At the Shahpur Jat temple, the Sai Baba idol consecrated in 2009 is still missing
Purana Shiv Mandir at Shahpur Jat in New Delhi; (Photo: Rajwant Rawat)
On April 6, 2021, Padam Panwar, 50, a member of the managing committee of the Purana Shiv Mandir in Delhi’s Shahpur Jat area, was arrested for allegedly “dislodging” a Sai Baba idol at the temple. The idol had been removed, replaced by a Ganesha on March 25. A video later surfaced purportedly showing Panwar pointing to the idol and saying: “He was no God, he died in 1918, he was a Muslim.” “Mullah hai,” says another voice in the background.
Panwar, who’s out on bail, now claims the video was fake and asserts that it is a tradition in the Hindu religion to replace idols when they become old. Others are not convinced. An FIR was registered after nine Sai Baba devotees approached the police.
There is another video doing the rounds in which Panwar is seen seated next to Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, a rabble-rousing Hindu priest from UP. Saraswati blesses him for “breaking and throwing away” the idol of the “pakhandi (fraudster) Sai”. “If I had my way, jehadis like Sai will never be able to enter temples,” he is heard saying. In January this year, Saraswati, the head of the powerful Dasna Devi temple, was arrested following his speech at a dharam sansad (religious congregation), in which he called for Hindus to take up arms against Muslims.
Sai Baba, a spiritual leader, was believed to have lived in Shirdi, Maharashtra in the 19th century. While not much is known about his religious origin, the Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust that runs the temple in Shirdi maintains he preached “the universal religion of love” uniting Hindus and Muslims. However, many Hindu spiritual leaders claim that worshipping Sai Baba “pollutes the flow of sanatan dharma”. In August 2014, Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati of Dwarka Peeth even passed a resolution to that effect.
Purana Shiv Mandir at Shahpur Jat in New Delhi; (Photo: Rajwant Rawat)
Meanwhile, at the Shahpur Jat temple, the Sai Baba idol consecrated in 2009 is still missing. A poster of Sai Baba, however, adorns one of the walls. Panwar remains a member of the temple committee, but no one wants to talk about the incident, saying it was a needless controversy.