Hathras stampede: As Bhole Baba remains untraceable, his followers vent mixed feelings

The Baba had a couple of days back, released a video statement saying that he was deeply ‘saddened’ by the deaths and urging his followers to stand with the families of the victims.

Lucknow: As self-styled godman Suraj Pal alias Sakar Hari Bhole Baba, in whose ‘satsang’ (religious congregation) 121 devotees died in a stampede last week, continues to remain untraceable even six days after the tragedy, his followers vented mixed feelings about him with many still certain of his ‘divine’ powers.

While the family members of many of the followers, who died in the tragedy, consigned the Baba’s photos from their homes to the dustbins and even trampled the photos with their feet in anger, there were many others for whom Bhole Baba was a ‘’God like’ figure.

‘’He is a fake baba…. he doesn’t possess any miraculous power…I had asked my mother many times not to attend his satsang but she did not heed my advice,’’ said Sonu Kumar, a resident of Nangla Rood village in Hathras, whose mother Premvati was among those killed in the stampede.

Sonu took away the ‘taviz’ (a thread, which the Baba had distributed among his devotees saying that it would keep them safe from bad omen) from the body of his mother before performing her last rites and threw it in the garbage.

Similarly, Ravi Saini, a resident of Nagla Tikona area in Mathura district, whose mother Tara Devi was an ardent follower of Bhole Baba and who also died in the tragedy, also threw away the Baba’s framed photographs from his home.

Saini said that many women, who were Baba’s followers and had gone to attend the satsang and survived, had also done the same thing.

‘’The Baba has lost our trust…we will never worship him nor go to his programs,’’ said Suneheri Devi, who lost his son and daughter-in-law in the tragedy.

There were however others, who still felt that the Baba possessed ‘divine’ powers and blamed the organisers for the tragedy.

‘’For me Bhole Baba is God…he is innocent .... It is his blessing that I am still alive,’’ said Rampal Singh, a resident of Jalali village.

The Baba, however, remained untraceable even six days after the tragedy. He had a couple of days back, released a video statement saying that he was deeply ‘saddened’ by the deaths and urging his followers to stand with the families of the victims.

While Baba's name did not figure in the FIR registered in connection with the incident, his lawyer A P Singh had claimed that the stampede happened after some people sprayed poisonous gas during the satsang.