UK Law Lords’ Landmark Ruling On Sex Abuse

Breaking 400 years of precedents, Great Britain’s law Lords have ruled that it possible for those alleging sexual abuse to take legal action even years later.

One wonders whether the Manmohan Singh Government in India has the will or the capability of making such major changes in India. Certainly, it has made a beginning with its major study of child abuse in India. See my articles: Child Abuse. Landmark Indian Government Study. Abuse of Indian children ‘common’ and Child Abuse in India. Will Minister Renuka Chowdhury Act? and Dr Naresh Bhatia. Silenced Now In Indian Child Abuse Scourge

Whilst it is true - as activists (see below) make a point of urging - that such legal remedies are far too often the province of those who can afford it, nonetheless the existence of strong laws surrounding sexual abuse can help to influence further social reform. There has to be a strong constellation of responses. It is the case that, for example, many Nazi war criminals escaped the reach of formal justice. But this does not mean the the Nuremburg trials did not send powerful signals and highlight some very great evils.

Those who would attempt to somehow ‘wish’ evil away by averting the gaze and so-called ‘moving on’ help to perpetuate the very evils which they think they have little or no relationship to or responsibility for.

Especially among those who deem themselves ’spiritual’, there is a lot of confusion about the significant differences between forgiving and forgetting. See my articles: Bernie Banton Case. Mega Poor Can Fight Mega Rich and Dalai Lama: Forgiveness does not mean forgetfulness

The following are excepts from the BBC report Wednesday, 30 January 2008, 13:10 GMT 

Lords issue landmark abuse ruling

“Victims of sexual abuse may be able to sue their attackers after many years, following a ruling by the Law Lords. 

(Quote from Baroness Hale):

“A fair trial can be possible long after the event and sometimes the law has no choice”  

Leading child abuse lawyer Tracey Storey, of solicitors Irwin Mitchell, said the decision ended the “bizarre situation” which meant child abuse victims over the age of 24 could not sue their abusers.

David Greenwood of Jordans Solicitors, which also represents victims of child abuse, agreed that the ruling would “empower” people to come forward.

“Victims of sexual and physical abuse in care establishments can now be confident that even after many years they will be treated seriously and sympathetically by lawyers and the courts,” he said.

But Victim Support said that while it welcomed the ruling, it believed it would help only a small number of people.

“It’s very good news for her but the wider significance is questionable because the vast majority of offenders don’t have assets to chase,” said spokesman Paul Fawcett.

See Full Report

International Cricket And The Secret Swami

One of the biggest rows in cricket history has afflicted the present Test series between India and Australia.

But what instructiveness might a Test cricket series in Australia have in relation to the call from former Sathya Sai Baba followers in many countries for media and government investigation of their former teacher, who is arguably the most powerful and controversial guru in history?

The Sai Baba-India Cricket Nexus 

After all, it is not Sathya Sai Baba but Sharad Pawar who promptly threatened to cancel further games in the series.  Pawar is the powerful head of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India). He is also being touted as the next ICC (International Cricket Council president). As well a having been Governor of the State of Maharashtra, he was earlier on a short list of three or four for the Indian prime minstership. (There was another recent high profile candidate who has been pushed hard for by many close to Sai Baba - Shashi Tharoor, for the succession of of Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations.  Part of a strikeback to our successful efforts to bring accusations against Sai Baba and his global cult the Sathya Sai Organization to international attention, Tharoor wrote an article supporting Sai Baba in the International Herald Times). See Here.

Calmer reasoning set in, but Pawer’s reaction inflamed rather than cooled an already anguished situation in the last week. Perhaps, being ever the politician, he wanted to show tough in front of all those crying out about India’s honor. However, a great many in India (where with deep fulfilment I lived for several years working among the poor alongside fine fellow workers of diverse beliefs) respect proper processes of enquiry and dispute resolution and care to see justice for all sides. There was not from Pawar a call for a strong mediation process. Or an immediate reminder to all that excellent and prompt judicial processes can be drawn upon. Provision of these was a later development.

Sharad Pawar - Or Sai Baba Power?

Pawar’s hyper reactive responses do not bode well when one considers the deep link between top level Indian cricket and Sai Baba. One also has to consider that India has an almost unimaginable power (or should that be Pawar?) over world cricket, and is THE top money roller. In India television audiences of around 200 million and sometimes 400 million, watch cricket on television.

In the meantime, despite the many and serious worldwide allegations against Sai Baba, the BCCI does not cut off its close ties with Sai Baba, and alarming numbers of Indian cricket authorities and Test cricketers are either his devotees or, along with them, actively cooperate in his cricketing plans.

