Prayagraj: Upset over actror-turned-Kinnar Akhara seer Mamta Kulkarni’s recent remark that ‘Dawood Ibrahim is not a terrorist’, akhara mahamandaleshwar and member of the Uttar Pradesh Kinnar Welfare Board, Kaushalya Nand Giri aka Tina Maa, on Monday resigned from the monastic order and formed a splinter group. “Giving a clean chit to a traitor is not our ideology. We are for our nation. Our ideology doesn’t sync with that of the old Kinnar Akhara. So, we decided to form a new akhara named Sanatani Kinnar Akhara,” Tina Maa told TOI. The controversy stems from recent statement by former actress and Kinnar Akhara mahamandaleshwar Mamta Kulkarni in Gorakhpur where she said Dawood Ibrahim “did not carry out the Mumbai blasts and is not a terrorist”. However, later she issued a clarification claiming her comments were misunderstood. Tima Maa added, “The new akhara was formed at Durga Puja Park in Naya Bairahana on Monday. Its aim is to strengthen Sanatan Dharma. Several members of the old Kinnar Akhara have already joined us.” Tina Maa will be anointed as Acharya Mahamandaleshwar on Tuesday in the presence of social worker and film actress Shri Gauri Samant Ji from Mumbai and Tantra practitioners Bhavani Maa Ji and Dali Maa Ji from Delhi, as well as senior gurus of the transgender community from Ayodhya, Kanpur, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Mirzapur and Varanasi. Tina Maa claimed that she had opposed Mamta Kulkarni’s entry into Kinnar Akhara and making her mahamandleshwar during 2025 Maha Kumbh, but her voice was ‘suppressed’. “The Kinnar Akhara formed in 2015 to work for the rights of transgender seers has deviated from the purpose for which it was set up. My ideology no longer aligns with that of the akhara. Members of the new akhara are devoted to the propagation and preservation of Sanatan traditions. Even if it needs sacrificing our own lives to protect Sanatan Dharma, we will not back down,” she said.She said the new akhara will strengthen the positive role of the transgender community in religion, culture and society.
