DNA Edit | Jailed for two decades: Making an example out of Gurmeet Ram Rahim

Reportedly, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim broke down and had to be dragged out of the makeshift court, back to his cell.

Fifteen years after the godman forced himself on two women in 2002 within the confines of his own ashram, the law has finally caught up with him. On expected lines, the counsels working for the godman will be moving the Punjab and Haryana High Court praying for leniency.

Meanwhile, CBI will also be filing an application seeking lifetime imprisonment. What the high court, in its wisdom, decides will be for the future to tell.

However, a 20-year term seems proper enough for the self-styled saint to realise that patronage of political powers that be and adulation of millions of followers is no immunity from the law taking its course. This sentence is welcome as it will serve to teach other powerful men of his ilk that all persons are equal in the eyes of the law.

However, at this juncture, Indian politicians must reflect deeply on how their culture of political opportunism has allowed such sects to survive, nay, thrive. Political parties across the spectrum like to groom the leaders of such sects as that means a one-stroke access to large electoral gains. What’s more, these leaders insidiously occupy the space that the Indian administration leaves empty. A lure of a job, accessibility to health services, and a larger social acceptance — sorely lacking in a rigid brahminical society — means that followers find a fruitful resolution of their socio-economic problems in such sects.

The government must realise that Ram Rahim is a monster of their own making.