Sai Baba’s Agenda to Use Top Level International Sport

Sai Baba is raising an enormously costly international sports centre at Puttaparthi, and making a run for a powerful influence of several major sports, including at Olympic standard. See, Champion Tennis At Top Indian Guru’s Ashram

He has already had Indian, Sri Lankan and Pakistan Test players and one UK player play at Puttaparthi on his world class pitch. See, Sai Baba Vs Kerry Packer.

Given worldwide allegations against Sai Baba, it is clear that Sharad Pawar, the BCCI and players themselves - not to mention the highly culpable Manmohan Singh government - who have shown themselves so partial to Sai Baba, have some explaining to do. Is it appropriate that a great Indian flagship to the world be used to further the well-known agenda of Sathya Sai Baba to reveal himself to the world as God fully incarnate? Is there any other nation which would support - much less profoundly support, as successive Indian governments have done - an individual who makes such extraordinary claims?

Indian Cricket Players - Playthings of Sathya Sai Baba?

Why would they not want to heed a call for media and government investigation of these many allegations, which include (but go far beyond) wide-scale serial sexual abuse of boys and young men from India and many other countries, implication in and cover up of killings in his bedroom in June 1993, massive deployment of multi billions of international funds to erect lavish buildings far exceed good works like hospitals but which flashily glorify him as God on earth. See, Sai Baba Exchequer Worth Billions. Many Countries Donate, and Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia.

The Status of Witnesses Who Claim Abuse By Sai Baba

Former Baba devotees who make the allegations have been taken seriously at the most senior levels by UNESCO, Interpol, FBI, Australian Federal Police, German Chief Prosecutor’s Office, French National Police (which are all hamstrung by lack of cooperation by the Indian Police) and by major reputed media in several countries, as well as very noted public institutions who, having been granted access to high level information, have severed their ties with Sai Baba’s Internation Sathya Sai Organization. These include BBC, DR (Denmark), AZUL (Argentina), CBC (Canada), ABC,  SBS (Australia), and in the press - India Today, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, Age, Australian Financial Times, and newspapers in several parts of Europe, Canada, Latin America, and elsewhere. See, Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List

For the Time Being, Judicial Processes. But Will Pawar’s Threats Return Sooner or Later? 

Sharad Pawar’s threat tactic later acceded (or has at least for the while) to a judicial process, which is normally 7 days but with provision for extension. New Zealand judge John Hansen has been made commissioner for the Indian player Harbhajan Singh’s appeal against a complaint that he made a racist comment during the second Test in Sydney just over a week ago. The ICC (International Cricket Council) match referee, Mike Proctor, had upheld Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s formal complaint that Singh had called Australian player Andrew Symons a “big monkey” and that this was racist. A 3-match ban was imposed on Singh. Three month’s previously, Indian cricket crowds had chanted “monkey” at Symonds during a match in Mumbai as recently as October 2007. Not least in fueling bad feelings in the present series in Australia were several indisputable bad umpiring decisions by Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson. When the problems became known, there was across India a spree in which Ponting, Bucknor and Benson were burnt in effigy.

Neither the angry mobs in the Indian streets nor Pawar displayed the confidence, which would have been so richly justified, that the Indian team did, at least in a number of serious issues, indeed have the moral highground, and could have drawn on world (and indeed Australian) disgust that there had been poor calls as well as Australian player spirit and conduct.

Top-flight Indian lawyers, Arun Jaitley, Sashank Manohar and N. Srinivasan are to support Harbhajan Singh who, in the meantime, has been permitted to play pending the verdict of the appeal. How sensible. A mediator highly regarded by all cricketing countries Ranjan Madugalle, from Sri Lanka, has been sent in as peace broker. Even more sensible. Still better, in the future, will be, if professionalism prevails, best practice cultural sensitivity (not damned lectures!) training, and other forms of handling personal pressure, animosity, and so on.

And What Of The Honor Of Grieving Former Sai Baba Devotees Worldwide?

But a judicial process or mediation is far more than Indian authorities have been prepared to do for the grieving families in India and far beyond who accuse Sai Baba of badly sexually abusing their young males. See, Corrupt Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba

For an example - which never fails to appal my legal friends! - of how a kangaroo court of Sai Baba partial judges in the Supreme Court of India can thwart some of India’s best legal talent (in Kamani Jaiswal and her team), see the notes of the case, whose provenance I am happy to disclose to reputable media and other genuine investigators, HERE. See also the article on P.N. Bhagwati, ex-Chief Justice of India that gravely questions his protection of Sai Baba, HERE

What then of India’s honor that is currently being shouted out across India?

Is Pawar a BCCI “Secret Swami” Man?

And what might we expect if Pawar assumes presidency of the ICC? Secrecy? Cover up? Refusal to be challenged on the Sai Baba nexus?

