The Baba’s spell: In a poll year, why all roads lead to an MP temple town

The hot afternoon air is broken by chants of Jai Shri Ram, as men and women, with their children carrying miniature Hanuman gadhas, pour out of the compartments and run towards the bridge.

Devotees bow down as they enter Bageshwar Dham mandir

“They don’t listen to us. For at least six months now, passengers have been pulling the emergency brakes right under the bridge. I have tried to detain these devotees but they pelt stones at us,” says Faujdar.

The devotees are headed to Bageshwar Dham — in Garha village of Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district — to attend the ‘divya durbar’ of ‘Baba Bageshwar’ Dhirendra Shastri.

Politicians queuing up

Surrounded by low-lying hills, Bageshwar Dham, with its Shiv and Hanuman temples, is a fixture on Bundelkhand’s pilgrimage circuit but it is now fast emerging as a political hotspot.

With the state headed into an election in a few months, politicians cutting across parties lines have been queuing up to meet Shastri, the 26-year-old “peethadhish” or head priest of Bageshwar Dham, who claims to read minds, exorcise spirits and is unabashed about his support for a ‘Hindu Rasthra’.

Entrance to Bageshwar Dham.

During his recent trips to Bihar and now, Gujarat, Shastri’s political clout has been in full display with leaders, mostly of the BJP, calling on him. In Patna, Union ministers Giriraj Singh and Ashwini Kumar Choubey dropped in at his sessions and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari drove him to the hotel where he was staying.

In Gujarat, too, BJP leaders have been turning up in strength to support his durbars. At Shastri’s durbar in Surat on Friday, Gujarat BJP president C R Paatil was on the stage along with Cabinet minister Mukesh Patel and BJP MLAs Sangita Patil, Sandeep Desai and Manu Patel. In Rajkot, former CM Vijay Rupani was present at an event ahead of Shastri’s durbar in the city next month.

Shastri, whose sermons on a television channel gained him attention during the pandemic, recently made news when he reportedly dodged a challenge thrown at him by a rationalist — he is said to have got up and left when Shyam Manav, co-founder with the late Narendra Dabholkar of an anti-superstition organisation, took him on at his ‘divya durbar’ in Nagpur in January. But it wasn’t until MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Home Minister Narottam Mishra and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath, among others, met him earlier this year that Shastri was catapulted to political legitimacy.

Devotees wait for Divya durbar

Over the past year, Shastri has begun espousing the cause of the Hindu far right, branding himself as a “Hindu rashtra yodha (warrior) and demanding, in his sermons, that India be declared a ‘Hindu rashtra’. Under him, the Bageshwar Dham has also been hosting ‘ghar wapsi’ events.

In Patna, Shastri had said, “If even 5 crore of the 13 crore people of Bihar apply tilak and go on a march, India will be on its way to becoming a Hindu Rashtra”. Responding to Shastri’s remarks, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had said that the country has a Constitution and no one can “change the name of our nation”.

Shastri has frequently found himself at the centre of hot-button political issues — from opposing the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer ‘Pathaan’ to issuing open threats as he proclaimed in the aftermath of the Khargone riots: “All Hindus unite and run bulldozers on the homes of stone pelters”.

Lomesh Garg (39), Shastri’s cousin who stayed together during their teenage years.

For now, Shastri is being courted by both the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress. While BJP spokesperson Hitesh Bajpai said the party “respects Hindu saints and they are not to be politicised or used for getting votes during elections,” his Congress counterpart Piyush Babele said, “Kamal Nath met with Dhirendra Shastri because he respects him”.

However, insiders from both parties claim that they have been trying to leverage Shastri’s increasing popularity across the state to help them with the upcoming elections.

If Garha today revolves around the Bageshwar Dham and its most famous occupant, residents say it wasn’t always so.

A senior BJP leader said, “Dhirendra Shastri ji is immensely popular across the state, especially in the Bundelkhand area. He has also been espousing our core ideological issues among the youngsters. We are waiting and watching how this pans out in the future. He is young but his growing clout cannot be disregarded.”

A Congress leader said, “Dhirendra Shastri was noticed by our leaders in Chhatarpur. We financed him, paid for his trips. When the time comes, he will go from Jai Shri Ram to Jai Kamal Nath.”

Yet, for all of Shastri’s provocative statements and rising political stock, he looks every bit the 26-year-old that he is — clean-shaven and dressed in colourful robes, he sports stylised turbans and sunglasses and his speeches are often laced with Bundelkhandi risqué humour.

