Sandeep said that both his parents were followers of the preacher, but his mother Ram Lakshmi did not go to the satsang this time.
July 2 was ending as a routine day for 40-year-old Manmohan Kumar at his Indian Air Force (IAF) office in Delhi’s Tughlakabad until he called up his wife around 6:30pm. His wife informed Kumar that her father-in-law Ram Naresh, who had gone to Hathras for a satsang, was not answering the calls. Manmohan also called up his father many times, but to no avail. Minutes later, his brother Sandip called to give the most painful news of his life — “Come home soon… our father is dead”.
A retired Subedar of the Indian Army, 66-year-old Ram Naresh of Malgawa Mandir village in Ajitmal block of UP’s Auraiya district was one of the two men who were killed in the Hathras stampede that claimed 121 lives. While the family is in grief, Kumar angrily questions why there is no action against the ‘Baba’ yet.
“My father sat next to the stage. When the crowd started to disperse, someone pushed him… People then walked over him. Satya Prakash, a man from our village who accompanied my father, identified him and informed my brother about his death,” said Manmohan.
He said his father had attended the satsang of Narayan Sakar Vishwa Hari aka ‘Bhole Baba’ for the first time about four years ago at their village. “It was not a big function, it was organised in a mango farm. He seemed very happy about the satsang that day,” Manmohan recalls. “It is very easy to talk about good deeds, but very difficult to bring that into action. Baba in his satsang would say to help others, but when the stampede happened, he ran away. He could have saved so many lives,” said Sandeep, the younger brother of Manmohan. Like Manmohan, Sandeep is also a sergeant in the IAF.
Sandeep said that both his parents were followers of the preacher, but his mother Ram Lakshmi did not go to the satsang this time. Asked about how Ram Naresh ended up becoming an ardent devotee of the Baba, he said, “He was a spiritual man. I never questioned him about his beliefs… My father used to say that do what is right, rest will be taken care of by Sakar Hari.”