With the BBC terming Sai Baba as ‘the secret swami’, can we expect Pawar and the BCCI to maintain the secrecy surrounding Sai Baba and his intentions for international Indian cricket? The international media needs to question him hard on this, for most Indian newspaper proprietors have been too fearful to take on Sai Baba - although, since the excellent work of IANS (Indo Asian News Service) and repeated attention by major foreign media, this powerful censorship wall may be starting to crack. Perhaps India’s media proprietors begin to see how absurd it is for Non Resident Indians to freely read foreign media articles adverse to Sai Baba and yet there be, with an honorable exception like India Today, an almost total ban inside India on articles seriously critical of him. See, Indian Media’s Reticence on Top Guru, Sathya Sai Baba, Weakens.

Two India’s

This effigy-burning aspect of India relates to that part of India that is so ridden by anarchy, political manipulation of mobs, poverty, crime, corruption, nepotism, and casteism, and so often pretendedly democratic. It is the India which long ago Sai Baba promised to bring to ways of peace (shanti) and non-violence (ahimsa), before he left for other countries around the world, saying that he would first “clean up (his) own backyard”. Yet as recently February 16, 2007, in a so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai Baba said, “I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.” See, Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit

Sharad Pawar and his Board want his team’s word of honor to be taken. But - if sauce for both goose and gander - do not other countries wish their player’s word to be respected? If there is lying and false witness among players, then proper processes need to be convened. Pawar also wants to preside over world cricket. He needs, then, to be asked some hard questions about his and many of his team’s affiliations with Sathya Sai Baba and that guru’s own bid for world supremacy - not only in Sport but, with a devious sport’s stepping stone, to posturing himself to the world as its Savior of all Saviors who have ever visited the earth.

As unexpectedly caught by BBC camera which was shooting for its documentary The Secret Swami (2004)

Further Reading

Sai Baba Vs Kerry Packer

Champion Tennis At Top Indian Guru’s Ashram

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ - A Revision

Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List

Indian Media’s Reticence On Top Guru Weakens

The Decline and Fall of the Showman Empire

Has ‘World Saviour’ Missed His Plane?

Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s Visit”

Challenging Historic Deification

Sai Baba - Miraculous or Disastrous?

Film Footage

The Secret Swami (BBC Television)
(80 MB, Broadband). The Secret Swami (23.3 MB, Modem)

Seduced (DR, Danish Broadcasting, Denmark’s national television and radio broadcaster):
(80 MB, Broadband). Seduced (21 MB, Modem)
 

Abuse. Some Reach Out. Many Suffer in Silence

Many of our witnesses come from various countries and cultures. They testify to sexual and other abuses by Sathya Sai Baba, and in some cases by those close to him, and the cover up by his core leaders in the Sathya Sai Organization. Many are unready to speak out.

Proper Debriefing Is A Sore Need

Some accept the importance of professional counseling but so many do not avail themselves of it, even though we do our best to organize properly accredited, culturally appropriate and experienced professional counseling, whether by former Sai devotee or other therapists from wider communities. Where individuals are not able readily to afford this, there has been no demand by professionals for fees.

Anger at Abusee Silence. Understandable, But Helpful?

The unwillingness of abuse survivors (a term preferable to ‘victims’, which can be a labeling of people), led one active former Sai Baba devotee to stop good and useful work for the exposé. This person said, “Why are they not standing up for themselves?”

Speaking Out Has Real Risks 

However, there are considerable factors that can make speaking out (or at least on one’s own) unwise in what is, after all, an extremely painful, confusing situation.

Survivors can go into denial and suppression, failing to reach out. A humane and responsible organization would do its best to support those who nervous about seeking professional counseling as well as those open to receiving it. The international Sathya Sai Organization, like other groups in cover up mode, has profoundly and repeatedly failed in the duty-of-care and accountability areas.

Further Reading

Cost Of Cover Ups Can Far Exceed Hoped-for Benefits

Quote: “Today, most societies are multicultural. Would it not make sense to take the broad approach, with not a single organization acting as though it, too, is unaffected? Or a wider public permitted to think that it has not its own accountability?”

Sexual Abuse And Cover-up

Quote: “The same sinister pattern of cover-up and denial is to be noted in Terry Gallagher’s findings. He was the head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia but, like a number of other leaders and rank-and-file Sai Baba followers around the world, he left after making careful enquiry into the sexual abuse allegations. In fact, Terry Gallagher’s enquiries were most extensive. Among other sources, he had spoken privately with a number of Sai Baba’s students”

Hazards For Abuse Survivors Both Timid and Bold

Many abuse survivors are afraid to speak out.

Sai Baba’s proxy defenders on the Internet and elsewhere make the most of this difficulty. They say there have been no prosecutions of Sai Baba. Yet it often takes years or decades before survivors can come to terms with what happened to them.  

Hazards Of Brave Abuse Survivors

 

Even those few ready to face the public with the facts can often be in no position to litigate. This is because of lack of funds, time, energy, or family or close friends to support them in an intelligent and genuine manner.

