Yoga classes by the district administration, a cricket ground for locals, a shelter for people with nowhere else to stay, and a haunt of dealers in scrap and second-hand furniture.
This is what is spread across the 30-acre land in Gurgaon’s Sector 30, which once held the Aparna Ashram of the late Dhirendra Brahmachari, the jet-setting yoga guru to the country’s mightiest — and which the Haryana government has now moved formally to take over, passing a Bill that awaits the President’s approval.
With the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi among Brahma-chari’s disciples, the ashram had flourished. Central grants over time helped it purchase this prime plot, now reportedly worth several hundred crores. Since Brahmachari’s demise in 1994, though, the ashram has been at the centre of constant litigation, with competing sides laying claim to it.
The only sign now of what is at stake is two constables posted at the site, from the Sector 40 Police Station, who guard the 5-acre section of the property that is already under state government ownership. This is the site where yoga classes are held in the open, and where the demolished remnants of the ashram’s main building, including a former helipad, lie.
Refusing to be identified, one of the constables says: “We have been here for two months now, but police have been guarding this place since February 2023, when the (ashram) building was demolished. The yoga classes started a month after that.”
A small tin shed built for the constables to stay on the property 24×7 means the encroachers have stayed away from these five acres. “Even if there is only one of us, no one will dare trespass,” says the constable.
Inspector Lalit Kumar, Station House Officer of the Sector 40 Police Station, says they have not received any complaints or had any issues relating to any attempted encroachments on the land where the two policemen are stationed.
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“They have been deployed as a precautionary measure,” Kumar says, adding that they had not received any fresh instruction from the district administration as regards the land, given the passage of the Bill. Away from the constables’ eyes, on the other side of the disputed property, a settlement ironically called ‘Indira Vikas Colony’ is watching in apprehension as the construction of a boundary wall demarcating the former ashram land indicates the government’s resolve to take over the premises.
Afraid of inviting action, the residents talk only on the condition of anonymity.
A group of scrap dealers, who have been staying and working out of this area since the start of the year, say they have not received any notices so far and are waiting and watching.
“We have not faced any hassle. If any notice comes, we will see,” says one of the scrap dealers.
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Their neighbours include three old furniture dealers from Uttar Pradesh, who say the notices have come to them. As a precaution, they have moved their shop from one site within the property to another.
“For poor people like us, nothing is certain. They (the authorities) can come anytime to remove us,” says one of them, adding that they would act as asked. “What can we even do if the State is set on doing this (taking over the land)?”
A group of local families claims they have been “paying rent” for the shanties they occupy and, since they have not received any notice yet, are “at ease”. “Our landlords will know about all this, we do not,” a woman says.
At the same time, she admits families like hers would have nowhere to go if evicted by the State.
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Close to the kuchcha houses stands an earth mover — idling, but a reminder.