If Garha today revolves around the Bageshwar Dham and its most famous occupant, residents say it wasn’t always so.

Days of struggle to dizzying fame

With around 3,000 people, the Scheduled Caste Ahirwars are the biggest community in Garha, followed by its sizable Scheduled Tribe population, and a few Brahmin households such as that of the Gargs.

A one-room house where the Shastri family once stayed is deserted, its blue wall-paint long faded. The only occupant now is a water buffalo, left here by its previous residents.

This is where Shastri was born as ‘Dhirendra Krishna Garg’ to Ram Kripal Garg and Saroj Garg, in a family of head priests of the Bageshwar Dham.

Until Shastri made it big, its most famous member was his grandfather, Setu Lal Garg, who headed Bageshwar Dham, and was known to make similar claims of mind-reading and other miraculous feats.

The family claims “divinity did not choose” Shastri’s father, Ram Kripal, who lived off donations and worked on his one-acre field. Poverty soon bore down on the family and Shastri had to no option but to step up, his family said.

With Shastri’s success, the Dham and its miracles have found many claimants within the extended family.

Entrance to Bageshwar Dham.

Dinesh Garg, 42, Shastri’s eldest cousin, has been competing with him for eyeballs and claims he too has a connection to the Gods.

Dressed in saffron robes, he meets visitors who line up at his house in Ganj, a village neighbouring Shastri’s Garha. Among his visitors is a tractor businessman who wants a BJP ticket for the upcoming Assembly elections. “I am desperate, Maharaj ji,” he pleads. Dinesh looks straight back at the visitor and asks, “Rajpath chahiye?”.

Dinesh’s younger brother Lomesh Garg, 39, rummages through an almirah filled with religious books. “I read all the religious literature but I don’t have the divine powers that Dinesh and Dhirendra have.”

Another of Shastri’s cousins, Dhipendra Garg, 23, spends most of his time surfing the Internet on his smart phone even as elderly men and women pay obeisance to him. Dhipender, his forehead smeared with chandan paste, can barely tear himself from his phone as he speaks. “The miracles we perform are a family trait, passed down generations.”

Like most children in Garha, Shastri went to Madhyamik Shiksha Vidyalaya, where he studied until Class 8. He later moved to Ganj village, where he would go on to complete Class 12, but never attended college “due to his financial condition”, his family says.

Anil Ahirwar, 26, went to school with Shastri in Garha. The two boys would play cricket and spend their evenings swimming in a local lake. “He was a natural storyteller when he was in Class 5 and 6. I remember that on most days, all he had to eat was a packet of biscuits. The temple did not make much money then,” says Anil.

Hemraj Shiv Hare, 51, was Shastri’s Hindi teacher and likes to play videos of his now-famous student thanking his teacher for his gift of articulation.

At his home, which has giant posters of Shastri adorning the walls, Hare says, “There was nothing remarkable or divine about him when he was young. But he was always very articulate… he came from a family of kathavachaks, so talking came naturally to him.”

Around 2010, Shastri and his cousin Lomesh would go around Ganj village organising sessions of Bhagwat Katha, Hanuman Katha and Sundar Kand sessions.

In these parts, Shastri’s friendship with Sheikh Mubarak, 33, is talked about without any hint of irony despite the ‘Baba’s’ strident Hindu yodha image.

The two are known to have spent long hours hanging out with each other around Garha and Gunj, with Mubarak even organising a sermon in his Churaran village, 22 km away from Garha, and paying for Shastri’s first sangeet programme.

On Shastri’s Hindutva rhetoric, Mubarak says, “He is speaking to an audience to remain relevant. I know what he is in person. He is not at all like that. Politics ho raha hai ab.”

Shastri’s life is said to have changed when Chhatarpur Congress MLA Alok Chaturvedi spotted him during one of his sermons and organised a three-day programme, which was broadcast around the lockdown in 2021 on a television channel.

“The first time he got media coverage was when we organised his programme on Aastha channel. He really took off after that. I am happy for him. He was always talented. I don’t mind BJP politicians courting him… Babas are apolitical,” Chaturvedi said.

Shastri’s core supporter base had grown much beyond Garha and Bundelkhand, powered by his rising social media presence (5.16 million YouTube subscribers, 4.4 million Facebook subscribers, over 500,000 Instagram users and over a 100,000 Twitter followers).

Keshav K Mehta, who leads Shastri’s social media team, says, “We are able to dramatically increase Guruji’s following owing to his cult personality. The growth has been tremendous, there is no artificial growth of followers,” he said.

