At Bajinder’s ‘church’, minus the pastor

IT’s called the ‘Church of Wisdom and Glory’, but there’s no nameplate or board outside. Inside the 5-acre compound at Tajpur village, 8.5 km from Jalandhar, there are no signs or symbols that confirm its credentials as a site of any religious, or even spiritual, activity. There is no place to sit either. In fact, there are no pictures of the all and mighty of this ‘church’ — self-styled evangelical pastor Bajinder Singh (42), who was recently sentenced to life imprisonment in a sexual harassment case by a Mohali court.

Related news: ‘Yeshu Yeshu’ fame pastor Bajinder Singh gets life term in 2018 rape case

A boundary wall encircles the compound. Inside, there are some poles erected on a permanent basis in the central area. A few people walk in and out of the compound, that has some basic cemented sheds. Washrooms have been built just outside the periphery, where a handful of middle-aged women can be seen.

It is April 3 and as per the schedule of the ‘Prophet Bajinder Singh Ministry’, a prophecy meeting is to be held. However, a few ‘staff members’ say there is no physical meeting, only an online event. “It shall be conducted by the pastor’s brother, Davinder Singh, and daughter Ekta. One can get connected via social media from anywhere.

‘Papaji’ (Bajinder Singh) has been meeting people only on Sunday mornings here and in evenings at New Chandigarh. But now someone from his family will undertake the responsibility. Papaji’s blessings will be with everyone till he cannot be with us. But that day will come soon,” says one of them.

The message that was circulated about the April 3 meeting on social media groups, with a picture of Bajinder Singh, reads, “All those who shall join the meeting will be able to get Permanent Residency wherever they have applied for it, open new businesses, become financially stable, get government jobs, see improvement in health and get matrimonial alliance.”

Also read: Jashan Gill, another Punjab pastor in spotlight: Accused of rape, abortion, bribing police

Bajinder may be in custody, but his media teams and those on the payroll are as active as ever, ready with “testimonies” of the followers who have been “blessed by the prophet”. A woman at the Tajpur compound narrates her “life-altering” experience. Kanchan, who claims to be from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, says, “My husband and I have got rid of all our problems ever since we took refuge at the dera. Happiness and welfare have returned to our family. We don’t have words to thank this God-sent man.”

The ‘Yeshu Yeshu’ fame pastor had established his ‘church’ in Jalandhar in around 2016. As he gained popularity, he started setting up branches at various locations, including near Chandigarh, and also claimed to have set up offshore ‘churches’.

At gatherings, he would make claims of miraculous healing using oils, holy water and through his acts of prophecies. His list of “feats” and “miracles” — how his touch could cure those with chronic illnesses, make the visually-impaired see — would be projected by Bajinder himself and his aides.

A Jat from Yamunanagar in Haryana, he has always preached in Hindi. This, many feel, helped him lure gullible disciples from UP and Bihar. The Punjabis who have aligned with him are largely from the Dalit and economically weaker sections.

There’s a clear divide within the Christian community on the rise of Bajinder and others like him. “Since the governments have failed to ensure that medical facilities reach the lower sections, the likes of Bajinder have got ample opportunities to proliferate. I am also a Christian. I do believe Jesus can make miracles happen but not the way the priests in these so-called deras practice. I have had a hunch from the very beginning that the Christian dera culture would go the same way as with other religious deras,” says Tarsem Peter, a Catholic leader based in Jalandhar.

However, some like ex-sarpanch of Pholariwal village in Jalandhar Suraj Masih and Punjab Christian Movement chief Hamid Masih term Bajinder’s conviction an “attack on Christianity”. For Suraj Masih, a Catholic, “Pastor Bajinder has been targeted in a similar manner like Bishop Franco Mulakkal. Both are ‘khuda ke bande’. Some anti-national forces could not stomach their rise.”

A Keralite Catholic priest based in Ferozepur says, “We too tell people to pray before Jesus as He has the power to heal. We too have seen miracles happening. But we do not publicise the way it is being done in the neo-churches of Punjab. We also do not interfere in the working of other churches.”

The sexual harassment case in which Bajinder has been sentenced to life was lodged in 2018. This, however, was not the first criminal case against him. He himself claims to have become a follower of Jesus while he was lodged in jail in a murder case.

In 2022, a family based in Delhi alleged that Bajinder had taken Rs 50,000 from them for offering prayers to heal their four-year-old daughter suffering from cancer, but she died at the ‘church’. The family alleged that they were forced out after the tragedy.

Bajinder was once again in the centre of a storm when Income Tax teams raided two ‘churches’, including his, in February 2023 and recovered Rs 2 crore.

Just ahead of his conviction last month, another FIR of sexual harassment was lodged against him by a Kapurthala-based woman, the investigation into which is being conducted by an SIT. About 10 days back, he was booked in an assault case at Mohali police station after his video went viral.

Always dressed in a blazer-trouser attire, Bajinder is known to have frequently invited bigwigs to his ‘church’ at New Chandigarh around Christmas. Last year, actors Arbaaz Khan, Raza Murad, Chunky Panday and Jaya Prada marked their presence. Two months back, the Prime Minister of Fiji had visited.

Post his conviction, social media is abuzz about a video in which Bajinder makes a prophecy about the early release of a murder-accused man whose wife had come to attend his prayer meeting. The post mocks Bajinder for seeking leniency from the court to take care of his ailing wife, or on the grounds that he had a rod in his leg. That he could not predict his own arrest is the parting shot.

Bajinder’s dera ecosystem though might well be planning their next move of carrying forward the preacher’s work, minus him.

Punjab