Maha BJP govt approves Y-category security to 'godman' Dhirendra Shastri
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Bhopal: Bageshwar Dham chief and controversial self-styled godman Dhirendra Krishna Shastri on Wednesday received Y-category security cover approved from the Madhya Pradesh government.
The Madhya Pradesh Police on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs as well as different state police forces across the country informing about the granting Y-category security to Shastri, and requested he be given similar security while visiting places outside his home state.
The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh approved security to Dhirendra Shastri considering the huge footfall witnessed in his recent programs.
The MP government has also urged the other state governments to provide the same level of security to Dhirendra Shastri if his programs are organised in their state.
Shastri visits different states to organise "Divya Darabar", and the most recent one was in Patna. A controversy broke out while in Patna after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav slammed Dhirendra Shastri over his continued demand for declaring India a Hindu Rashtra.
Ahead of Dhirendra Shastri's visit, the state home department's special branch had sounded an alert, mentioning that terror outfits eye such occasions to inflict collateral damage, including damage to life and property by use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
Shastri had stoked controversy during his ‘Divya Darbar’ session in Bihar when he reportedly called his followers "pagal" (mad) as he had to cancel ‘aarti’ citing concerns over the crowd beyond the capacity of the venue.
“There is too much crowd now, an enormous crowd...crazy people have arrived,” Shastri had said.
Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav had slammed Shastri for his comment and said, “This Baba is abusing Biharis and calling them "pagal". Politics is being done to divide the country.”
Shastri, head priest of the Hanuman temple at Bageshwar Dham in MP's Chhatarpur district, has often courted controversy, due to his claims of possessing mysterious powers to his political statements.
However, in his home state, he has been receiving equal respect from both, the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath visiting him in Chhatarpur.
Presently holding religious discourses in MP's Maoist-affected Balaghat district, Shastri is slated to travel to PM Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat next for four days from May 26 to hold 'Divya Darbar' in three cities - Surat, Ahmedabad, and Rajkot.
The 26-year-old preacher burst into national limelight in January, after a Maharashtra rationalist questioned his claims that he had healing powers and could read people's minds.
Shyam Manav, who runs an anti-superstition movement through his organisation Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, offered to pay Rs 30 lakh if Shastri correctly read the minds of 10 people chosen by him, reported BBC.
The challenge was made when Shastri was holding a camp in Nagpur in Maharashtra, the state where Manav is based. However, Shastri left the city without taking the challenge.
Since then, he has given a number of TV interviews where he's denied running away and said that he was willing to take the challenge, but not in Maharashtra. Instead, he proposed the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, a "neutral" venue.
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