In one case (See 1. under Further Resources) which should never have failed, a pro bono lawyer let his client down badly and was not proactive enough to field excellent witnesses who stood ready - indeed at various kinds of personal sacrifice - to testify.

Problems of Litigation Acute

In any case, litigation is always an uncertain, costly and often extremely drawn-out process, especially in sex abuse cases where the success rate is still far lower than in most other common crimes.

Sai Baba Heavily Protected In India.

Added to these huge obstacles, Sathya Sai Baba enjoys (as he has done for many decades) powerful protection from the Indian Government, judiciary and other power echelons from any prosecution, as attempts to bring him to book in the Supreme Court of India and High Court of Andhra Pradesh have amply demonstrated. (See 2. 3. and 4. below)

Further Resources

1. Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America - Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family

2. Sai Baba Protected By The Supreme Court Of India

The archive at this link contains a document with court proof - contrary to assertions of Sai Baba’s proxy defenders on the Internet - that a case was in fact brought. One of India’s top advocates, Kamini Jaiswal, took the case on behalf of Hari Sampath, and she and her assisting Counsel Prashant Kumar and Gaurav Agarwal and their client had to suffer the ignominy of a kangaroo court presided over by the profoundly compromised  judges: S.P. Barucha, A.S. Anand, G.B. Patnaik (or G.B. Pattnaik), and R.C. Lahoti. Each one of these went on to become Chief Justice of India. Their CJ at the time was P.N. Bhagwati, a very active member of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, well known for keeping a damper on Sai Baba scandals over many years. As a number of us know personally, when the legal notes for this case are shown in eminent legal quarters where mature democratic principles much more cohere, the lawyers are disgusted! We shall share the as yet unpublished details of this case with responsible media, legal authorities or academic researchers.

3. See my Corrupt Indian Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba. In 1986, a case B. Premanand brought in the Andhra Pradesh High Court shows a judge’s clear violation of India’s secular legal system. Judge Y.V.Anjaneyulu (who just happened to be a Sai Baba devotee!) pronounced,

“An article or ornament materialized from air in a split second by the use of spiritual powers or otherwise cannot be said to be made, manufactured, prepared or processed within the meaning of section 11 of the Gold Control Act”

See also, Satya Sai Baba and the Gold Control Act, by B. Premanand, 1986

4. My reader may be curious (or could simply guess) as to the outcome of the following. The news article is from the Deccan Herald, May 11, 1999:

“Hyderabad Nov 4: Justice G Raghu Ram of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday admitted a writ petition seeking initiation of criminal prosecution against the doctors of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi in Anantapur district alleging malpractices regarding the transplantation of kidney”

For the kidney donation scandal, See material HERE 

Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment

Discussions with activists from other movements of exposure of corrupt gurus are revealing. The various types of comparison between our separate experiences fall thick and fast. Those who speak out have typically and intensively undergone:     

• threats of injury or death
• cyber and other forms of stalking
• vilification, demonization, libels, character assassination
• attacks on privacy and attempts at muckracking
• attempts at intimidation by threats of various kinds, including those aimed at media who investigate the allegations
• shunning or sometimes harassment by former fellow followers
• mixed falsification and concealment by leaders to the rank-and-file of the testimony of those who have dissented
• dereliction of the duty-of-care by organization leaders
• gross distortions of words, intentions and actions of those who speak out
• frequent branding of dissenters as ‘liars’
• putting worst case interpretations on statements and situations, without considering alternative explanations
• failure to understand, or at other times deliberate failure to acknowledge, why in many cases replies cannot be given to questions aimed at dissenters (e.g., security, individual or family sensitivities, knowledge that whatever is stated, attackers will use it for their own ends, sometimes devious, sometimes simply blinded)
• ignoring the points being made, leaping on peripherals and ignoring essentials
•  making extremely improper inferences by extrapolation and decrying of dissenters as e.g., perverts, anti-Semitic, fascists, drunkards, Hindu hating, Christian fundamentalists, liars, hallucinators, addicted to drugs, etc
• the lumping of all dissenters, as though they are perfectly co-ordinated or speak with one voice at all times (The Aristotelian ‘law of the undistributed middle’ - the confusion of the logical operators of ‘all’ and ’some’ - is frequently violated)
• complicity by organization leaders, of both high and lower rank, in standing back and allowing proxy defenders of a guru to attack dissenters, while secretly ensuring that legal or other information or funding is passed to the proxies, and turning a blind eye to devotees who stalk, harass, and defame those who speak out or, more often, covertly assist those who do.

All of this proceeds despite the knowledge that dissenters have spent long years of dedication, service and sacrifice in their former cause, and who are known in their professions, trades and communities at large as persons of integrity, sacrificial service in noble causes, kindness and decency.

