Seers seek security after office-bearer goes missing in UP

SHANKARACHARYA APPOINTMENT WRONG: ABAP

Even as the police are groping in the dark to trace the whereabouts of national spokesman of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad (ABAP), the seers’ body is set to release its second list of fake babas.

Mahant Mohan Das, the kothari of Bada Udasin Akhada, went missing on September 16 when he was travelling from Haridwar to Mumbai five days after the ABAP released its first list of 14 fake babas. ABAP suspects the involvement of self-styled godmen, who figured on the list, in the disappearance of Mohan Das.

“We fear that he has been abducted and his life is in danger,” said ABAP president Swami Narendra Giri. “The government should take action and provide security to all office-bearers of the Parishad as we are planning to release another list of 25 fake sadhus after Diwali,” he said.

“The police traced the last location of Mohan Das in Meerut on September 16,” said Narendra Giri, who is also the secretary of Niranjani Akhada.

Cabinet minister in Uttarakhand government Madan Kaushik recently met ABAP office-bearers in Haridwar and assured them that the missing saint would be found within 10 days. “Five days have passed. If we do not get any information about Mohan Das in the next five days, we will stage an indefinite sit-in at Haridwar, Allahabad, Ayodhya and other cities of UP and Uttarakhand,” he added.

Narendra Giri said Mohan Das lived in Haridwar and regularly attended ABAP meetings, including the ones in which the names of fake babas were finalised. “We demand security for all office-

ALLAHABAD:

Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad (ABAP) has also objected to the anointment of Swami Achyutanand Teerth as the Shankaracharya of Dwarka Sharda Peeth. ABAP asked him to apologise for this “action” within a month or face consequences. “There is no place for a fifth Shankaracharya in Sanatan Dharma. Scriptures say Adi Shankaracharya established only four ‘peeths’. The Shankaracharyas of these ‘peeths’ are appointed on the basis of strict age-old rules. Therefore,

Swami Achyutanand should apologise,” said Narendra Giri, ABAP president.

KANPUR:

bearers before we release the second list of fake babas. The list contains 25 names of famous babas who do not belong to any monastic tradition. They are also not associated with any mutt. People may be surprised on seeing their names in the list. It is a tentative list and more names may be included later. We will hold a meeting after Diwali to finalise the second list,” he added.

Giri said the list was being prepared after proper investigation and checking out the background of the babas. “We will inform the chief ministers of respective states about this list to sound a countrywide alert,” he said.

Formed in 1954, ABAP is the apex body of 13 akharas in the country. Over two million saints, seers and Naga sadhus are associated with ABAP. The Parishad takes care of arrangements for different akhadas in Kumbh and Ardh Kumbh.