Lord Paul Swarj Under British Police Investigation

I have written of the Sathya Sathya Sai Baba-implicated and high-profile British Labour Government Minister, Tony McNulty MP, and police investigations earlier this year into allegations of rorting the British taxpayer via parliamentary expenses claims. (See Further Reading, below).

Tony McNulty British MP. Sathya Sai Baba Behind Him

Lord Paul Swarj Under British Police Investigation

 

And now another powerful British Government figure is under British police investigation, Lord Paul Swarj, a close friend of the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and major bank-roller of the British Labour Party.

Lord Paul. British Police Investigate Parliamentary Expenses Claims

The Times of London reports – Deputy Speaker Lord Paul steps down over expenses row -:

“Lord Paul has temporarily stepped down as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords while an investigation is carried out into his expense claims.

Over the weekend it emerged that Lord Paul, a Labour peer, claimed that a flat occupied by one of his employees was his main home, allowing him to claim £38,000 in expenses”.

Of course, a wealthy individual does not usually need to rort 38 thousand pounds sterling. They tend to have plenty of liquid wherewithal at hand or else easily be able to borrow it from mates, if momentarily stuck.  Rich pals help rich pals out, just as poor ones do. However, there may be other reasons, and the British investigators clearly think it worthwhile exploring avenues of possibility. Unscrupulous individuals can have many shady cash cow sources, and the overall yield end up a great deal more than 38 thousand quid. In terms of the last five years, the amount he has claimed reaches 110,000 pound. What exeeds this amount by far is the taxation that Lord Paul is widely criticized for avoiding.

The next weeks or months may result in yet another exposure of those who abuse their wealth and power. It is the story of Sathya Sai Baba and many core leaders around him, including those Sathya Sai Organization members around the world who use their wealth and influence – often without revealing the true agendas of the one called by the BBC “The Secret Swami” –  in the corridors of power.  It may be hoped that the British media, while investigating Lord Paul, will also find time to question any firm ties between Paul and the Sathya Sai Organization.

NOTE:

Should the media and other investigators wish to probe any money trails concerning big-league Sathya Sai Organization players in relation to its British Labour figures such as Lord Paul and Tony McNulty, they may like to take up leads such as I have carefully distributed in several articles (my having been careful to observe all the while considerations of source confidentiality and the laws of libel), see:

Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?

Ashok Bhagani and The Secret Swami

By Robert Priddy:

Ashok Bhagani denies fully documented facts

Ashok Bhagani, Sathya Sai Baba cult promoter in UK

The Daily Telegraph (UK) reports:

Lord Paul under scrutiny over his parliamentary expenses

“Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: “What concerns me most is that he is claiming £38,000 from British tax-payers for a home where he doesn’t seem to be living when he doesn’t pay full British taxes himself.

That sum of money for a multi-millionaire like Lord Paul is a drop in the ocean compared to the taxes he is dodging from his worldwide income.

Claiming a property is your main home, when someone else lives there but would move out if you asked them to, is stretching the English language and the Lords expenses rules too far.

Lord Paul should not sit in the Lords unless he gives up his non domicile tax status and pays full British taxes on all his worldwide income and assets.”

A Press Trust of India report quotes Lord Paul as saying:

“at Caparo we have been guided by three things — hard work, integrity and luck. But the most important thing, which has no substitute, is integrity.” (PTI).  Source:   NRI Swraj Paul’s Caparo Group to add six new ancillary plants

From Wikipedia entry:

Swraj Paul, Baron Paul, (born 1931) is an Indian-born, British-based business magnate and philanthropist. In 1996, he became a life peer, taking the title Baron Paul, of Marylebone in the City of Westminster, sitting in the House of Lords as a Labour peer. In December 2008, he was appointed deputy speaker of the Lords, the first person of Indian origin to hold the post.

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Further Reading

Tony McNulty Expenses Outcry. Select List of Major UK News Articles

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 28, 2009

Tony McNulty Brit MP. Expenses Scandal Erupts. His Sai Baba Cult Nexus Yet To Be Probed

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 23, 2009

Tony McNulty Sathya Sai Baba Cult Supporter Tipped As UK Home Minister

Posted by Barry Pittard on February 18, 2009

Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Considerable Concern’ In Wider Hindu Community

Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 7, 2007

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General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

There is a Spanish version available:

PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA  “>INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)

 

UK Minister Tony McNulty Finished? Indian Guru Sai Baba Link Should Be Probed

Tony McNulty MP, the Sathya Sai Baba-partial British government Employment Minister is in still bigger trouble. He looks likely to face police investigation. It had seemed that McNulty was headed for close to the ultimate Ministerial portfolio, that of Home Minister. It is a far cry for him now.

Tony McNulty UK Minister. Finished? Is this a gun he's got in his finger?

