Chinmayanand: How once a superstar of Ayodhya agitation is now in disgrace

In 2009, a commission of inquiry, headed by M S Liberhan, a retired high court judge, submitted a report to the Centre on the events and circumstances that led to the demolition of the Babri mosque, and arraigned eight individuals for the “pre-planned act”. Only three are alive. Among them is Swami Chinmayanand. Once a superstar of the Ayodhya agitation, Chinmayanand is in disgrace. Not because of Liberhan. The commission’s indictment left him unscathed as it did the others because the Ayodhya movement was believed to have popular “legitimacy” and beyond the pale of law. 

Once he was entangled, incriminated, and arrested for the alleged rape of a law student, who claimed to have come out after long victimisation, Chinmayanand had no escape route. His two living associates of the Ayodhya era, Vinay Katiyar, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, and Champat Rai, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) vice-president, were mum. Asked if the VHP would expel Chinmayanand from its high-powered panels — which have been re-activated in anticipation of a legal closure of the temple-mosque dispute — Rai replied: “Can society ostracise anyone? We haven’t thought about him.”

The Akhara Parishad, an apex organisation of clerics from 14 Vaishnavite and Shaivite religious orders, is expected to take a call on Chinmayanand during a meeting in Haridwar on October 10. A VHP source said: “With the Ram temple case reaching fruition, sadhus and sants realise they cannot have a sullied person in their ranks.” 

The BJP distanced itself from Chinmayanand, claiming he was no longer its member although he was elected thrice to the Lok Sabha on its lotus symbol — in 1991 from Badaun, 1998 from Machhlishahr, and 1999 from Jaunpur. Harish Chandra Srivastava, the party’s Uttar Pradesh spokesman, could not say when Chinmayanand ceased being a member when queried at a press meet in Lucknow.   

The Congress’ plan to start a protest march was aborted after the UP police arrested its state leaders, prompting spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi to label Chinmayanand as a “high-value asset which in itself is a matter of shame”. That Chinmayanand — who opted out of electoral politics in 2004 but was associated with Ramjanmabhoomi activities — had the alleged protection and patronage of UP high-ups is the staple of Lucknow’s gossip mill.  

Chinmayanand and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were regarded guru bhai or soul brothers in political lore, although they are separated by 25 years. Both are Rajputs. “Chinmayanand is still influential in the eastern region. Yogi shared a platform with him on at least two occasions after becoming CM,” a Lucknow political observer said. A Congress source in Shahjahanpur said: “District officers called on him regularly and touched his feet.” But Jayesh Prasada, nephew of Congress leader Jitendra Prasada, felt Chinmayanand was passe. Prasada, who lives in Shahjahanpur and joined the BJP recently, remarked: “The CM knows there’s no point helping him now.”    

Born Krishna Pal Singh in 1947 at Ramaipur Tyorasi in Avadh’s Gonda district, Chinmayanand reportedly left home at 20 to imbibe lessons in spirituality and Hinduism from Swami Dharmanand, who succeeded as chief trustee of the Swami Sukhdevanand Trust and set up the Shri Shankar Mumukshu Vidyapeeth at Shahjahanpur. Before Dharmanand passed away in 1991, he anointed Chinmayanand as the next in line. That was how Shahjahanpur, a town in Rohilkhand, became his karmabhoomi.  

Unlike Dharmanand, Chinmayanand was politically inclined and on the fringes of the anti-Emergency protests in the 1970s. In 1984, under the stewardship of Mahant Avaidyanath, the then chief custodian of the Gorakhnath monastery — better known as Yogi Adityanath’s guiding light — Chinmayanand was appointed convenor of the Ramjanmabhoomi Mukti Sangharsh Samiti, a core panel to pilot the temple agitation and raise funds. Avaidyanath shaped Chinmayanand’s political ambitions because he had himself plunged into politics fairly early in life, first in the Hindu Mahasabha and then the BJP before passing the baton to the Yogi. He introduced Chinmayanand to Ashok Singhal, the then VHP head. Singhal leveraged his clout and wangled a ticket for Chinmayanand from Badaun in the 1991 election. He defeated Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal. 

Although Badaun is nearly 100 km from Shahjahanpur, Chinmayanand used his power and influence as an MP to extract favours for Shahjahanapur and not his Lok Sabha constituency. Prasada recalled: “His ashram had only four or five rooms. Today, he oversees over eight trusts that manage hospitals, dispensaries and ashrams at Rishikesh, Vrindavan, Badrinath, Haridwar and Mainpuri.” The Swami Sukhdevanand Post Graduate College, which Dharmanand’s predecessor Sukhdevanand Saraswati had set up as a small institution, sprawls over a vast campus and was about to acquire the status of a university. In 2003, Chinmayanand added a law college. His rape accuser was a student there.

He was junior home minister under L K Advani in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. Vajpayee used him principally to negotiate with the VHP.   What happens to the empire now that the emperor is at the end of tether? A former associate said: “Everything hinges on the sadhu samaj’s decision. The government will eventually take over the universities, colleges and schools.”