Dera chief now asks media to mediate

SIRSA: The man in the centre of the Dera-Sikhs controversy, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, on Sunday faced media persons for the first time since the present controversy started, and sought help to diffuse the situation.

Sitting on a high platform amid thousands of his followers, he answered media questions in between his religious discourse. But, sticking to his characteristic style of functioning, mediapersons were required to send their questions on paper slips through his volunteers roaming in the pandal. He said he was ready to resolve the Dera-Sikh row, and asked the media to become mediators, saying, “Management members of my Dera are ready to sit on the negotiating table with anyone at any moment."

He, however, objected to portraying the controversy as a Dera-Sikh one and maintained that many Sikhs too were Dera followers. "Those opposing the Dera and its philosophy are those who suffer monetary losses due to my anti-drug campaigns," he averred.

On the issue of his controversial dress, the Dera chief said he had been wearing it for quite long and nobody ever objected. To a question as to why he took along his personal bodyguards though he had Z-plus security, the Baba said, "Even Lord Rama and Krishna had their own security forces then, so why so much hue and cry over mine."

Asked to comment on the recent orders of the CBI court regarding framing of charges against him in a case of rape, he said this did not make him a convict. "These have to be proved in court," he said. Dera followers acknowledged their approval to the Baba's answers by clapping.