as dramatic as was his rise, particularly in Punjab, the hub of his sect.

Till 1994 — besides the Sirsa headquarters in Haryana — in Punjab the Dera had only one preaching centre of five acres at Malout in 1994. That too had been set up in the time of Shah Satnam — Ram Rahim’s predecessor.

By 2007, the DSS empire had grown to 98 centres .

Gurmeet had shown his talents early on, as he started expansion plans within a couple of years of taking over at the age of 23. In 1994, he bought 50 acres of land at Salabatpura purportedly from the money collected by disciples. This centre now has more than 100 acres.

“Baba disliked Malout’s geographical location as it is close to the border with Rajasthan, part of the region on the tri-junction of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. He decided to shift the dera base to Salabatpura in Rampura Phul region of Bathinda as the area was more easily accessible to followers even from Moga, Barnala, Faridkot and Mansa districts,” said a political leader who was once close to the Dera.

He gathered followers during a time when Punjab had barely come out of militancy, and several dominated classes and Dalits were searching for social space. Soon, naam charcha ghars came up in Mansa, Barnala and Sangrur. THE BOOM The period between 2000 and 2007 is called “golden time” by followers, when the Dera chief used the ladder of politics to establish himself as a parallel power centre.

Already, by 1996, the dera had a sizeable vote bank in Malwa, and the dera head had decided to “secretly” extend his support to SAD’s Sukhbir Singh Badal when he fought the Lok Sabha poll for Faridkot seat . Sukhbir defeated Congress candidate Jagmeet Singh Brar.

Political experts in Malwa opined that this was the time when even the effluent classes, seeing the increasing political clout, started getting attracted towards DSS.