Religious delusion is alive and well in India, as elsewhere

Here's a great example of how closed-minded religious believers are able to deny reality, an Economic Times story about how a spiritual leader is still trusted by his followers even after being convicted of rape and murder. 

This is how the story starts out.

SIRSA: Nothing has changed over the last two years for Baljeet Insaan. Her devotion to “pita ji” remains intact. She says prison bars cannot contain his healing effect. After all, she says, he cured her of cancer 20 years ago.

There are many like Baljeet who swear by Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s “powers”, more so at the Dera headquarters on the outskirts of Sirsa in Haryana, even after his arrest and conviction for the rape of two followers and murder of a local journalist who exposed the scandal in 2017. Though followers at the Dera compound deny it, the Dera following has come down considerably.

But this has not deterred the present followers from looking towards the Dera for solutions to all their problems, including who to vote for.

Comments

[Jesse]

I was talking about this Ram Rahim's ability to rule from jail a couple months back. Most of these guys gain power from jail, and this will include Gurinder if it comes to that.

Religious craziness might exist "elsewhere" but it's 1000 times more severe in places like India and other non-European countries. It pretty much corresponds exactly to average IQ maps, as do a number of other metrics which aren't fun to talk about.

[kamal singh]

History will repeat itself. Let's see how Gurinder's followers will react after his conviction.

[Mary]

"Beam me up Scotty. This planet is populated with sophisticated, dangerous barbarians."

[K.Singh]

Freezer Baba of Nurmahal Punjab.
Ashutosh came from Bihar and built a following of millions of punjabi,s .He died in in January 2014.But his followers believe he has gone into SAMADHI and will return.So they have put his body in deep-freeze and refuse to cremate it.

The High court has been with it for 4 years. A single-judge bench ordered cremation but a division bench set the order aside.Meanwhile the devotees throng to "freezer Baba " and chant en masse "ashu baba aayene" waiting for him to wake.

Why Punjab is so vulnerable to Baba,s ??. opinions vary.But concious sikh,s believe this is the work of politicians from central government to control the Sikh,s through Dera,s to keep them away from traditional Gurdwara,s.Sikh,s led the opposition to British empire and then emergency declared rule of Indira Gandhi .Following this she appointed Sanjay Gandhi and Giani Zail singh (Congress)to sort out the Sikh,s and they funded Dera Beas and Dera Mehta to take people away from Darbar Sahib(golden temple).

Modi likes Sikhs,mainly because their Guru,s opposed and fought the forced conversions of islam.But is not happy when sikh,s say" we are not Hindu,s "and gets really upset when sikhs organise demonstrations in favor of muslims to chant " free kashmir" .

[K.Singh]

If GSD ends up in jail,it will be a golden opportunity for Majithia-Badal team to make loadsa money.Punjabi,s love a martyr,even more a live martyr.

Either of two will make a good Dera head even though Majithia is best at conning punjabi,s.It was majithia-Badal Raj that dera beas got the largest solar plant in asia costing 100,s of crores while Majithia was energy minister. Fact that Majithia was married to niece of GSD could never be conflict of interest.Roads in punjab had no funds for repair but roads leading to GSD dera,s in punjab were always kept shiny to attract more people .

It was also during the Majithia-badal raj that GSD brother in law Parminder Singh Sekhon was officially appointed advisor to Chief minister of punjab,Badal senior a frail 89 years old at that time,whose son Sukhbir was deputy CM , married to Majithia sister Harsimrat.

It was also during Majithia-Badal raj that GSD acquired agriculture land of 22 villages even though Big landlord Abolition Act 1953 was in place.

There can be no better person than Majithia to succeed GSD.He is master of everything.He is widely reported to deal with Ram Raheem in a proper way when Ram Raheem advised his followers to vote against Majithia party but to Ram Raheem surprise Majithia party won.Majithia took his revenge by summoning driver of Ram raheem through police to his residence and gave him a drees to be worn by Ram Raheem and take photos while drinking from a vessel and provide photo.s to Majithia.Driver refused but was advised by police the real meaning of refusal. The Driver managed to persuade Ram Raheem and take photo,s that appeared in press .Sikhs went mad and picked up their weapons to teach Ram Raheem a lesson for copying Guru Gobind Singh and Amrit (nectar).

When Senior Majithia asked Senior Badal for charity funding,Badal senior is reported in press as saying" i have made your son a Minister,your son-in-law a Deputy CM,your Daughter a Minister,what else i can give you."