Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal visited incarcerated Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia at the high security Nabha jail Friday. But the visit that is really causing more than just ripples in Punjab’s political landscape was on Tuesday, when head of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) Gurinder Singh Dhillon met Majithia in jail.
The Dera chief is related to Majithia’s wife Ganieve Kaur, currently the MLA from Majitha, and though overtly the Dera head’s visit was a meeting with a “close relative”, the loud and clear political message is impossible to miss.
To begin with, the Dera chief’s visit to a jail is unprecedented. The quiet and spiritual chief of the Dera, Baba Gurinder Singh, is by far the most powerful Dera head in Punjab. The Dera has a massive following in the state running into several lakhs and even though the Dera has remained largely apolitical for decades, the optics of ‘Babaji’ lining up outside a jail to meet Majithia sends a strong political signal to his followers.
The one-to-one meeting, add sources, lasted over half an hour. By the time the Dera head came out of the jail, news of his visit had spread, leading to his followers gathering outside the building to catch a glimpse of him.
The meeting of the Dera chief also gains significance in light of the fact that several senior leaders of the Akali Dal have been denied permission to meet Majithia, who is in jail for alleged disproportionate assets, in the past two months.
Sukhbir Badal’s wife MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is Majithia’s sister and who was allowed to visit him on Rakhi had told mediapersons that she was allowed the visit after several requests. Apart from Harsimrat and his wife Ganieve, no other Akali leader has been allowed to visit Majithia.
This is the first time Badal has visited Majithia in jail, and he was accompanied by his wife Harsimrat Kaur and Ganieve Kaur. Badal, while talking to media persons outside the jail Friday said, that the Punjab government had denied several previous requests to meet Majithia. “Even when they allowed Harsimrat to meet him, it was only for a few minutes. I want to warn the SSP of Patiala Varun Sharma that the role he has played is not becoming of an officer,” said Badal.
Senior leaders Daljit Singh Cheema, Sikander Singh Maluka, Mahesh Inder Grewal and Virsa Singh Valtoha have been denied permission by the state government on the grounds that only close family members can meet Majithia in jail.
Dhillon, who has been listed as a family member by the Majithias in the list handed over to the jails department, was granted permission on that ground, said a senior officer of the department, talking to ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
However, experts say that even if the state government wanted to deny the Dera chief a visit to the jail, it would have been politically suicidal. “It is impossible not to read politics into the Dera Beas head’s visit to the jail to meet Bikram Majithia. It is not exactly a pleasant prospect for the state government. The antagonism between the AAP government and Majithia is too pronounced to admit any compromise. But to say no to the Dera Beas head would have been politically suicidal. The Dera commands a following more than almost all the other Deras put together in Punjab. And to disrespect or deny any wish of the Dera chief would have amounted to antagonising his followers,” said Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur of the department of political science, DAV College Sector 10, Chandigarh.
Why is the RSSB significant?
The Radha Soami Satsang Dera is spread across 3,000 acres in Beas, and has almost 5,000 branches in India and 90 abroad. Its headquarters at Beas is a mini township in itself, complete with a massive satsang complex, residential areas, a school, and a hospital.
Despite it claiming to be completely apolitical, politicians flock to the RSSB during elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the Dera in November 2022, ahead of the Himachal Pradesh polls. Dhillon had met the PM in Delhi in February 2022 as well. Union Home Minister Amit Shah too visited the Dera that year.
The Dera chief had in November 2024 visited Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. He has also visited Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria. In 2024, he visited and placed a turban on Sufi singer Mahatma Birendera Singh to acknowledge him as leader of Dera Jagmalwali in Hisar amid a succession dispute there.
In December last year, Dhillon had met Giani Harpreet Singh, the then jathedar of Takht Dam Dama Sahib along with Surjit Singh Rakhra, senior leader of the breakaway faction of the Shiromani Akali Dal. The move was seen as him trying to play the interlocutor between the Akali Dal and the rebel group.
Dhillon had in February also visited Aman Arora, the AAP Punjab chief, at his Chandigarh residence.
“On the face of it, the Dera head meeting Majithia can be dismissed as a social visit. In fact, this Dera chief, more than any other before him, is a rather social person. He rarely stands on ceremony about his being seen publicly with the people he visits. But for the head of a highly respected spiritual outfit who has lakhs waiting on him, to physically go all the way to a jail amounts to sending very strong political signal that Majithia is not someone who can be sidelined politically,” added Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur.
Majithia in his own reaction on X, acknowledged the significance of the visit. “Neither do I have the status, nor the capability. I am a humble person and I don’t have the words to express my gratitude to the revered Babaji, the head of the Dera Beas who came to meet me at the Nabha jail today. His coming to encourage me is an emotional moment for me. Babaji has always held my hand in the toughest times of my life and I am immensely grateful to him. I am thankful to the sangat (community) and the great persons whose blessings keep me in high spirits.”