The Sharing of Experiences With Those Abused By Other Leaders

In discussions with those involved in other abuse exposures (sometimes very usefully conducted via webcam via a service like Skype), discussants have often not had to end our sentences. This is because of the great similarity of experience of the crimes, dirty tricks, cover ups, and shocking vilification of those who raise their voices out of conscience and deepest concern. The recognition-of-situation factor is sky-high, and tragedy, betrayal and - that greatest of emotional allies and sublime social lubricant - humor are able to be deeply and spontaneously shared.

Further Resources

A selection of closely-related articles on http://barrypittard.wordpress.com follows:

Some Key Cultic Responses To Critics

Probed On Male Sex Abuse, Sai Baba Evicts BBC TV Team

Cost Of Cover Ups Can Far Exceed Hoped-for Benefits

Exiting A Top International Cult. A Sai Baba Experience

The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory

Sexual Abuse And Cover-up

Corrupt Indian Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba

If Not For Whistleblowers

Cultic Depersonalization or Demonization of Dissenters

Caught In One of History’s Most Powerful Cults (Parts 1-4)

Indian Gurus Stifle India’s Chance To Excel

Is Humanity One Big Cult?

Sai Baba. Some Dissenting Themes and Resources

P.N. Bhagwati, India’s Ex-Chief Justice: Wild, Reckless Claims

P.N. Bhagawati, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, a key figure on the Sathya Sai Central Trust (India) has also long been on the Board of Directors of The Times of India. 

In a joint public letter (December 2001), Bhagwati along with the former Prime Minister of India of the right wing BJP, A.B. Vajpayee, and another former Chief Justice of India, Ranganath Mishra, and three other prominent leaders wrote a public letter stating that contentions of Sai Baba’s dissenters represent a:

“wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba”.

See my own responses after this issue broke, HERE

“Wild and Reckless”?

What then of an Indian Prime Minister and former Chief Justices and others (one now Home Minister in the current Manmohan Singh Government) who proffer no evidence that they, in a transparent and accountable way, have investigated any of the substantive allegations against Sai Baba?

P.N. Bhagwati - supposedly a model of the dispensation of Justice - does a profound injustice to hundreds of good and decent former Sai Baba devotees from many countries who have, on the strictest ethical principle, left Sai Baba and his worldwide Sathya Sai Baba Organization.

(Dr Goldstein pic from: The Secret Swami, BBC). What? Not looking wild and reckless?!

The leaders of this organization, such as the world chairman Dr Michael Goldstein of Covina, California, USA, know perfectly well the excellent standing of many former devotees who have attempted to bring attention to the allegations. This is both from the point of view of their role when still members and of the high esteem they have attracted in their professions, trades, education institutions and wider communities.

Yet P.N. Bhagwati and the other signatories wrote of “wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.”

History will judge very harshly of the failure of those blinded by their devotion so greatly as to be incapable of exercising requisite ethics, sensitivity and applied skills and processes to investigate serious and repeated allegations. These have been asserted by scrupulous and conscientious individuals who have, indeed, investigated the allegations with probity, moral responsibility and a natural compassion.

Why the great anomaly? Why should the Sathya Sai Organization and a few public figures who support Sai Baba not be subject to the same accountability criteria that are now best practice in countless organizations?

We Are Open to Bona Fide Investigators

Many individuals worldwide have, in varying degrees, been alienated from Sai Baba and his Sathya Sai Organization from which they expected to see spirituality and compassion in action. In some cases they have been terribly traumatized by their experiences of Sai Baba and his core leaders, whom they see as having grossly derelicted their duty-of-care for members. Therefore, they are not likely to be too open to those who are aggressive, name-calling, and who fail to observe proper ethical and professional canons of enquiry.

In fact, our submissions to various media, government, civic, academic, law enforcement and other authorities are submitted with the utmost responsibility.  For those of them who are ready to act with integrity, sensitivity and care, we provide as a further mark of good faith, and on the basis of strict privacy, the contact details of those in outstanding, in some cases eminent, positions in government, law, media, education, psychology, medicine, etc., who know the facts.

As well, we are able to coordinate personal and telephonic, and where practicable, contact with articulate individuals and families - and also others not intellectually articulate but who are nevertheless also poignantly moving in their accounts - who are ready to share, in a proper atmosphere, their harrowing experiences of sexual abuse by Sai Baba and other wrongdoings. These are very far from confined to those like the Rahm family (BBC and DR, Denmark’s national television and radio broadcaster), who have already shared their experiences in the media and elsewhere.

We have always been ready to to assist investigative journalists from quality major media in various parts of the world, as well as important religious and civic institutions, and, for example, academics who are either researching allied issues themselves or supervising students who are doing so.

We also have provision of highly qualified professional counselors.

