Swamis playing saviours, people left as spectators

 

The sight of seven Karnataka swamis marching into Delhi darbar to plead for D Gang rescue would have been comical if it were not so tragic. Men burdened with their own baggage of scandals—Vachanananda swami with his tainted past, Vajradehi swami with a kidnap complaint—proclaimed with pride that they had convinced the Union Home Minister to consider an NIA probe into Dharmasthala’s festering crimes. For once, the saffron robes did not conceal the naked political intent.

Let us be clear: the NIA has no business here. It is meant for terrorism, cross-border conspiracies, and matters of national security. Dharmasthala is about rapes, murders, and disappearances under the nose of a feudal family and its protectors. That is law and order, and that is the state’s domain. Only a Special Investigation Team fits the bill. Yet the swamis, clutching the well-worn “foreign hand” cliché, tell us that people’s agitation for truth and justice for the Dharmasthala crimes and YouTubers are being funded by shadowy outsiders to malign the shrine. Really? Do we need CIA operatives to provoke outrage when scores of women are raped and killed? Or is the public’s anger simply too inconvenient to acknowledge?

What makes this charade worse is the stature of the emissaries. The public is right to ask: where were these swamis when crimes piled up in Dharmasthala? Silent then, they now surface as protectors of Heggade’s prestige. Basavaraj Yatnal, never one to mince words, has already shredded Vachanananda’s moral authority to lead such a mission. And ordinary people are asking whether Vajradehi swami, with a police complaint hanging over him, is really the face of “dharma.”

Behind the saffron curtain lurks the BJP’s shadow. It was BJP leaders who first floated the NIA demand, and social media now buzzes that the swamijis’ Delhi trip was choreographed by the party itself. After all,  Heggade must be shielded at all costs—even if it means gutting the credibility of the SIT. But the BJP should tread carefully. Already in Karnataka, its public image is battered for siding with power over people. To meddle further is to risk political suicide.

This is a federal system, not a feudal court. The Union Home Minister knows, or ought to know, that he cannot meddle in a purely state matter. Yet, to humour a bunch of discredited swamis for short-term political gain is to make a mockery of governance. The Modi-Shah duo should remember the Asaram Bapu lesson: when his crimes were exposed, no shield was offered, despite his vast following. Why should Dharmasthala be treated differently? What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.

If the Centre goes ahead and replaces the SIT with an NIA probe, the fallout will be chaos and a collapse of faith in institutions. The victims of Dharmasthala’s horrors will be betrayed yet again, while the guilty will bask in the comfort of political protection.

The swamis may thump their chests about their “success” in Delhi. But on the ground, their mission is a joke. The people see through the charade. And in this people’s court, verdicts carry more weight than all the saffron robes and political processions put together.

After all, when godmen become lobbyists and ministers play along, it is not dharma that is saved, but the accused