Allegations of high-handedness

Garha has been moulded in Shastri’s image ever since his first television appearance in 2021 took him to dizzying heights.

The hand-painted blue mud homes in the hamlet have made way for red brick-and-concrete structures, some of which have been converted to homestays to accommodate the devotees.

Makeshift eateries propped up on bamboo stilts dot the area. Shops selling clothes and religious paraphernalia such as pendants, Hanuman flags and prasad have mushroomed across the path leading to the Dham. Every single establishment here carries a life-size poster of Shastri.

The Baba’s new home is a two-storeyed building painted in orange. Devotees turn up at this home-shrine, bow down on its steps and take selfies as a team of security guards keep a watchful eye and monitor the feed from CCTV cameras.

Despite his God-like stature and rapid fame, Shastri has earned himself the wrath of a few in Garha as allegations swirl of land grab and high-handedness by the Dham.

His most vocal critic is former Chattarpur BJP MLA RD Prajapati, who has filed several applications with the local police seeking action against the Dham authorities, alleging that they encroached on government properties, including a hill, a crematorium of the Ahirwar community and a lake.

“This is a backward district where people still believe in ghosts and black magic. Shastri has used that to his advantage. He is just 26 years old and has held the people of Bundelkhand in his spell. Now his ashram has illegally encroached government property, even destroying the cremation ground of the Ahirwars, digging up a hill and dumping waste into the lake,” Prajapati said.

Revenue department officials have in the past flagged alleged encroachment of government land surrounding Bageshwar Dham.

When asked about the alleged encroachments, Additional District Magistrate Namah Shivay Arjaria said that while there have been allegations of encroachment in the area, so far, there is only one formal complaint. “There is one complaint we have received against Bageshwar Dham authorities… I can assure you we are investigating the complaint,” he said.

Revenue department officials said the complaint was related to alleged threats to take over land belonging to a local resident.

But it’s the alleged encroachment of their cremation ground that has pitted several members of the Ahirwar community against the Dham.

On February 11, 2023, Shastri’s younger brother, Shaligram Garg, 23, turned up for the wedding of Kallu Ahirwar’s daughter and allegedly created a ruckus by waving a pistol at the guests.

Shaligram has been booked by the MP Police under IPC Sections related to uttering obscene words and criminal intimidation, and under the SC/ST Act.

Police said the fight was over the songs being played at the wedding venue. However, Kallu has a different story to tell. “We did not invite Bageshwar Dham people to our wedding,” says Kallu, 53, adding that his family has been ostracised by Bageshwar Dham authorities.

When asked about the allegations, Dham spokesperson Keshav K Mehta said, “When someone does a good job, there are opponents who come up. If we do something wrong, then the public will not spare us.”

‘I’ll be out of range, my dear’

Pappu Ram, 25, is dressed in a bright yellow lungi and a shirt stained with dirt. A long chain snakes around his hands and legs, binding him to a pole.

Trained as a primary healthcare worker in Bihar’s Siwan district, Ram had started experiencing depressive episodes and was prone to fits of rage. His family had tried to keep him on a diet of sleeping pills prescribed by the local doctor, but frustrated by the lack of progress, they had brought him to Bageshwar Dham after watching Shastri’s exorcism videos.

Ritam Kumari, 20, Pappu Ram’s younger sister, said, “I saw his YouTube video and then my feed was filled with Bageshwar Dham videos. I felt like this was the place to treat my brother.”

Every Tuesday and Saturday, over a lakh devotees from across Bundelkhand attend Shastri’s durbar. Today, a Thursday, is not durbar day, yet, Shastri decides to hold court for the hundreds waiting for over 12 hours for a glimpse of the Baba.

His white SUV finally arrives around 6.15 pm, with Shastri waving at his supporters through the sun roof. The crowd erupts in chants of “Jai Shri Ram” as Shastri, wearing a multi-coloured robe, enters the auditorium, rocking to locally-produced Bageshwar Dham music. He whips out his trademark sun glasses and wears them before taking his seat. “Cooler baba ki jai,” he shouts into the microphone and the crowd break into loud cheers and claps.

After chanting a few shlokas, Shastri begins his sermon by assailing atheists, scientists and “intellectuals”, who, he alleges, have made comments against Hindu saints and called them “pakhandi (fake)”.

“In sabki pant gili kardenge (They will wet their pants),” Shastri tells the audience. More cheers and claps.

He then switches to English and announces that he will soon travel to Gujarat, Delhi and may even go abroad. “My ashram will be out of range in the coming weeks, my dear,” he says.