Dera Beas chief’s visit to Majithia in Nabha jail sparks speculation

CHANDIGARH: The surprise visit of Radha Soami Satsang Beas chief Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon to Bikram Singh Majithia inside Nabha jail may have been a single, quiet gesture, but its political reverberations are far louder.

In Punjab's high-stakes politics, where spiritual influence often interweaves with electoral arithmetic, the development is fast being read as a signal that could redefine alignments and voter perceptions in the run-up to the 2027 assembly elections.

The development is striking because in recent weeks, senior SAD leaders including Daljit Singh Cheema, Sikander Singh Maluka, Mahesh Inder Grewal and Virsa Singh Valtoha were stopped at Nabha jail's gates, with officials citing rules that permit meetings only by family members. Their denial had left the impression that Majithia was being deliberately isolated from his political colleagues.

Against this backdrop, the entry of the Beas chief followed by the party president himself has turned the narrative on its head.

For Majithia, who has faced some of the state's toughest legal battles, this marks a significant shift. Arrested on June 25 by the vigilance bureau in a disproportionate assets case involving allegations of laundering over Rs 540 crore of "drug money," he also remains an accused in the 2021 NDPS case rooted in the 2018 Special Task Force report on Punjab's drug problem. The chargesheet in the DA case alone runs into more than 40,000 pages. Majithia earlier spent over five months in Patiala jail before being released on bail in August 2022, but the new case put him back in the crosshairs.

While SAD leaders were being kept away, Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon was allowed entry. Known for leading one of Punjab's most influential sects headquartered at Beas, with followers across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Punjabi diaspora, the Radha Soami head usually keeps a distance from direct political affairs. His meeting with Majithia, followed by a visit to Hiru Mahal the residence of the Nabha royals, immediately sparked speculation in religious and political circles.

The ripple effect was compounded by Sukhbir Singh Badal's visit to Majithia soon after.

Importantly, unlike the perception of silence, Sukhbir has in fact been consistently vocal in Majithia's defence throughout. Since the filing of the FIRs, he has termed the cases as political vendetta, accusing successive governments of targeting Majithia to weaken SAD. His physical presence at Nabha jail, coming in the wake of the Beas chief's meeting, has reaffirmed that stance and positioned Majithia firmly at the centre of SAD's political imagination.

Political analysts believe this combination—religious endorsement through presence, and consistent political defence from the party president—has reshaped how Majithia is viewed. Far from being isolated he is now being projected as a leader who not only retains grassroots support in the Majha belt but also commands sympathy across religious and spiritual lines.

For SAD, this moment offers an opportunity to script a revival. The party was reduced to political margins in the 2022 assembly polls, struggling under the weight of its past controversies over sacrilege incidents and the drug menace. With the Badal family's authority questioned and its cadre demoralised, SAD backed a unifying figure. By rallying around Majithia, with Sukhbir's continuous backing and the added visibility from the Beas chief's visit, the party appears to have found a path to rebuild morale and reposition itself ahead of 2027.

For Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in power under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, the challenge is clear. AAP has consistently portrayed Majithia as the embodiment of Punjab's drug crisis. But the optics of his meeting with Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon and the constant support of Sukhbir Badal threaten to soften that narrative, reframing him as a victim of vendetta rather than a villain of Punjab's drug story.

Congress, meanwhile, is caught in its own turbulence. The party had been hoping to capitalise on anti-incumbency against AAP, but the prospect of a rejuvenated SAD anchored around Majithia and reinvigorated by religious legitimacy may disrupt those calculations, especially in Majha and Malwa, where SAD still retains pockets of loyal voters.

The Radha Soami chief has made no political statement, yet his presence was enough to alter the discourse. In Punjab, where religious and political legitimacy often overlap, such gestures can carry enormous weight. Combined with Sukhbir's continuous defence of Majithia, the picture emerging is of SAD preparing to contest 2027 not as a fractured force but as a party willing to put its weight behind Majithia's comeback.

As the state heads into a new electoral cycle, one thing is certain: the double signal from Nabha jail—spiritual acknowledgement and political solidarity—has shifted Punjabi's political narrative. For Majithia, it marks a re-entry into the centre of Punjab's politics. For SAD, it offers the beginnings of a revival story. And for AAP and Congress, it signals that the 2027 battle will be more complex than anticipated.