In short, we are able, with the strictest accountability, to provide compelling credentials, for those who are far removed from attacking, slandering and maligning the many witnesses who attempt to tell (not always particularly coherently and yet often most movingly) of their extremely painful and traumatic experiences at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba, and of his also profoundly compromised officials and other supporters.

Related Reading and Viewing

Indian Minister Shields Sai Baba on BBC TV

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ - a Revision

See this video clip. Here, BBC footage clearly exposes one of the then Vajpayee Government’s most powerful Ministers, Murali Manohar Joshi, follower of Sai Baba, as he angrily bullies and slipperily evades the interviewer Tanya Datta, who asks him entirely reasonable questions.

This Link is worth a look. India’s foremost Rationalist B.Premanand (later copying the exchange to his newsletter The Indian Skeptic, Vol. 19. No. 7 15-11-2006) wrote a series of letters in 2006 to top echelon Government of India officials, including police, referring back to the period when A.B. Vajpayee was in office. The letters attempt to establish a) whether the provenance of the letter ostensibly written by Vajpayee and other in defense of Sai Baba was true and b) whether, if it was, there had been any proper investigations of allegations against Sai Baba for sexual abuse of young males. The essence is that, as usual - since Sai Baba has for decades been heavily protected by Indian governments irrespective of what regime is in power - he got grand obstruction. Of course, one of the great successes of Premanand’s “failures” in his tireless efforts with power structures is to reveal the billowing smokescreens that rise as soon as accountability issues are probed.

List of signatories to letter supporting Sai Baba

(a Wikipedia linked copy of the joint letter is HERE)

A.B. Vajpayee
(then) Prime Minister of India
P.N. Bhagawati
Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India
Ranganath Mishra
(then) Chair Person, National Human Rights Commissioner of India
Formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India
Najma Heptulla
(then) President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; UNDP Distinguished Human Development Ambassador
Shivraj V. Patil
(Details as signatory: Member of Parliament, India; Formerly of the Lok Sabha & Union Minister. However Patil is now Home Minister in the Government of Manmohan Singh, who himself has shown strong partiality to Sathya Sai Baba)

Note On The Provenance of the Letter:

The good provenance of the letter can scarcely be in doubt. Clearly none of those whose signatures it bears are of a character too timid to wish to set aright matters concerning their position in regard to Sathya Sai Baba.

Former devotee websites did of course carry the letter. But good provenance (in this respect) is the official online Sai Radio Listener’s Journal run by Dr G. Venkataraman, the Deputy World Chairman of the Sathya Sai Organisation and Director of Sai Global Radio. The relevant page contains the Vajpayee et al letter - the provenance of which has never been disputed by any of the signatories. The link is HERE. Page down to the subheading: ‘Mr Vajpayee et al Counter The Lies Through A Public Statement’:

There is also a Wikipedia citation in the article under ‘Sathya Sai Baba’ which links to a copy of the letter at a Wikirefs page HERE. The Wiki article states:

“In an official letter released to the general public, in December 2001 … (the signatories) “called the allegations against Sathya Sai Baba “wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests” and that they “unequivocally condemned” the allegations as “baseless and malicious”.

Truth Commission Model May Assist Sai Baba Devotees

Other group leaders from various countries who we know to have been informed that Sai Baba sexually abuses boys and young men still take groups of all ages to see him. There is repeated evidence that they still do not inform parents of global allegations concerning Sai Baba, nor that highly respected individuals, once loved and esteemed  leaders and members of the Sathya Sai Organization, make them.

Sai Baba’s leaders tell rank-and-file members that those making the allegations are a small disgruntled handful. Blind to commonsense, deaf to basic reasoning processes, rapid to leap to worst case speculations about the motivations of Sai Baba dissenters, Sai Baba’s devotees typically believe that former devotees have become, in an instant, transformed into demons. Racing into deep denial, vacating all commonsense, these devotees chronically deny the good standing of those they have long loved and respected, and worked and worshipped beside. History is bound to ‘out’ those who do this. They cannot possibly defend themselves on the grounds of truth and compassion. They will need, above all, to express profound sorrow, and admit profound failure in duty-of-care, towards those Sai Baba has so criminally, and for so many decades, abused.

Perhaps some of the Truth Commission experiences and insights may assist Sai Baba devotees to pull themselves out of their dilemma. It would be a great pity if the good social uplift works done by many good and decent Sai Baba devotees were to be damaged by the revelations already so extensively available, with many more on their way.

Starting points are:

http://www.truthcommission.org/
http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/

A Shah Under A Lord of Misrule

Indulal Shah,

of Mumbai, India, was replaced by Dr Michael Goldstein, of Covina, California, as world convener of the Sathya Sai Organisation, and still more recently retired from his chairmanship of the Indian organization, too.  The same Shah furnished a prime example of how to successfully prevent police, media and judicial investigation in India. The Hindu, 10-6-1993 reported: 

“When press persons met Mr. Indulal Shah, chief functionary of the Sri Sathya Sai World Trust, he said, ‘the matter is purely internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency investigating into it.’” 

