Radha Soami Satsang Beas spiritual head Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon greets followers after meeting Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia at Nabha jail on Tuesday.
Dera Radha Soami Chief’s Visit to Majithia in Nabha Jail
On the morning of Tuesday, 23 September, Punjab witnessed an event that created significant ripples across its social and political circles. It aroused the interest as well as the curiosity of Punjabis across a wide cross-section of the state’s demographic, including the diaspora abroad, sparking private conversations in homes, offices, gurdwaras, and tea stalls alike. Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the highly respected head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), visited the incarcerated Bikram Singh Majithia inside Nabha Jail, where he is held in judicial custody in the case of “disproportionate assets” under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, in what was widely perceived as a gesture of moral support.
The meeting itself was brief and closed. Like many private meetings at the dera, where photographs may be released but the content of the exchange remains undisclosed, this personal interview too was viewed as an expression of solidarity. What made it unusual was the venue: a high-security prison, not a dera drawing room or a political residence. That single fact elevated a gracious personal act into an event of high public resonance as well as interest.
What the jail tweet says—and why it matters
The follow-up tweet from Bikram Majithia’s “X” handle, obviously issued by his team with his approval, appeared in Punjabi in the afternoon; what circulated more widely was the platform’s English translation. The tone was humble, devotional, and deeply emotional. Majithia wrote: “I neither have such status nor such capability… I am a humble, forgetful being,” thanking the “highly revered Baba Ji,” expressing gratitude to the sangat and saints, and closing with a pledge of chardi kala—“My spirits will always remain high.”
Read politically, the note performs several deliberate functions.
First, it shrinks the self. A politician long viewed as influential now casts himself as small, flawed, and unworthy. This self-effacement is a rhetorical inversion: agency gives way to endurance, command to supplication. In the context of jail, it disarms critics and asks for sympathy.
Second, it borrows moral standing. By highlighting the visit of a revered spiritual leader, Majithia signals that he is not isolated. Proximity to Baba Gurinder Singh, whose following spans Punjab, India, and the diaspora, provides legitimacy at a vulnerable moment. It tells both supporters and opponents that moral capital still attends him.
Third, it enfolds the community. By thanking the sangat and “great saints,” Majithia enlarges a private meeting into a collective story. The implication is that his resilience is not his alone but is shared and sustained by the wider community. This subtly mobilises goodwill without needing to mobilise people physically.
Fourth, it anchors in Sikh idiom. The closing invocation of chardi kala places his experience squarely in the Sikh spiritual tradition of optimism in adversity. It makes his personal trial appear less as a humiliation and more as a test of faith.
Taken together, the tweet represents legitimacy-through-proximity: in isolation, the language of grace and gratitude converts vulnerability into moral capital.
The “Panthic” risk
The sensitivity lies in perception. Sikh doctrine holds that Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is the only eternal Guru. Respect for living or past saints is permitted; anything resembling worship is not. Bikram Majithia’s tweet, written in the emotional register of gratitude, could be read by some hardline Panthic elements as bordering on the elevation of a living person beyond ordinary reverence. This is a risk for a leader whose political base is undoubtedly in Panthic constituencies. He had earlier taken a public stand against the SGPC’s unilateral decision to remove or transfer the Sri Akal Takht Jathedar, Giani Raghbir Singh—a move many saw as a surrogate rebellion against SAD supremo and his brother-in-law Sukhbir Badal. Opponents could now frame his tweet as deravaad—a drift from Guru-centric discipline towards dera-centric personality—whether out of expediency or compulsion.
For Bikram Majithia, the danger is not formal censure from the high priests or the Sikh clergy. The SGPC remains under the firm control of his party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, and no Jathedar is likely to pronounce against him. The real danger is informal ostracism: a coolness in the wider Sikh sangat, especially from the Majha area where his influence is strongest, a quiet withholding of enthusiasm, and the loss of credibility in circles that prize doctrinal clarity above political rhetoric. That is why even an infinitesimal suggestion of shifting sovereignty from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib is fraught with disproportionate risk.
Courtesy calls in perspective
It is important to stress that Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon is respected not only in Punjab but across India and abroad. The RSSB has a vast global following. It is routine for political leaders to call on him, or for him to visit them at their homes on ceremonial occasions like bhogs and marriages, as acts of goodwill and social courtesy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited Dera Beas more than once in recent years. Baba Ji has also met Sukhbir Singh Badal and Harsimrat Kaur Badal at their Delhi residence, and has paid a call on Giani Harpreet Singh at his Bathinda home, at the peak of the SAD’s internal strife. These visits are generally seen as gracious social gestures, although many hold contrarian views.
What makes the Nabha Jail visit distinctive—if not unique—is its venue. An expression of support inside a prison, to a detainee embroiled in controversy as well as serious criminal investigation, is very different from a meeting in a residence or dera. That is why it attracted so much attention, even though the act itself was obviously gracious in intent.
The flood-time opportunity cost
The timing also shaped perception. Punjab has been dealing with severe floods, with Amritsar and Gurdaspur among the worst affected. Relief work and rehabilitation dominate public life. For a leader associated with Majitha in Amritsar, being in custody means missing the chance to be physically present among flood-ravaged families—especially in the backdrop of Sukhbir Badal covering the state to express empathy and distribute relief in cash and kind, including diesel. That absence is also a political cost, particularly as Majithia’s bail application pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court may take another three to four weeks before being decided. The Nabha Jail meeting, amplified significantly through his tweet, partly compensates in the moral register but cannot fully substitute for the optics of hands-on service in flooded villages, at ground zero.
Mitigating the “Panthic” risk
Majithia can preserve the empathy dividend and reduce the risk by:
Clearly reaffirming that Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is the sole Guru and seat of spiritual sovereignty.
Framing Baba Ji’s visit as an act of solidarity, not a spiritual endorsement.
Keeping gratitude explicitly Guru-centric.
Converting sentiment into visible relief work by his team in flood-hit areas, with Majithia’s symbols or emblems displayed conspicuously alongside those of the SAD.
Avoiding language or imagery that could be misconstrued as elevating a living person beyond legitimate reverence to the point of worship.
Handled this way, the goodwill from a supportive visit is retained, while doctrinal clarity is maintained. Left unattended, however, the Panthic risk could spiral into a political waterloo.
Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon wearing a blue turban and white clothing, standing against a yellow and orange background with abstract designs.
The visit to Nabha Jail was a gracious act on the part of the Dera Chief. The tweet that followed was sincere in tone but layered in effect. It drew on humility, community, and Sikh idiom to create legitimacy-through-proximity. For Bikram Majithia, it represents a calculated wager. It can help him appear as a man of faith sustained by grace, but it can also invite doctrinal scrutiny in Panthic circles.
The hinge is simple: reverence without sovereignty, gratitude without ambiguity, devotion expressed as service. If that line is held clearly, this episode will be remembered as a humane interlude in difficult times. If it blurs, the same tweet could become a point of inflexion in his personal and political career, which arguably has much unfulfilled potential. How the issue pans out, only time will tell