Bhaiyyu Maharaj: The godman who broke Anna’s fast

His name is not as famous as some of the other ‘political’ godmen around but then it was he who seemed to have bailed out the government at the time of the Anna crisis.

By Sanjiv Acharya

His real name is Udai Singh Deshmukh. A Maratha by caste and born in Shujalpur district of Madhya Pradesh the 43-year-old godman is today known as Bhaiyyu Maharaj. And his long list of followers is a veritable whos’ who: They include President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackarey and his son Uddhav, two former chief ministers of Maharashtra and at present Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde, BJP honcho Nitin Gadkari, former BJP President Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, and many other former and present ministers in Maharashtra.

He is unlike other religious — he has been a sportsman, played tennis, cricket, participated in swimming competitions and is also a music lover. Fond of acting, he even tried his luck as a model and finally found his calling as a spiritual guru.

He is based in Indore and his social trusts works largely in the rural areas of Maharashtra, in fact in the entire Ahmednagar district which includes Ralegan Siddhi, home to the now national icon Anna Hazare. Being a social reformer himself, Bhaiyyu Maharaj has been supporting Anna’s social work in the area and both enjoy good rapport. Bhaiyyu Maharaj came to the limelight when he managed to swing the support of the Shiv Sena in favour of Pratibha Patil for the office of the President of India. Pratibha Patil and her husband Devi Singh Shekhawat are very close followers of Bhaiyyu Maharaj.

The godman also has a strong hold among leaders from Maharashtra cutting across party lines. RSS chief Mohan Rao Bhagwat often consults him regarding his ideas about social reform. RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya met him at his Indore ashram to discuss the case relating to Sadhvi Pragya who is in jail in connection with the blasts at Malegaon. Bhaiyyu Maharaj is careful to keep himself away from any controversy and enjoys good relations with both the BJP and Congress leaders.

When the BJP held its national executive meeting immediately after Nitin Gadkari had taken over, strangely Indore was the chosen venue for the new BJP chief. Obviously Gadkari was paying tribute to the godman who was said to have been instrumental in making him the president of the Bharatiya Janata party.

And then of course, the recent Anna wave that rattled the government to trip over itself. When all effort seemed to have failed, it was Vilasrao Deshmukh at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who called Bhaiyyu Maharaj to Delhi to mollify Anna Hazare.

When Bhaiyyu Maharaj along with his two followers Lakshman Dholi and Sanjay Yadav met Anna, he was quick to take stock of the situation and conveyed Anna’s message to Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and Deshmukh. In fact he also suggested that speaking to the Gandhian in Marathi would be an added advantage. It was Bhaiyyu Maharaj’s efforts that resulted in the truce at Ramlila but Vilasrao Deshmukh hogged the political benefit in the eyes of the Congress High Command.