Newsmaker | Alwar MP who threatened police official: Who is ‘Baba’ Balak Nath?

“Sabse bade gunda police ki wardi mein aap ho yahan. Aapke bacche bhi taras karenge ki tum unke baap the. Ye nau mahine ki sashan raha hai, uske baad mein usko afsos hoga, ki usne kitni badi galti ki hai. Puri zindagi bhar afsos rahega usko (You are the biggest gunda in the uniform of police. Your children will regret that you were their father. Nine months of [Congress] rule is left…after that he will regret, he will regret his entire life),” Balak Nath is heard saying in the video.

According to Bhiwadi SP Shantanu Kumar, the immediate reason for the MP’s outburst was the DSP summoning a few of his supporters for questioning regarding an incident of firing at a hospital in Behror. Officials said the police had called some local youngsters for questioning, which resulted in a protest by both Congress and BJP leaders. It was at this time that Balak Nath made an entry.

DSP Rao could not be contacted for a response.

Balak Nath is a disciple of the late Mahant Chand Nath Yogi, former BJP MP of Alwar and Mahant of the Baba Mastnath Math in Haryana’s Rohtak. Before he passed away in 2017, Chand Nath declared Balak Nath his successor.

Balak Nath, who was born in a Yadav family in Alwar district, is also the Chancellor of the Baba Mastnath University in Rohtak.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited Alwar to campaign for Balak Nath. “Yogi ji and our sampraday and Panth are the same, and this is the win of our elder brother,” Balak Nath told reporters after Adityanath returned as CM last year.

Alwar BJP leaders said that taking a cue from Yogi’s meteoric rise within the BJP, Balak Nath also has chief ministerial ambitions. “He has set his eyes on the highest prize. He often goes campaigning for the party in areas outside Alwar,” said a senior BJP leader from Alwar on the condition of anonymity.

In 2022, after the local administration demolished a temple in Alwar, Balak Nath held massive protests against the Congress government. He compared the Congress to the Mughals at a BJP rally in Alwar in May.

In Alwar, among the biggest detractors of Balak Nath is an independent MLA from Behror, Baljeet Yadav. With reports rife that Balak Nath may contest the Assembly elections later this year from Behror, the epicentre of Yadav politics in the state, the rivalry between the two leaders has escalated.

“Balak Nath ji told the police official that after nine months I will not spare even your kids. Your children will cry and squeal, I will create such a situation. I want to tell Balak Nath ji that as long as you are alive, when you think you have too much power, then not only the kids of this one official, if you even try to look at any good person’s children with your destructive glare, I will beat your face red. Your act has insulted the Hindu religion, and I appeal to the saint community to ostracise him. Till your last breath Balak Nath, you will not forget Baljeet Yadav. Balak Nath is not a saint, he is a wolf clad in saffron (Balak Nath sadhu nahin hai. Ye bhagwa vesh mein bhediya hai Balak Nath),” Baljeet Yadav told reporters on Tuesday.

Later, Balak Nath hit back, sticking to his stand. “Woh to Rajasthan ki police ke upar ek dhabba hai woh. Mai to kehta hun ki aise DSP ki turant jaanch ho aur uski kundali ki bhi jaanch ho (He is a stain on the name of Rajasthan police. I say that there should be immediate investigation of such a DSP and his ‘kundali’ should also be checked,” Balak Nath told reporters in Jaipur on Tuesday.

Asked about Baljeet Yadav’s comments, he said, “Even his (Yadav’s) ancestors are ashamed by his remarks that such a person was born to their family. In Rajasthan’s politics, nobody has seen such an ‘adharmi (unrighteous)’ person.”