Dhirendra Shastri’s “Sanatan Hindu Ekta Padyatra,” which began from Delhi on November 7 and ended in Vrindavan on November 16, carried the usual packaging of unity, devotion, purity, and cultural reaffirmation. It demanded a clean Yamuna river and a minor phenomenon called “Hindu Rashtra,” nothing too significant.

The yatra was presented as a gentle march, soft-footed and non-political – a procession meant to lift the moral air of the land. But one only had to listen to Shastri (Baba Bageshwar) for a few minutes to realise that it was nothing but a façade. For a man insisting that nothing about this yatra touched politics, he had an oddly consistent habit of demanding a Hindu Rashtra, mentioning “liberation” of Krishna Janmabhoomi – in short, of planting political narratives into the language of faith. Calling this march apolitical was just a theatrical patina.

The irony deepens when you look at the air itself. Delhi and NCR were choking under a toxic smog so thick it stung the lungs. Public health advisories have warned people about the poisonous air, and the number of people with breathing problems has increased exponentially. And in the midst of this hazardous haze, Shastri led a cross-state march on a national highway – thousands walking through what the government itself classified as ‘severe’ air.

The National Highway-19 had to be diverted, frustrating commuters who had to take alternate routes. The inconvenience was not a side effect but an inevitability of turning a public highway into a devotional runway. There is no way to discover if faith demanded all this, but it is painstakingly obvious what ambition demanded.

Shastri’s rise has always rested somewhere between performance and persuasion. His televised “miracles,” his dramatic public sessions, and his crafted image of clairvoyance have been so effective that the NBDSA once ordered News18 to take down its interview with him for promoting superstition. That was the rare moment when an institution said no. This yatra illustrated how often others say yes.

Initially, this article was meant to study a handful of the people visiting him – the public figures who orbit him, the patterns they reveal. But the list grew absurdly, turning from a set of names into a size that could easily match that of an urban township. Singers, poets, religious figures, politicians, celebrities, minor royalty, ideological foot-soldiers – all of them gathering like spectators around a bonfire. At least the devotional professionals like singers, poets, or religious figures had predictable motives. They are happy to attend any event that promises a mic and a crowd. But the rest? Their presence requires some explanation.

A carousel of celebrities

The entertainment world turned up with the odd sincerity of people who don’t quite believe in what they’re doing, but enjoyed the glow of being seen doing it.

Shilpa Shetty spoke with complete confidence about supporting Shastri’s “work,” described the effort as a dharmyudh, and identified herself as a Kshatriya and a Hindu who had come “to take Sanatan ahead.” It hardly matters whether she intended to echo Shastri’s political rhetoric or merely perform cultural allegiance to gain proximity to a network that may help her and her husband, Raj Kundra, in these troubled times. Public alignment rarely waits for intent. Her words sat close enough to his narrative to blur the distinction.

Ekta Kapoor arrived with her own, unmistakable agenda. She mispronounced Shastri’s name, praised the supposed Sanatan symbolism of her serials, and then used the gathering to announce her new Balaji Astro Guide app. I wonder if her slurred speech was her nervousness about her other venture, ‘Alt Balaji’. One can almost admire the self-serving efficiency.

Rajpal Yadav also paid a visit; in reverence, he looked like a celebrity who was actually a devotee of Shastri. Shrivardhan Trivedi, of Sansani fame, delivered his greetings with the familiar intensity of a crime bulletin.

Shikhar Dhawan visited, trailed by the quiet heaviness of ED scrutiny. Bhagyashree and her husband, Himalay, floated through the event as though they wanted to ensure their attendance.

But, closing this eclectic procession was Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar – a royal aspirant searching for legitimacy outside the palace walls that had been denied to him by his peers in Mewar. When ancestral authority falters, public recognition becomes the next available inheritance. His presence, more than anyone else’s, revealed how much the yatra was a marketplace for personal reinvention.

The political embrace

If celebrities came for relevance, the political class came to reinforce their ideological narrative, electoral advantage and symbolism.

The list of political familiar faces was long: Manoj Tiwari, Giriraj Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, and Dinesh Lal “Nirahua” Yadav. Their presence felt procedural, as predictable as moths at a floodlight. But this alignment broadened quickly and significantly.

Former Haryana chief minister and current Minister of Power and Housing and Urban Affairs, Manohar Lal Khattar, visited the yatra. Current Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini also marked his presence when the yatra was passing through Haryana.

On the last leg of the yatra, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav also arrived to show his support. That’s two chief ministers and one union minister – people oath-bound to uphold the Constitution – appearing at a yatra where Hindu Rashtra was demanded on a loudspeaker. If Shastri wanted the yatra to appear non-political, this trio ensured the opposite.

And they did not come alone.

-Lakhan Patel, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry and Dairying (Independent Charge), Madhya Pradesh, expressed support for the idea of Hindu Rashtra.

-Govind Singh Rajput, Minister of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Madhya Pradesh, echoed similar sentiments.

-Alok Sharma, MP from Bhopal, spoke openly from the stage about Hindu unity and destiny.

-Gaurav Gautam, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Empowerment & Entrepreneurship, Sports, Law and Legislative Affairs, Haryana, urged people to unite under Shastri’s banner.

-Kapil Mishra, Minister for Art, Culture and Language of Delhi, sat on the stage comfortably while Kumar Vishwas praised his resolve for ‘Hindutva.’

-Raghuraj Pratap Singh “Raja Bhaiya,” UP MLA and chief of Jansatta Dal Loktantrik, lent his own muscular endorsement, framing Hindu Rashtra as the path to collective safety.

These were not fringe visitors. These were individuals with portfolios, constituencies, and political weight. These are men who don’t attend such events without calculation. The sheer number of BJP ministers making an appearance at a yatra where “Krishna Janmbhoomi” was a talking point isn’t subtle political messaging, but an open signal towards the next ideological project.

And with each of them came convoys, barricades, escorts, personnel shifts and security deployments paid for by public money. Multiple governments had to rearrange their machinery to ensure their leaders could walk through a yatra that already disrupted traffic across districts. The public waited in diversions while the exchequer absorbed the expense. If this were a spiritual gathering, it would have required the logistical footprint of a state visit.

Shastri may have insisted the yatra was above politics, but the political class surrounding him erased that claim at every turn.

What this march was really about

The followers walking behind Shastri inhaled polluted air that scraped their lungs, trusting that devotion would protect them. People stuck on the highway diversions took longer routes home because someone else’s spectacle had taken precedence.

The politicians and celebrities visiting him faced no such burden; they arrived with security cordons for relevance, legitimacy, ideological amplification, and proximity to influence without responsibility. All faiths or beliefs ask for introspection. This yatra asked for attention – the louder, the more crowded, the better.

The yatra was not a march of faith. It was neither a cultural revival nor a spiritual awakening. This yatra was a parade of utility.

Shastri provided the stage. The visitors provided the endorsement.

And the public provided the cost by their breath, time, and money.

The people walking behind him deserved someone who valued their well-being more than his optics. What they received was a yatra that mistook inconvenience for devotion and treated the state as a backstage crew for personal ambition.

In the end, the most evident truth was not in Shastri’s sermons or the politicians’ silence – it was in the company he attracted. And nothing reveals a man’s intentions more honestly than the people who gather at his side.

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