Who is Bageshwar Dham's Dhirendra Krishna Shastri? Find out reason behind the recent controversy

Vibha Sharma

Chandigarh, January 25

For the past few days, a young man called Dhirendra Krishna Shastri has been making the headlines on TV channels, newspapers, websites and social media for various reasons. The website of ‘Bageshwar Dham’ (which he heads) refers to 26-year-old Shastri as ‘Bageshwar Dham Sarkar’.

Born on July 4, 1996 (as per the website), the self-styled godman dressed in colourful headgear and clothes claims to possess miraculous powers and solve devotees’ problems with the help of Balaji—Lord Hanuman—without the person in question telling him. He forecasts about their future.

The website also has photographs of Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra at the Bageshwar Dham. According to the website, ‘Ramkatha’ by Shastri draws lakhs of devotees to ‘Bageshwar Dham’ and that he is associated with many public welfare initiatives.

Bageshwar Dham is located in Chattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh.

The controversy

The current controversy involving Dhirendra Krishna Shastri erupted after the ‘Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti’ led by Prof Shyam Manav accused him of spreading superstitions in Nagpur where he was holding a ‘Ramkatha darbar’ earlier this month.

The Maharashtra-based anti-superstition organisation sought action against him under the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013.

The Samiti also promised to pay Shastri Rs 30 lakh if he succeeded in convincing their panel of “independent, impartial observers” of his miraculous powers. The samiti alleged that Shastri “ran away from Nagpur” after he was thrown the challenge.

Shastri, meanwhile, challenged the committee to come to Raipur (Chhattisgarh)—the site of his next camp.

Stating that he has no supernatural powers and that all powers belong to lord Hanuman, Shastri was seen interacting with devotees in the presence of the national media.

Soon videos started doing rounds on social media, showing him calling journalists from the crowd, sharing information about them and their family members.

The reactions of some apparently surprised journalists led to widespread criticism with some critics accusing them of “unprofessionalism”, claiming that all information can be easily accessed from social media accounts. Some “mind-readers” and sceptics were also seen challenging him in studios with similar tricks.

As the godman from Madhya Pradesh was is also accused of pushing the religious conversion issue (also one of the BJP’s poll agendas), Shastri and his supporters claimed that he was being targeted because he was challenging religious conversions and doing ‘ghar wapsi’.

The politics

Religious conversion is one of the issues in poll-bound Chhattisgarh. Opposition BJP has accused the Congress government there of turning a blind eye to “conversion drive” in the state—charges that Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has dismissed.

That Shastri has the backing of senior BJP leaders, including general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Naorottam Mishra, is evident from his website and their comments.

Claiming the hand of BJP behind the sudden popularity of Shastri, CM Baghel challenged him to solve the problem of Joshimath if he really possessed magical powers.

“There are several accomplishments in the field of meditation (by monks) but you should not display magic. This (magic) is the work of magicians. This is not appropriate. If you can do magic then go save Joshimath. Will anybody accept this challenge? They (religious leaders) should teach us to lead our lives with honesty,” he was quoted as saying.

Shastri ‘durbar’ at Raipur saw BJP’s former CM Raman Singh and Congress MLA Vikas Upadhyay in attendance. He was also felicitated by Governor Anusuiya Uikey at the Raj Bhavan, according to reports.

Shastri, meanwhile, has questioned why only Hindus were being targeted.

“They (Akhil Bhartiya Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti) ran an agenda against me and the media came here (in Raipur) to ask questions. Do you ask similar questions to ‘padris’ and ‘maulavis’? They (activists) do not raise questions about other religions because they know it will make their lives difficult. Very big missionaries are behind this, who have spent crores of rupees in conversion,” agencies quoted Shastri as saying.