Pawan Kumar Gupta, the national president of the Shiv Sena (Hindustan), moves around with a dozen-odd police personnel. (Express photo by Harmeet Sodhi)
A bullet-proof Ambassador given to him by the state government is the latest symbol of power and police protection that Pawan Kumar Gupta, the national president of the Shiv Sena (Hindustan), moves around with a pilot gypsy and a dozen-odd police personnel. Gupta heads one of the Shiv Sena groups in Punjab which now number more than two dozen with new additions taking place every year.
The radical Hindu groups of the state are back in news after the clashes with Dalit groups in Phagwara in April in which one youth died and caused tension throughout Punjab. Four persons from Hindu organisations and one from a Dalit organisation have been arrested by the police till now.
Visitors to Gupta’s house at the outskirts of the city are stopped by his gun-toting security guards with a polite question, “Koi asla taan nahi hai ji (Are you carrying any firearms).”
“I am the senior most among Shiv Sena leaders in the state having been associated with Balasaheb Thackeray’s Shiv Sena in Mumbai from 1989 to 2003. Before that I was influenced by Pawan Sharma of Hindu Suraksha Samiti and Jagdish Tangri of Hindu Shiv Sena who had taken on Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale when militancy in Punjab was at its peak,” says Gupta.
Sitting with two ‘trishuls’ stacked behind him and sporting a broad ‘tilak’, the 48-year-old admits that he was in his teens when he joined the ‘movement’. When he is not fighting for the rights of the Hindus in Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, Gupta looks after his business interests as a sleeping partner of a rice sheller.
Age factor is a common thread which binds many of these radical group leaders together. Another Patiala-based head of a similar group, Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Suraksha Samiti, Panchanand Giri is also in his late 40s. Apart from the declared aim of ‘protecting Hindu interests’, his organisation also runs a langar and gaushala next to the well known Kali Temple in Patiala. “We also run the Hindu Takht which is like the Akal Takht of the Sikhs,” says Rajesh Kehar, senior vice president of the Samiti, impassively. Panchanand Giri enjoys ‘Y Plus’ security status and entry to his HQ also entails passing through a security check.
The radical leaders admit that what began as a voice of the religious minority in the state against Sikh militant groups in the 1980s has today morphed into an affair where breakaway groups are being formed to seek more importance, and more police security to flaunt. “As per our estimate there are 27 Shiv Senas in Punjab,” says Kehar with a smile. No one wants to become a worker but everybody wants to become a ‘pradhan’, he adds. “They all do it for getting security,” he says as a matter of fact.
Sanjeev Ghanauli, president of Shiv Sena (Punjab) agrees that an obsession for getting security and using it to further alleged illegal activities with impunity as a main cause of mushrooming of Shiv Senas. “Today, if you want to demand security, then all you have to do is abuse Bhindranwale on the Facebook and WhatsApp and then go about throwing your weight around. This gives a bad name to us. We feel ashamed,” he says. Sharma, who runs a chemist shop in Ghanauli village, near Ropar, is 47 years old and says he joined the ‘movement’ in 1989 in Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray). His father was killed by Babbar Khalsa militants in 1992 and since then he has had security personnel allotted to him. At present he has two government vehicles and 15 cops attached with him.
Shiv Sena (Lalkar) is the latest group which is raising in the state, informs Ghanauli. The others are Shiv Sena (Hind), six groups of Shiv Sena (Amritsar), four to five groups of Siv Sena (Ludhiana), another five to six groups of Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray), Shiv Sena (Samajwadi), Shiv Sena Phagwara, Hindu Shiv Sena, Shiv Sena Akhand Bharat, Shiv Sena Maha Sangram and so on. Some groups are alleged to be the brainchild of intelligence agencies. “They play in the hands of the government and are created to instill differences amongst Hindu groups,” says Pawan Gupta.
Apart from threats from Khalistani groups, these radical leaders say they also face threats from Lashkar-e-Toiba and Kashmir militants. All have led marches to Kashmir, mostly disallowed from proceeding further after Kathua, and some claim to have unfurled the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. “Unlike the othes who are just using the name ‘Shiv Sena’ I have a Kashmir unit in Srinagar headed by a Kashmiri, Abdul Khalid. I have also led a delegation to Kishtwar when riots took place there, says Pawan Gupta. The Hindu Suraksha Samiti chief, Panchanand Giri, at one time faced trial over charges of burning the Holy Quran in Punjab and also for threatening to kill the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in Delhi.
On Phagwara, Hindu Suraksha Samiti claims that their state president, Deepak Bhardwaj, arrested for the clashes, is innocent. “He had no role nor was his weapon used in the firing. He will come clean in the inquiry,” says Kehar. Pawan Gupta says his was the only organisation which condemned the Phagwara violence. “No other Shiv Sena came out with a statement. They do not have the IQ to speak on such issues,” he adds smugly.