Questions Swirl Around Propriety of Preacher Dhirendra Shastri Using Government Aircraft
New Delhi: Questions have been raised around the propriety of Hindu preacher Dhirendra Krishna Shastri being transported in a Chhattisgarh government aircraft, reportedly to Raipur ahead of a religious programme earlier this week.
While the opposition Congress has asked under what protocol Shastri was given the privilege, Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma appeared to defend the government's actions on Sunday (December 28), saying that “we will carry him on our shoulders and with utmost respect” whenever the preacher desires to come to the state.
A video circulating on social media shows Shastri alighting from the government jet before being saluted by a uniformed police officer, who then takes off his beret and boots and touches the preacher's feet.
Per PTI, the man seen getting off the plane before Shastri was Chhattisgarh cabinet minister Guru Khushwant Saheb.
Some social media users criticised the state for letting Shastri, who is not an office-holder, to avail the aircraft, and the Congress said it amounted to “theft from the state exchequer and misuse of public wealth”.
“This raises the big question of under what capacity and protocol Shastri was allowed to avail the government aircraft. This is a direct theft from the state exchequer and a misuse of public wealth,” and the Congress condemns it, Sushil Anand Shukla, communications chief of the party's Chhattisgarh unit, said.
The party also shared a purported official itinerary for minister Saheb on Thursday, which says he was scheduled to travel between Raipur and Madhya Pradesh's Satna by state aircraft, with a stop at the latter town for half an hour.
“The question arises: what important public welfare work did the honorable minister accomplish in half an hour at Satna Airport?” the Congress asked in a post on X. Satna is a three-hour drive from Shastri's Bageshwar Dham base.
However, Saheb speaking to The Hindu denied as baseless the allegation that he had travelled to Satna in order to avoid questions of protocol over Shastri's travel.
Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Sharma on Sunday said at a Hanuman katha function in Bhilai in which Shastri participated that his government would welcome the preacher to the state when he desired.
“I want to say that those who are saying absurd things will have to understand that when pandit Dhirendra Shastri ji, who is at the centre of so many people [pointing to the size of the crowd]'s faith, wants to come to Chhattisgarh, we will bring him here on our shoulders and with utmost respect,” the deputy chief minister said.
The controversy occurs alongside a spat between Shastri and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, with the latter accusing the preacher of indulging in ‘tricks and superstitious remedies’ and the former saying that “those who believe that uniting Hindus, spreading Hanuman ji's word and evoking nationalism is superstition ought to leave the country”.
Shastri heads the Bageshwar Dham in Madhya Pradesh and claims to perform ‘healings’ and ‘miracles’. He has previously called for the establishment of India as a Hindu rashtra and invoked the spectre of love jihad, a conspiracy theory of the Hindu right which holds that some Muslim men ‘lure’ Hindu women into relationships and marriage with the aim of converting them to Islam.
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