In the next week or so, as time allows, I shall draw a number of acute parallels between the case of the vastly exposed late British entertainment icon, Sir Jimmy Savile and of Sathya Sai Baba. Both were serial pedophiles on a huge scale.
Both committed crimes, decade after decade in their ramant, serial sexual abuse. Both relied on myriad powerful people in the highest places remaining silent.
Some say that, given their death, we should not expose evildoers such as Sathya Sai Baba and Jimmy Savile. That they cannot speak up in their own defense. This is flawed thinking. Will we not show compassion for those who still live, and have a lifetime of trauma to endure? If one has a story to tell – especially a story that has great power to educate and warn – then tell it.
In the last few days, we hear the same cry about Savile having done so much for charity as those struggling to bring the Sathya Sai cult abuses to world attention have had to endure. Again, flawed thinking. It is for the courts to decided on whether more lenient sentences are to be administered taking into account positives to be said for an accused. Shutting up about crimes, and indeed suspected crimes, allows crime to go rampant. And in the elements in which it revels – Silence. Secrecy. The Savile family statement (Savile himself remained single) is surely touching:
“We recognise that even our own despair and sadness does not compare to that felt by the victims … How could the person we thought we knew and loved do such a thing? … Our thoughts and our prayers are with those who have suffered from every kind of abuse over so many years and we offer our deepest sympathy in what must have been a terrible time for all of them … We can understand their reluctance to say anything earlier and can appreciate the courage it has taken to speak out”.
Sir Jimmy Savile. De-iconised late British Entertainer. Hundreds of suppressed revelations now emerge, showing Savile, like Sathya Sai Baba, as a serial pedophile on a huge scale, and, again like him, protected by powerful establishment figures and institutions
If Indian authorities were up to it – which I seriously doubt – it has a great deal to learn from Savile’s serial pedophile’s huge exposure in recent days. India needs to see how, even decades later, covered up scandals can, in the last upshot, do massive damage to those public and private institutions and people complicit in cover up.
The Savile exposure is big news – with many powerful figures under the spotlight, and many scurrying for cover. As part of the fall-out, arrests seem likely, and the 70’s pop star Garry Glitter, a friend of Savile, has just been arrested.
Indian PM Manmohan Singh at Sathya Sai Baba’s funeral on April 24, 2011. Singh and a succession of Indian Presidents and Prime Ministers were complicit in covering up the Sathya Sai Baba sex and other scandals.
Decades ago, Tal Brook’s book ‘Avatar of Night’ blew the whistle on Sathya Sai Baba. Like each of those – without exception – who have spoken publicly about the profoundly covered up Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuses of boys and young men from many countries, and other crimes and spiritual betrayals,Tal Brooke was viciously defamed, libeled and execrated by countless Sathya Sai devotees. It can take decades to expose those who cry Truth, Truth, Love, Love, and who are the first to depart from it.
Lesson For Indian Leaders Who Covered Up Sai Baba Sex and Other Scandals For Decades
Indian leaders, many of them strongly complicit across political divides in decades of cover up of the Sathya Sai Baba sex and other scandals – and already being shamed by the powerful pan Indian movement against political and corporate corruption – would do well to take five minutes of their time to look at the sort of official questioning increasingly being mounted in the UK in the Savile case.
See the video clip at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20039602
Jimmy Savile: BBC’s George Entwistle appears before MPs
Key Points
BBC director general George Entwistle appears before MPs on the Commons culture committee, where he is questioned about the Jimmy Savile affair
TV presenter Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, is accused of sexually abusing young people over a four-decade period – sometimes on BBC premises. The BBC has announced inquiries into why a Newsnight investigation into Savile was dropped and another into whether the corporation’s culture allowed sexual abuse to take place
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Lord Patten defends BBC as Jimmy Savile scandal grows
Chairman speaks out amid criticism of director general George Entwistle’s testimony before MPs
- Dan Sabbagh and Sandra Laville
- The Guardian, Wednesday 24 October 2012
BBC director general George Entwistle is met with protests after appearing before MPs to answer questions on the Jimmy Savile scandal. Photograph: Olivia Harris/Reuters
BBC Director General George Entwistle. Amid public and political outcry, Entwisle may be forced to resign. Police and institutional investigations proceed. Charities Sir Jimmy Savile supported suffer disarray
…………. Entwistle was repeatedly unable to give precise figures about the number of allegations of assault, harassment or inappropriate conduct that had been reported to the BBC, and his two-hour testimony prompted further questions about the involvement of the BBC’s head of news in Newsnight’s aborted investigation into Savile last year.
