On Monday, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was sentenced to 20 years in prison in two separate rape cases, CBI judge Justice Jagdeep Singh ruling that the victims had put the ‘accused on the pedestal of God’ and yet the ‘convict committed breach of the gravest nature by sexually assaulting blind followers’.

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The 20-year sentence proved to be a catalyst for the five-movie veteran’s most melodramatic performance, as he bawled for ‘maafi’ in court and refused to leave, before being dragged out.

So far, the Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh verdict has thrust into light some of the grievous deficiencies that plague our society and its various institutions.

The near complicit behaviour of the state government in not tackling the violence, including a late knee-jerk reaction which saw 38 dead, showed the dark nexus between godman and politicians, who depend upon the former for votes.

That Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was hand-in-glove with politicians was well-known as evidenced by the monies he received from various members of the Haryana government.

The Assistant Solicitor General, who was on the opposing side of the legal battle, carrying his suitcase showed how subservient the state and its administration was to him, as was the scenario where five of his guards tried to help him escape.  

The rage of his Dera followers who seemed beyond reason threw light upon our society’s failure to provide for people who then turn to the likes of Gurmeet Ram Rahim for support.

 And yet one group, whose role, we’ve missed in this entire charade was that of the media – who made the unpardonable sin of normalising him.  

In the run-up to the 2016 US Presidential Elections, night-show host Jimmy Fallon had been accused of humanising Donald Trump by tousling his hair, which one commentator called ‘smoothing over Trump’s hatefulness with comedy’.  

It reduced an openly misogynist and racist candidate to a caricature, instead of talking about his deficiencies.

And like Fallon, we the Indian media, to a far greater extent, have done far worse by normalising Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Ever since his first movie, Messenger of God came out in 2015, we’ve been guilty (including this author) in the extreme, of reducing a very dangerous man to a harmless caricature.

 In  this day and age, where cat GIFS compete with serious policy pieces for eyeballs, we all exploited Singh’s perceived goofiness to get traction.

Somehow, all of us, unwittingly became a part of what was clearly a PR exercise to bolster Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s credentials. We might not have praised his movies, but we certainly shifted attention from his crimes.

The ridiculous sells in this day and age, and at face value nothing is more ludicrous than a godman wearing bling, claiming to have invented T20 or showing off his motoring or cooking skills.  

Whether it was making fun of his atrocious acting or follicular growth or ridiculing his so-called achievements which include 19 Guinness World Records, we shifted attention from the fact that he was a very dangerous man.

The charges against Singh and his organisation were grave to say the least. The journalist who broke the story, Ram Chander Chhatrapati, was shot dead outside his house in 2002, and his family have fought a fifteen-year battle for justice, and the case is now nearing its completion.

Among the rape victims, CBI spoke to hundreds who had been subject to ‘Guruji ki Maafi’, and only two of the victims were willing to depose before the court.

One of the victim’s brother was shot dead, which spurred her to even ‘go to hell to justice, if she had to’. Similarly, over 400 Dera supporters were reportedly castrated by the leaders but we glossed over all that.

That he was dangerous, with connections, was evidenced when comedian Kiku Sharda was arrested for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ and picked up by the Haryana police.

Yet we joked and laughed at him, focussing on his singing and dancing, which helped push to the backburner his criminal sins which included rape, murder, castration and criminal intimidation.

We, the media as a whole, might not realise but we have a lot of influence on our viewers, and amid the mad rush for TRP, pageviews and readers, we owe it to ourselves to be honest to the audience.

By normalising Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, we participated in a grotesque campaign which made the task of his victims, who were already facing his financial and political might, even harder. Perhaps next time, before we make anyone viral we ought to ponder over the consequences of our actions and what it would mean to the bigger picture.