Swami Sachchidanand Hari Sakshi Ji Maharaj (born 12 January 1956), also known as Sakshi Maharaj, is an Indian political and religious leader belonging to the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

. He won the 2014 general election from

Unnao Unnao is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Unnao district and a part of Lucknow division, between Kanpur and Lucknow. Unnao is a large industrial city with three industrial suburbs around it ...

, Uttar Pradesh. He also won Indian general election in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

from

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

from

Farrukhabad Farrukhabad is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Farrukhabad tehsil. The city is on the banks of river Ganges and is from the national capital Delhi and from the state capital Lucknow. ...

. He was also a member of

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

from 2000 to 2006, before being suspended for corruption. He holds a Ph.D. degree and runs various educational institutions and ashrams across India under the banner of ''Sakshi Maharaj Group'' for which he is also serving as its present director. He has been at the center of controversies for his reportedly

Islamophobic Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism. The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...

views. While campaigning in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, he said that he feels it is the last election of the country.

Life and career

Sachchidanand Hari Sakshi was born in Sakshi Dham,

Kasganj district Kasganj district is a district of the Indian state Uttar Pradesh. It is located in the division of Aligarh and consists of Kasganj, Patiali and Sahawar tehsils. Its headquarters is at Kasganj. History The district lies in the cultural region ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 195 ...

. His father was Atmanandji Maharaj Premi and mother was Madalasa Devi Lodhi. Sakshi belongs to the

Lodh The Lodhi (or Lodha, Lodh) is a community of agriculturalists, found in India. There are many in Madhya Pradesh, to where they had emigrated from Uttar Pradesh. The Lodhi are categorised as an Other Backward Class but claim Rajput ties and pref ...

community which has been categorised as an

Other Backward Class The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, ...

in Uttar Pradesh. Initially, Sakshi belonged to the

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

and had close associations with

Kalyan Singh Kalyan Singh (5 January 1932 – 21 August 2021) was an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He served twice as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Member of Parliament. He was the Chief minister of Utt ...

, another BJP leader belonging to the

community, and another BJP leader

Kalraj Mishra Kalraj Mishra (born 1 July 1941) is an Indian politician, serving as the Governor of Rajasthan. He is the former Governor of Himachal Pradesh and Cabinet Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the BJP-led NDA government of Prime ...

. He was elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

in 1991 from

, 1996, and 1998 from

which has a Lodh majority. Sakshi Maharaj has been involved in the

Ram Janmabhoomi movement Ram Janmabhoomi (literally, "Rama's birthplace") is the site that is hypothesized to be the birthplace of Rama, believed to be the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. The Ramayana states that the location of Rama's birthplace is on the ...

and is currently under trial as one of the accused in the

Babri Masjid Babri Masjid ( IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning ''Mosque of Babur'') was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim commun ...

demolition case. In the 1999 general election, he campaigned for

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as well. With a ...

after he was denied a ticket for

by BJP. After 1999 election results were declared, Mulayam Singh formally admitted him to Samajwadi Party. Sakshi Maharaj said the BJP's policies were not favourable to poorer and backward sections of the society. The ticket had been denied to him on the order of

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

. Back then, Sakshi was an accused in the murder of Brahm Dutt Dwivedi, a close associate of Vajpayee. But later the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. In 2000, he was nominated to the

Mulayam Singh Yadav Mulayam Singh Yadav (22 November 1939 – 10 October 2022) was an Indian politician, a socialist figure and the founder of the Samajwadi Party. In the course of his political career spanning more than six decades, he served for three terms as ...

. In August 2000, a college principal from

Etah Etah is a municipality city which is also the headquarters of Etah District of the Uttar Pradesh state in India.Etah district is a part of the Aligarh Division and is located at the midpoint of the Delhi-Kanpur Highway(NH 91) Known as G.T Road ...

filed a complaint accusing Sakshi and two of his nephews, Padam Singh and Shivram Ram, of gang-raping her. The woman and her male colleague had been allegedly assaulted by Sakshi when they were driving to

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra ...

from Etah. They had also allegedly taken away the woman's licensed firearm and

jeep Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Motors ...

. The police said that the woman had been living in Sakshi Maharaj's

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (<

Tihar jail Tihar Prisons, also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram, is a prison complex in India and the largest complex of prisons in South Asia. Run by Department of Delhi Prisons, Government of Delhi, the prison contains nine central prisons, and is on ...

custody awaiting trial. In 2001, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence. In January 2002, he criticised Samajwadi Party, accusing it of

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...

nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...

casteism Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...

and

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

. He said he would remain in Samajwadi Party but support BJP candidates. In December 2005,

STAR TV Star TV may refer to: * E! (Canadian TV channel) (formerly Star!), a Canadian entertainment news channel * Las Estrellas (Spanish for The Stars), the Mexican television network * Estrella TV (Spanish for Star TV), the American Spanish-language net ...

broadcast a report stating that it had carried out a

sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role ...

and found that some parliamentarians were misusing the

MPLADS ''Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme'' (MPLADS) is a scheme formulated by Government of India on 23 December 1993 that enables the members of parliaments (MP) to recommend developmental work in their constituencies with an empha ...

funds. Sakshi Maharaj, then a

member, was among the 11 named parliamentarians. Sakshi had allegedly promised fund for a fictitious

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

. On 21 March 2006, the Rajya Sabha voted to expel Sakshi for violating the code of conduct while rejecting his apology. In 2009, an inquiry started by Etah

District Magistrate A District Collector-cum-District Magistrate (also known as Deputy Commissioner in some states) is an All India Service officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre who is responsible for ''land revenue collection'', ''canal revenu ...

