Dera Sacha Sauda is in the news for the wrong reasons, as its head Gurmeet Ram Rahim was recently sentenced to 20 years of jail for raping two sadhvis of his Dera. However, not many people know that the Dera was founded immediately after Partition in 1948 by an ascetic Mastana Balochistani, who hailed from Balochistan (now in Pakistan). He was known for his social work and spartan lifestyle, and after his death, his successor Shah Satnam Singh headed the Dera till 1990.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim was appointed as the head of the Dera in September 1990. Unlike his predecessors however, he was flamboyant right from the beginning and fond of bright and fancy clothes and luxury cars.
Interestingly, after Gurmeet Ram Rahim took over, the Dera Sacha Sauda grew in size as the number of followers increased. The Dera also started yielding political influence as political parties flocked to it, especially during elections for support.
With popularity and power however, controversies soon followed suit. The first controversy erupted when two sadhvis wrote an anonymous letter to the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying that they were raped by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. In fact, his present jail sentence is the fallout of that letter. After that, Ram Rahim’s name was associated with many controversies, including the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.
In 2007, violent clashes broke out between Sikhs and followers of the Dera, after Ram Rahim appeared in a newspaper advertisement, which the Sikhs saw as an impersonation of their tenth Guru, Gobind Singh.
Ram Rahim’s conviction has now set off a battle for succession to head the Dera, which has wealth worth hundreds of crores. The three names in the forefront of the succession battle are Jasmeet Singh, Honeypreet and Vipassana.
Papa’s Angel
Honeypreet Insan is said to be the frontrunner in the race to succeed Ram Rahim. Like him, his so called “adopted daughter”, Priyanka Taneja alias Honeypreet also has a controversial past.
Priyanka was given her present name after the Dera chief got her married to Vishwas Gupta, a Dera follower from Sirsa, in 1999. Insiders claim that when she complained to Singh that her in-laws were demanding dowry, he adopted her as his daughter and made Vishwas his son-in-law, which gave a big boost to his business. But soon, Gupta fell out with his father-in-law, and in 2011, approached the Punjab and Haryana HC to seek the custody of his wife. Now, the flamboyant Honeypreet has been grabbing headlines since the Ram Rahim verdict, after she was seen in a chopper, accompanying him to Rohtak jail. “Papa’s Angel, Philanthropist, Director, Editor, Actress!! Passionate to transform my Rockstar Papa’s directions into actions!” is how she describes herself on her social media accounts.
Biological successor
The biological son of Ram Rahim, Jasmeet Insan is most likely to be the next Dera head, as the 35-year-old holds clout not only in the Dera, but is also politically connected as he is married to the daughter of former MLA and Congress leader Harminder Singh Jassi.
Jasmeet also has the support of his grandmother Naseeb Kaur, who has appealed to all the followers to accept him as the sect’s nominee. The old Dera followers say that in 2007, after being charged with rape and sexual exploitation of two sadhvis, Ram Rahim had anointed Jasmeet as his successor.
The dark horse
Vipassana Insan is considered the dark horse who might succeed Ram Rahim. She is the Chairperson of the Dera Sacha Sauda, looking after administration. She has remained in the background and never really been seen until she appealed for peace to the Dera followers (the only such appeal for peace from the Dera) during the recent violence after the Ram Rahim verdict.