Sai Baba, then, is a feudal Lord with a vice-like grip not only Puttaparthi - site of the most frequented ashram in the world - but far beyond. And above the reach of the laws of India?

In September 18, 2001, Indulal Shah circularized Sai Baba’s world leaders.  Of the world media which reported the allegations, Shah said that it has:

 “a strong propensity for sensationalism. A whiff of scandal always helps their sales and therefore they do not even pause to verify the truth.” 

Soviet-Style Absolutism

Shah it was who did not verify the truth. He was of course playing the blame-the-media game. He gave nothing like a reasoned defense nor even the slightest attempt at accountability and transparency - with the same absolutism that is to be noted of Sai Baba’s Soviet-style leaders throughout the world. Rather, he favours only an acute generalization aimed to play on populist prejudices against “the media”. It does not matter to Shah or other seasoned Sai Baba spin doctors like Dr G. Venkataraman (head of Sai Global Harmony, Sai Baba’s major effort to globalize his propaganda via WorldSpace Radio Satellite Service) that many investigative journalists around the world have outstanding records of professionalism, probity and courage. This does not mean that the BBC and other leading media that have investigated Sai Baba and his movement cannot make mistakes or fail to grasp some of the breadth and depth of detail. Of course not. In fact, for the last 8 and a half years of organized former devotee activity to bring international attention to the hidden side of Sai Baba - whom the BBC has dubbed ‘the secret swami’ - we have repeatedly approached the media with the best reputation for careful research and reporting, such as The Times of London, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Salon.com, The Age, The Australian Financial Times, The West Australian (whose award-winning journalist Torrance Mendez, in the face of some exceptionally wealthy and politically connected Sai Baba devotees, had his strongly-researched article spiked by his Editor-in-Chief right at the 11th hour, which had been in readiness for a front-page coverage), and newspapers in Europe and Canada, and broadcast media such the BBC, DR, ABC, SBS, AZUL TV, etc.

In short, the deeply cultic Sai leaders and devotees will do anything but face what is actually being said in these many articles by such notable writers as Dominic Kennedy (Times of London), Mick Brown (Daily Telegraph), Michelle Goldberg (Salon.com), Paul Lewis (The Guardian), etc.

Further Viewing and Reading

To view the BBC’s The Secret Swami - either using broadband or modem, go first to this page HERE

“Absolutely Cold-blooded Murder”

Former Home Secretary of Sai Baba’s state Andhra Pradesh, V.P.B. Nair, tells the BBC cameras that the police killings in Sai Baba’s private quarters in June 1993 were “absolutely cold-blooded murder,” and that CID investigations, which were suppressed, showed many lies and cover-ups. He is seeking to re-open the case. Here is a video clip of what Nair had to tell the BBC. I refer to this issue in the article, Indian Ex Top Official Dogs Sai Baba On BBC. ‘Cold-blooded Murder’

For BBC video clip of Los Angeles’ citizen Mark Roche’s testimony of sexual abuse when he was young by Sai Baba, see HERE:

Articles at http://barrypittard.wordpress.com

The Decline and Fall of the Showman Empire

The Genesis of the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba)
Guru Sex Abuse Testimony To BBC - After Years of Silence
BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

Wider Resources

Useful are the websites or retired (or refreshed!) academics Robert Priddy (Norway):  

http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/
and Brian Steel (Australia): http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/
See also Wikipedia reference under: ‘Robert Priddy’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Priddy 

and his blogsite at: http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com

There are also the general former devotee website at http://www.exbaba.com, with English, Dutch, Italian sections. Those at http://saiguru.net/ are in English, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Italian, German, Danish, Polish and Norwegian

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Inequality before the law in India

Robert Priddy, retired academic (Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Oslo) was the head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway -  see his Wikipedia reference.

His article Avoidance of the law in India gives links to BBC and other sources that illustrate how hard it often is, especially for those without great wealth and political clout, to obtain justice in India.

Quote from this Priddy article

“Sai Baba’s “supporters make much of the fact that he has not been brought before a court (he cannot be brought before any court but an Indian one as he always remains in India). No one who has any knowledge of Indian affairs should be surprised that the rich and influential in India can escape justice much more easily even than in the USA or Europe. Proof of this is put forward by India Resource Center, which contributes to advance the understanding of corporate accountability, human rights, labor rights, social and environmental justice issues. They have posted an article about the Noida murders (see New York Times reference below) which show indisputably that justice in India is a two-tier system and is also very inefficient”

A article of mine, Corrupt Indian Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba, shows something of this corruption so endemic in India.

