Why did a Bajrang Dal leader hand out trishuls in a Gujarat newsroom?

In a video from a Gujarat newsroom, a Bajrang Dal leader hands trishuls to women journalists. They then perform a beheading gesture on camera. Online, some users read it as a message to Muslims, others as an echo of the 2002 riots. The channel says both readings are wrong and that the gesture was meant for followers of Rampal, the self-styled godman who is currently out on bail.

The video is from Pradesh 24 Gujarati, a channel launched last year. The women are channel head Bhumi Patel and anchor Priya Gadhvi. The men presenting the tridents were led by Jwalit Mehta, Gujarat vice president of the Bajrang Dal.

The channel recently ran several stories on Rampal, and Gadhvi anchored one of them. Rahul Singh, the channel’s CEO and editor-in-chief, told us that Gadhvi, who is 21, has been receiving threats for several weeks from Rampal's followers. He said the harassment escalated when she was threatened with AI-generated nude images meant to defame her, and she was warned not to cover Rampal.

According to Singh, it began on August 30. That day, Rampal’s followers were distributing a book, Gyan Ganga, in Kheda, near Ahmedabad. The book contained objectionable remarks about Hindu gods and goddesses. Villagers objected, caught the followers and handed them over to the police. The channel reported the incident.

Singh said the channel was first asked to take the video down. “We had only reported the news,” he told us. “After that they kept calling us with threats, from morning till night. Their demand was that it was ‘God’s order’ and that we must stop reporting.”

The channel proposed a debate between a Hindu religious leader and a representative of Rampal’s group, Singh said, but the group declined and the threats continued. The channel then made a video on Rampal’s past, which Gadhvi anchored. After that, Singh said, the followers targeted her directly, and the harassment intensified after September 14. The channel and Gadhvi both filed complaints with the Ahmedabad Cyber Cell.

Newslaundry could not independently verify the threats.

Shyam Sundar, who has been associated with Rampal for the past 25 years and whose number was listed on Rampal’s website for the sect’s Ahmedabad ashram, said he had no information regarding the alleged threats. 

“Villagers in Kheda claimed that the book Gyan Ganga contained incorrect information – a claim that was also aired by a news channel. They went so far as to say that Rampal did not deserve to be called a sant, which angered the devotees. Consequently, they called the villagers and asked them to point out exactly what was written incorrectly in the book.”

Once the controversy surfaced, the channel had public backing from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal, which it ran on its ticker on repeat. 

Patel and Mehta later appeared together on a show. Patel, holding a trishul, asked Mehta why he had given it to them. Mehta replied: “We learned that Rampal’s followers have threatened your anchor. To protect against a demon like Rampal, we have given you the trishul, the symbol of Hindu dharma, as a gift. We know you women can protect yourselves, but you are not alone. We are with you.”

Mehta declined to speak to Newslaundry, citing ill health.

Singh’s defence of the gesture is that it was misread. “You may agree or disagree with us, but the truth is that our colleague made that gesture toward Rampal’s people. The women of Gujarat can protect themselves, but the Bajrang Dal members gave the trishul symbolically.”

The channel is yet to explain why a message for a godman’s followers needed a throat, a trident and a camera.

Distributing tridents has long been a tradition in the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, and it is called “trishul diksha” (trishul initiation). At such events, young participants can often be seen with small tridents hanging from their waists. In the late 1980s and in the run-up to the 1992–1993 riots, Hindutva groups launched large-scale mobilisation programmes, including Trishul Diksha Samarohs (trident consecration ceremonies), where young volunteers were ritually given trishuls.

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