Gaurav Dayal found that a college owned by Sakshi had received from the funds. The inquiry also named Sujata Verma, the principal of the college. She was later murdered. Sakshi initially

abscond Absconding may refer to: * Escaping from incarceration or bail * A form of swarming (honey bee) Swarming is a honey bee colony's natural means of reproduction. In the process of swarming, a single colony splits into two or more distinct colonies. ...

ed but on 14 October 2009 he surrendered. He was released on a

bail bond Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countrie ...

of . In 2012, he returned to BJP just before the assembly polls. On the night of 15 April 2013, Sujata Verma, 47, was shot dead while returning from Sakshi's ashram in

. The eyewitness said that he saw Sakshi's brother pull the trigger and alleged that Sakshi was behind the murder. The police booked Sakshi and associates for murder and

criminal conspiracy In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance ...

. The victim Sujata Verma was a local

panchayat The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical men ...

member and a close associate of Sakshi. She also served as the principal of Maharani Avanti Bai College which was owned by Sakshi. But, they had been involved in a property dispute and Verma had taken the matter to court. The victim's son said that they received threats from him in the past. After the charges were filed, Sakshi went underground. On 29 April 2013,

Allahabad High Court Allahabad High Court, also known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is the high court based in Prayagraj that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 17 March 1866, making it one of the oldest high ...

refused to quash the FIR against him. In the 2014 general election, he contested from

for BJP.

Religious and other activities

Sakshi Maharaj holds the title of

Acharya In Indian religions and society, an ''acharya'' ( Sanskrit: आचार्य, IAST: ; Pali: ''ācariya'') is a preceptor and expert instructor in matters such as religion, or any other subject. An acharya is a highly learned person with a ...

Mahamandleshwar of Shri Nirmal Panchayati Akhada. He is also the director of Sakshi Maharaj Group which has 17 educational institutions in India and several ashrams.

Personal views

On 14 September 2015 in a speech in

Kannauj Kannauj ( Hindustani pronunciation: ənːɔːd͡ʒ is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is a corrupted form of the class ...

, Sakshi Maharaj said the

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

s were creating

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

s and they encourage their students to carry out

Love Jihad Love jihad (also known as Romeo Jihad) is an Islamophobic conspiracy theory developed by proponents of Hindutva. The conspiracy theory purports that Muslim men target Hindu women for conversion to Islam by means such as seduction, feigning l ...

. On 11 December 2014, he called

Nathuram Godse Nathuram Vinayak Godse (19 May 1910 – 15 November 1949) was the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a Hindu nationalist from Maharashtra who shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point blank range at a multi-faith prayer meeting in B ...

, the assassin of

Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, a "patriot and nationalist" like Gandhi in the Indian Parliament. The members of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

party criticised the statement. Later, he retracted his statement and said that he did not consider Godse a "patriot". On 6 January 2015 while addressing a gathering in

Meerut Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...

, Sakshi urged Hindu women to produce at least 4 children to protect

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

in India and said Muslims practice

polygyny Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women. Incidence Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any ...

and thus have a high

birth rate The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...

. In the same speech, he defended the

Ghar Wapsi ''Ghar Wapsi'' (Hindi, meaning "Returning Home") is the programme of religious conversion to Hinduism and Sikhism from Islam, Christianity and other religions, conducted by Indian Hindu nationalist organisations Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Ras ...

movement and advocated

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

for

cow slaughter Due to the multiple benefits from cattle, there are varying beliefs about cattle in societies and religions. In some regions, especially most states of India, the slaughter of cattle is prohibited and their meat may be taboo. Cattle are consider ...

and

religious conversion Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...

. Police filed the FIR under Section 298 of IPC (hurting religious sentiments), among others. Following the

2015 Nepal earthquake The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,964 people and injured 21,952 more. It occurred at on Saturday, 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of 7.8 Mw or 8.1 Ms and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of X (''Extreme ...

, on 27 April, Sakshi claimed that the earthquake happened because INC leader

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Gandhi ( ; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, representing the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala in the 17th Lok Sabha. A member of the Indian National Congress, he served as the president o ...

visited the

Kedarnath temple Kedarnath Temple (Sanskrit: केदारनाथ मंदिर, IAST: ''Kēdāranātha Mandira'', ) is a Hindu temple roughly 1200 years old dedicated to Shiva. The temple is located on the Garhwal Himalayan range near the Mandakini river ...

. He claimed that Gandhi eats

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

and visited the temple without purifying himself. In May 2016, Sakshi was at BJP worker Maidan Singh's house in Unnao after a police raid, where some of the family members including the girl were allegedly injured after they used force. The girl was made to unbutton her jeans in public view and in front of cameras to "show the MP the injuries". However, according to some reports, the main controversy on Sakshi Maharaj was that he threatened to shoot the police who entered Singh's house. Station House Officer Jitendra Kumar filed a complaint against Sakshi, after which he was booked under sections 153 (causing provocation to cause riot), 506 (for criminal intimidation) and 505 (1) (b) (intent to cause fear or alarm to the public). The police had conducted a raid on Maidan Singh's house in connection with illicit liquor trade.

Bibliography

* * * * * He has also been publishing the

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

monthly Monthly usually refers to the scheduling of something every month. It may also refer to: * ''The Monthly'' * '' Monthly Magazine'' * ''Monthly Review'' * '' PQ Monthly'' * '' Home Monthly'' * '' Trader Monthly'' * ''Overland Monthly'' * Menstruati ...

''Bhagwan Sandesh'' since 1972.

References

External links

Sakshi Maharaj Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maharaj, Sakshi Living people India MPs 2014–2019 People from Unnao district Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh Far-right politicians in India 1956 births Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh India MPs 1991–1996 India MPs 1996–1997 India MPs 1998–1999 People from Farrukhabad district People from Mathura district India MPs 2019–present