Modi is expected to meet Dera chief Gurinder Singh Dhillon, whom he met Had a meeting In Delhi in February this year ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections. Soon after, Union Home Minister Amit Shah Visited Camp.
State General Secretary of BJP Punjab Subhash Sharma told that this will be the Prime Minister’s first visit to the Dera. The yatra has political significance as it comes up for the Himachal Assembly elections, which are about to take place. Held on 12 November.
Dera Beas is one of the six major Deras of Punjab and has a huge following not only in the state but also in many states of North India including Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The followers – who number in the millions – include both Hindus and Sikhs, mostly Dalits, who seek spiritual guidance from Dhillon while continuing to identify with their respective religions.
Followers include prominent figures like former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become a staunch follower of the Dera. Sources said that his father KL Khanna was once the secretary of the Dera management.
Sources said former Punjab chief secretaries Ishwar Puri and Rajan Kashyap and 1984 batch IPS officer of Punjab and RAW chief Samant Goel are also followers.
Within Punjab, the Dera has a large following in the Majha region of the state.
it’s also enough Active in Himachal Pradesh, where it runs a charitable hospital and several satsang centers in Bhota (a town in the state’s Hamirpur district) which are involved in community work.
Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in April this year participated in Dera satsang in Paror and met Dhillon.
Although the Dera has the potential to influence voters in several constituencies in the hill state, its management has consistently Claimed Being completely non-political, without allegiance to any political or commercial organization.
Politicians pave way for Dera
However, this claim did not deter politicians from all parties from making way for the Dera, especially around election time.
In 2001, before the assembly elections in Punjab the following year, former Congress President, Sonia Gandhi said Visited Camp.
Veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani did it! Visited Dera in 2014, while senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh Visited In 2016 in Dera, Punjab before the 2017 assembly elections.
Amarinder Singh visited the dera again in 2019, ahead of that year’s general elections.
Shiromani Akali Dal President and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Visited Dera before the 2017 assembly elections
Former Revenue Minister of Punjab Bikram Singh Majithia (Sukhbir Singh’s brother-in-law) wife Genev Grewal is a close relative of Dhillon.
Other leaders who visited the dera and met its chief include the Chief Minister of Delhi and the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party. Arvind KejriwalBefore 2017 Punjab Elections, Former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi Union ministers ahead of this year’s assembly elections Nitin Gadkari More RSS chiefs in 2019 Mohan Bhagwati in 2012, 2014 and 2018.
impressive and powerful
Dera Beas 5,000 branches They own large tracts of land across India and in many states. It has centers in 90 countries around the world.
The Dera takes its heritage from the Radha Soami spiritual tradition, which was started by Baba Shiv Dayal Singh in the 19th century. His disciple Baba Jaimal Singh started the Beas Dera in the late 19th century, which is why it is also known as Dera Baba Jaimal Singh.
The dera, which Modi is scheduled to visit on Sunday, is spread over 3,000 acres and is a mini township in itself, with a sprawling satsang complex, residential areas, a school and a hospital.
According to the information given on the website of the Dera, a crowd of five lakh people can gather in the satsang complex. anchor (Community Meals) The hall can feed 50,000 people at a time. In addition to spiritual gatherings and mass gatherings anchor, Followers are involved in community and social work.
The railway station of Dera Beas which is cleaned by Dera volunteers was declared Cleanest railway station in India in 2017.
In 2016, the then Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal inauguration of World’s largest single-roof-top solar facility in Dera.
controversies
Although the Dera encourages its followers to remain non-controversial, according to sources, it ran into a major controversy in 2012 when its followers Allegedly Demolition of a historical Gurudwara near Dera. The matter was resolved after the Dera offered to apologize and rebuild the Gurudwara.
Nihang Sikhs (An Order of Sikh Warriors) in the first week of September this year clash Along with the followers of the Dera, a dozen people were injured. The Nihang Sikhs had left their cattle to graze on the Dera’s land, which led to conflict.
Dhillon took over as the Dera chief in 1991 from his uncle Baba Charan Singh. When he was announced as the successor, Dhillon’s headquarters was Spain and went to India to take over the reins of the Dera.
a cancer survivor, he has been scam In a high-profile case involving former Ranbaxy owners Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh. The latter had told the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court that Dhillon owed crores of rupees to his companies.
Baba Charan Singh was the maternal grandfather of Shivinder and Malvinder.
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
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