There are, and always have been, some incredibly valiant fighters against the forces of evil in India. Her freedom fighters remain glorious examples for the rest of the world. She has millennia of great moral and spiritual exemplars - more than in perhaps any other country, one sees many of their images held aloft and worshipped wherever one travels in India. Sadly, as elsewhere, many successes by Indian police and judiciary to stand against corruption will forever go unheralded. A responsible media needs to investigate anticorruption, and non-corruption, as well as corruption - and hold high as excellent role-modeling (without blunting efforts to expose evils) the positive side, too. But then, of course, we need to address a key problem - good news stories can often founder. The extent to which this happens in any of our societies may be taken as some kind of index as to the state of their maturity.

Quotes from this article

“In 2001, the celebrated Indian advocate Kamini Jaiswal (who was a lawyer for the famous ‘Bandit Queen’ Phoolan Devi) attempted to mount, pro bono, a case against Sai Baba on behalf of a former Sai Baba devotee, Hari Sampath.

Jaiswal’s reason for applying for the case to be pled in the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi was precisely for the reason that Andhra Pradesh, Sai Baba’s state, is chockful of Sai Baba police and judges. Therefore, Judges G.B. Paitnaik’s and R.C. Lahoti’s repeated statements (see link below): “Go the Andhra Pradesh court”, and refusals to give reason for their adverse decision is reprehensible. I have shown the transcripted remarks to a Judge who has also been a top government legal advisor in a major Commonwealth country, who was appalled, as other lawyers and laity alike have been ….

…  Two other prominent Indian advocates Prashant Kumar and Gaurav Agarwal appeared along with Kamini Jaiswal. However, they were entirely thwarted by judges in the New Delhi Supreme Court - the Sai Baba-partial Judges Lahoti and Patnaik. There is a document which reveals instantly to any alert and unbiased reader what a ‘kangaroo court’ theirs was. This document’s provenance we can prove to competent and principled enquirers. A legal professional has transcripted the case, and part of this may be viewed”

My article Who In India Will Stand out Against Abuses? points to an encouraging groundswell against corruption in India and expresses the wish that it will come to dwell on corrupt gurus like Sathya Sai Baba.

Quote from this article

“According to reports by Sanjoy Majumdar, BBC New Delhi and Tim Sullivan of Associated Press, there have been some recent populist stirrings in India against corruption and its cover-up.  Not that there have not long been those Indians who have stood up valiantly against these. One may hope that the groundswell will come to include corrupt gurus”

See, too, my longer, more detailed article on this theme, Fighting Multi Billion Corruption Takes Longer

Quote

“Although we know too well that he has formidable protection from successive Indian governments, both State and Central, some of our personnel in India have sacrificially put themselves at considerable risk in raising the allegations with Indian authorities. The Sathya Sai Organization arms itself by aligning itself with the power-brokers of trade, finance and politics, both Indian and foreign, who ensure that the vast funds that pour to its Sathya Sai Central Trust are not affected. One of the foremost officials in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office asked Hon. Tony Colman, former MP for Putney to back off in regard to Sai Baba because the Blair government did not want to rock the boat with India”.

Further Reading

Police Ignore Serial Killings in Delhi Slum, Exposing Unequal Justice for India’s Poor
By Amelia Gentleman
New York Times
January 7, 2007

Record of Proceedings document of Hari Sampath’s 2001 case against Sai Baba in the Supreme Court of India, and further comments on this case scuppered by Judges G.B. Patnaik and R.C. Lahoti with the concurrence of then Chief Justice Dr A.S. Anand.

Satya Sai Baba and the Gold Control Act
by B. Premanand
Published by INDIAN CSICOP, Podanur 1986

Note: B. Premanand, of TV “Guru Buster’s” fame, and fellow Indian Rationalists, among other gutsy actions, tried but failed to expose Sathya Sai Baba in court. He too has reported physical attacks, and has told a number of us that his own son was murdered - the only material stolen being extremely compromising to Sathya Sai Baba. Sri Premanand has formed a Committee for Scientific Investigation into Claims of the Paranormal (CSICP). He mounted a court action in Sathya Sai Baba’s state of Andhra Pradesh, in which the High Court Judge Y.V.Anjaneyulu, a prominent Sai Baba devotee, ruled that the law requiring a license to produce gold does not apply to Sathya Sai Baba, who, he determined, materializes his gold from a divine realm. No surprise to the legally savvy in India, this judgement has the power to shock lawyers in more mature democratic legal systems. This 1986 case, which B. Premanand brought in the Andhra Pradesh High Court, exposed a close Sai Baba devotee judge’s violation of India’s secular legal system. Judge Anjaneyulu pronounced:

“An article or ornament materialized from air in a split second by the use of spiritual powers or otherwise cannot be said to be made, manufactured, prepared or processed within the meaning of section 11 of the Gold Control Act”

See also,

Wikipedia Reference for: B. Premanand