ਦਾਸ ਦੀ ਨਾ ਤਾਂ ਇਨੀ ਹੈਸੀਅਤ ਹੈ ਨਾ ਔਕਾਤ ਹੈ।
ਇੱਕ ਨਿਮਾਣਾ ਭੁੱਲਣਹਾਰ ਜੀਵ ਹਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਕੋਲ ਯੋਗ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਵੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਜਿਨਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਮੈਂ ਅਤਿ ਸਤਿਕਾਰਤ ਬਾਬਾ ਜੀ ਡੇਰਾ ਬਿਆਸ ਮੁਖੀ ਬਾਬਾ ਗੁਰਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ ਜੀ ਦਾ ਸ਼ੁਕਰਾਨਾ ਅਦਾ ਕਰ ਸਕਾਂ ਜੋ ਦਾਸ ਨੂੰ ਮਿਲਣ ਅੱਜ ਨਾਭਾ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਵਿੱਚ ਪਹੁੰਚੇ। ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦਾ ਮੈਨੂੰ ਮਿਲਣ ਆਉਣਾ ਮੇਰੀ ਹੌਂਸਲਾ… pic.twitter.com/BiUiCIYIqN— Bikram Singh Majithia (@bsmajithia) September 23, 2025
Majithia was arrested from his Amritsar residence on 25 June by the Punjab vigilance bureau on charges of amassing more wealth than his known sources of income. The press statements issued by the government pegged the unaccounted wealth at Rs 540 crore. In his defence, Majithia alleged that the FIR against him was concocted and the Bhagwant Mann government was acting out of vendetta against him.
Given his purported closeness to the Centre, Dhillon’s visit had also led to speculation about him playing interlocutor between the Akali Dal and BJP for a possible tie-up ahead of the assembly elections.
“Although for the time being there is no clear indication of him playing the role of a political interlocutor between the various people he has met, as we inch close to the 2027 assembly elections, the picture might get clearer,” pointed out Kaur.
The Dera head’s visit also comes at a time when the Akali Dal is on a political upswing largely due to the help being given by Badal to the flood-affected in the state. Badal and his team of Akali workers have been going from village to village, handing over cash to affected families.
Support for Badal comes amid multiple attempts by the party’s breakaway faction to decimate him politically and despite his party being in the doldrums for over a decade. The Dera head’s visit, combined with Badal’s rising graph, has brought the Akali Dal back in the political picture, at least for the time being.
Experts, however, view the Dera head’s visit as a result of emerging tension between Majithia and Badal. But senior party leaders vehemently refuted any kind of tension between Badal and Majithia.
The Dera Beas head’s visit and empathy for Bikram could have multiple meanings, says Dr Harjeshwar Singh of the department of history, SGGS College Sector 26, Chandigarh. “It is a signal to Sukhbir about the importance of Majithia. Also, it could signal some understanding between Majithia and the BJP,” said Singh.
Harjeshwar Singh added that the Dera head’s visit is also a hint to the AAP govt about where the Dera’s sympathies and possible support lay.
“The case against Majithia is completely false, borne out of vendetta. The Dera chief is not going to go into a jail to meet a criminal. When Mr Majithia was arrested, most of the opposition leaders also came out and supported him. How big a danger Majithia had become for Mann is clear from the manner in which the vigilance bureau is handling the case at his behest. They virtually invited every person who is a known enemy of Majithia to come to the vigilance bureau and record their statement. They ensured that during his visits to the court, Majithia does not talk or even make a thumbs up or victory sign to the media to show that he is in high spirits. These are tell tale signs that the CM has nothing but hatred for him,” said senior Akali leader Parambans Singh Bunty Romana talking to ThePrint.
During remand hearings, a Mohali court had earlier allowed the state police to curtain the entire courtroom, including the windows to ensure that Majithia is neither seen by media persons nor able to interact with them. During his various appearances in the case while in police remand, the police even barricaded the entire court premises. The parking area where Majithia’s vehicle was brought was also curtained to stop the press from accessing him.
On 18 August, a Mohali court denied bail to Majithia in the case after reserving orders on the matter at least five times. The court finally asserted that the case was in a “crucial and sensitive stage” of investigation. The court went on to state that disproportionate assets cases “constitute a class apart” and custodial interrogation remains the norm in economic offences with wide ramifications.
On August 22, the vigilance bureau filed challan in the court in the case.
Majithia has now moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court for bail. Hearing of the case will resume 14 October.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: From Gorakhpur to Singapore & Cyprus, Punjab vigilance cites ‘money trail’ to seek Majithia’s remand