Congress questions ‘success’ of Dhami government’s drive against ‘fake’ spiritual gurus

Over two months since the launch of a State-wide crackdown against “fake” spiritual gurus, the Uttarakhand police have arrested several “undocumented” Bangladeshi nationals and those involved in “illegal religious conversion”, including an “international conversion racket”.

However, even as the police hail the “success” of Operation Kalanemi, conceptualised by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and named after the demon who disguised himself as a saint to mislead people, the Opposition Congress has criticised the drive and alleged that its aim is to “harass the State’s Muslim population”.

In a press conference held last week, IG (Law and Order) Nilesh Anand Bharane said they have verified the identities of over 5,500 people across the State since the drive’s launch in July.

“As many as 14 people were arrested under the drive, and legal/preventive action was taken against 1,182,” he said and shared several “success” stories of action against those guilty.

‘Only hype’

Questioning the aim behind the exercise, Uttarakhand Congress’ vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana said what the police have done over the past two months is “just a routine verification drive that was hyped to serve the government’s agenda”.

“After attacking minority community members under the garb of the Uniform Civil Code, demolishing their places of worship and arbitrarily shutting down their educational institutions, the BJP government was looking for another opportunity to target Muslims,” said Mr. Dhasmana.

He added, “The government did not get sufficient figures that they could claim as achievements, so they clubbed cases of cyberfrauds, impersonation and conversion rackets in the drive to show that the CM has done a lot of work.”

When contacted, the office of Uttarakhand DGP Deepam Seth said data on “fake” gurus held under the drive were unavailable.