Daily News and Analysis
Bajrang Dal hires musclemen
by Aditya Kaul
Thursday, October 23, 2008 02:24 IST
Pehelwans available on hire make rallies easier for many outfits in Hindi heartland
KANPUR: Besides its dedicated cadre in Kanpur and recruitments through its network, the Bajrang Dal recruits pehelwans (wrestlers) from local akharas when the need arises.
One such akhara, the Azad Hind Vyayamshala, is located on Bhagwat Das ghat. There are about 20 pehelwans who come daily for exercises here. Says Ashok Pehelwan, manager of the akhara, “If you want pehelwans anywhere in Uttar Pradesh we can arrange them for you.”
The akhara supplies wrestlers to the Bajrang Dal. “Yeh dharm-varam kuch nahi mante. Yeh to dhanda karte hain. Yahan se kai baar ladke le gaye hain (These people don’t know any religion. They just do business. They have taken several people from here),” said a wrestler..
What’s the cost? “There is no fixed rate. But the diet of the pehelwans has to be taken care of,” he added.
Another wrestler from Kannauj said, “Today morning itself I was with Bajrang Dal men. I have accompanied them on several occasions on protests and demonstrations.”
Stretched on a charpoy in a small hutment, Hemraj, one of Kanpur’s most prominent wrestlers, is enjoying his afternoon siesta. A short but stoutly built man with a bushy moustache, Hemraj appeared straight out of a Bollywood film. Asked about the price, he asked, “Do you want them? Tell me how many and where. I can supply them and you can take them anywhere . The daily charges are Rs 2000 besides expenses incurred on the food and upkeep of the wrestlers.”
So what sort of work do they do? “We can go to any rally or even to threaten somebody…you tell us tand we will do it.”
Can they beat up somebody? He laughs, “Arre bhai, tod-fod karna hi to hamara kaam hai. (Breaking things is our work).”
It isn’t just the publications, false histories, dedicated cadres, religious functionaries, intimidations, mysterious blasts and wrestlers that make up the entire Sangh Parivar, especially its deadly youth wing, Bajrang Dal.
It is probably something else nobody talks in public about and what a senior Bajrang Dal functionary said at the Sangh office in Govind Nagar — the Bajrang Dal trains its youths in what they call Bal Upasana Kendras.
We ask a lot of people, but nobody seemed to know much. So we asked the Bajrang Dal’s national convenor Prakash Sharma, in Ayodhya, over phone. He sounded surprised. “Who told you about this?” After a moment of silence, he added, “I cannot tell you anything.” And he hung up.
aditya_k@dnaindia.net
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