But with the political temperature rising as the Savile crisis moves into its fourth week, Patten wrote back to warn Miller off criticising Entwistle. “I know that you will not want to give any impression that you are questioning the independence of the BBC,” the peer said. He added that the trust would keep her in touch with developments as two inquiries into the Savile scandal completed their work over the coming months.
Earlier, Entwistle told MPs that Helen Boaden, the BBC’s head of news, had been made aware of the aborted Newsnight investigation into Savile last November and told Peter Rippon, the editor of the BBC2 programme, that just because Savile had recently died it “didn’t mean skimping on the usual journalistic standards”.
Journalists on Newsnight at the time said they believed that conversation happened on 28 or 29 November last year – just before Rippon suddenly cooled on the idea of the investigation into Savile that they had been working on in the aftermath of his death – and that it amounted to an invitation to the Newsnight editor to drop the investigation.
A spokesman for Boaden confirmed she had made that remark on or around those dates, but otherwise said that the circumstances around the axing of the film would be examined in the review led by the former head of Sky News, Nick Pollard ….. (Click on title for the full report)
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Excerpts from the Wikipedia entry on: Sir Jimmy Savile
(See also the Wiki entry): Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal
In October 2012, almost a year after his death, an ITVdocumentary examining claims of sexual abuse against Savile[9] led to broad media coverage and a substantial and rapidly growing body of witness statements and sexual abuse claims, including accusations againstpublic bodies for covering up or failure of duty. Scotland Yard launched a criminal investigation into allegations of child sex abuse by Savile over six decades,[5]describing him as a “predatory sex offender”, and later stated that they were pursuing over 400 lines of inquiry based on the testimony of 300 potential victims via fourteen police forces across the UK.[10][11] By late October 2012, the scandal had resulted in inquiries or reviews at the BBC, within the National Health Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, and theDepartment of Health.[10][12][13]
Honours
- In the 1972 New Year Honours, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE),[72] which he always subsequently appended to his signature.
- He was awarded an honorary green beret by the Royal Marines in the 1970s for completing the Royal Marine Commando speed march, 30 miles across Dartmoor carrying 30 lb of kit.[73] The Royal Marines, following allegations of child abuse by Savile, state they have “erased” the award [74]
- Madame Tussauds London unveiled a waxwork likeness of him[75] in 1986. It was retired in the 1990s.[76]
- In the 1990 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was knighted (Knight Bachelor) “for charitable services”.[77] Following the allegations of sexual abuse by Savile were published, British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron indicated in October 2012 that it would be possible for Savile’s honours to be rescinded by the Honours Forfeiture Committee.[78]
- Also in 1990, he was honoured by Pope John Paul II with a Papal knighthood making him a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great (KCSG).[79] In October 2012 theCatholic Church in England and Wales asked the Holy See to consider stripping Savile of the honour. Father Federico Lombardi responded, saying that the Holy See “firmly condemns the horrible crimes of sexual abuse of minors,” and that the honour “in the light of recent information should certainly not have been bestowed,” but added:[80]
“As there does not exist any permanent official list of persons who have received papal honours in the past, it is not possible to strike anyone off a list that does not exist. The names of recipients of papal honours do not appear in the Pontifical Year Book and the honour expires with the death of the individual.”
Aftermath
Within a month of the child abuse scandal breaking, many places and organizations named after or connected to Savile were renamed or removed. A memorial plaque on the wall of Savile’s former home in Scarborough was removed in early October 2012 after it was defaced with graffiti,[104] and a wooden statue of Savile at Scotstoun Leisure Centre in Glasgow was removed around the same time.[105] A sign on a footpath in Scarborough bearing Savile’s surname was removed.[106] Savile’s Hall, the conference centre at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, was renamed New Dock Hall.[107] Two registered charities founded in his name announced they were too closely tied to it and to avoid harming the causes they supported would close and distribute their funds to other charities, to avoid harm to beneficiaries from future media attention.[108]
On 9 October 2012, after a police press conference,[109] relatives stated that the headstone of Savile’s grave would be removed, destroyed and sent to landfill.[110][111] The family expressed their sorrow for the “anguish” of the victims and “respect [for] public opinion”, and in a statement by a nephew said that:
“We recognise that even our own despair and sadness does not compare to that felt by the victims … How could the person we thought we knew and loved do such a thing? … Our thoughts and our prayers are with those who have suffered from every kind of abuse over so many years and we offer our deepest sympathy in what must have been a terrible time for all of them … We can understand their reluctance to say anything earlier and can appreciate the courage it has taken to speak out”.
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
Call For Media and Government Investigation 
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