McNulty’s plummet from political heights is not the only disgrace faced by those Sathya Sai Baba has ‘favoured’. After the fatal incompetence before and during the extreme Islamic terrorists on Mumbai, the (then) Home Minister of India, Shivraj Patil fell. See the article on this blogsite: Shivraj Patil Falls From Home Ministry. One wonders if Patil overhearkened to his likewise incompetent guru Sathya Sai Baba’s completely absurd prediction that there would be no terrorist bombs in India. See: Hasty Cover Up Of Sai Baba ‘No bombs in India’ Blunder. Apart from his many other failed predictions and promises, Sathya Sai Baba had said:

But in India, there is no fear of bombs. India will never have any such attacks.” Sathya Sai Baba, 22-10-2008.

UK Employment Minister Tony McNulty’s Sai Baba Connection

News of the last few hours shows that his disgrace factor continues to deepen. His friendship with Ashok Bhagani, the head of the UK Sathya Sai Organization, his employment in his Westminster office of Bhagani’s daughter, and his larger than might be expected attendances at Sathya Sai Baba meetings, I have blogged on in a number of pages in ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’. (See links below).

Quite beside scandal that surrounds McNulty’s improper use (which he was forced to admit) of government funds for his second house, in which his parents, and not he, have been residing, there are serious issues that former Sai Baba devotee interests would like to see him face. One of these relates to breach of privacy. Another to receipt of funds related to Sai Baba sources. Another to his role played in the setting up of powerful transmissions to beam Sai Global Radio across the British isles. A major presence, as well as Ashok Bhagani, in the latter is Dr G. Venkataraman, Sai Baba’s deputy head of the International Sathya Sai Organization, and head of Sai Global Radio via the WorldSpace Satellite Radio Corporation.

Dr G.Venkataraman. Sathya Sai Global Radio Chief (Left)

See my articles:

Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister of Propaganda’ – Dr G. Venkataraman

Indian Nuclear Scientist Now Sai Baba’s Global Radio Chief

Venkataraman was a Sai Baba official with whom the Duke of Edinburgh’s emissaries had to deal in forcing the removal of false information from the official Sathya Sai Baba Puttaparthi website. See my article:  UK Guardian On Sathya Sai Baba and Duke’s Awards. Quote from this article:

“Paul Lewis of The Guardian exposed links between India’s most famous and controversial guru, Sathya Sai Baba, and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Palace officials, after a slow start, demanded that Sai Baba’s officials take down incorrect information, and the Palace distanced itself from Sathya Sai Baba and his movement”

See Also:  A Duke Stops An Emperor. Edinburgh Routs Sai Baba. Venkataraman, who has, without doubt, defamed Robert Priddy, former longtime head of the Sathya Sai Sai Organization, Norway, has been exposed in some detail in Robert Priddy’s and my jointly-authored four-part article (which contains many valuable links): ‘The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed’

Has Tony McNulty Breached Serious Ethics Codes Re Sai Baba Dealings?

These former Sai Baba devotee concerns about McNulty – although it may be uphill to bring them to the fore, given the enormity of other issues McNulty faces – we are placing in the hands of the proper authorities and, as well, with Opposition parties in the House of Commons and House of Lords. We will provide the story for any well-reputed media, without any thought of payment – unless it were fully declared and donated to a mainstream, universally regarded charity. One of these issues – no mistake about it! – would, if proved in a strict sense, constitute a most serious breach of ethics for any Member of Parliament, much less a Minister of the Crown. Our sources are good indeed. Some eminent ones are available to reputed media.

In the background photo, at London Sathya Sai Baba center, it is Sathya Sai Baba who stands behind Tony McNulty. We know that prominent Sathya Sai Baba officials regard him as standing behind McNulty in more ways than one.

Articles on Tony McNulty MP in ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’

• McNulty Expenses Outcry. Select List of Major UK News Articles
• Tony McNulty MP Expenses Furore. His Sathya Sai Baba Sect Ties Also Need To Be Probed
• Tony McNulty Brit MP. Expenses Scandal Erupts. His Sai Baba Cult Nexus Yet To Be Probed
• Tony McNulty Sathya Sai Baba Cult Supporter Tipped As UK Home Minister
• Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?

An earlier success of our network was to ensure that former Prime Minister Tony Blair (of the same government that McNulty is a part of) did not visit Sathya Sai Baba at his ashram, ‘Brindavan’, some 20 kilometers outside Bangalore, South India. Blair was within about 15 minutes of leaving for the ashram. See, Tony Blair Was to Visit Sai Baba. Plan Thwarted

 

                  Will Sai Baba Take Heat off Brit Minister Tony McNulty MP?

Articles From ‘The Guardian’ (UK) on Tony McNulty

• Police called in as fresh expenses leaks embarrass MPs                                                                                                    

         8 May: Parliamentary authorities call in police to investigate how details  of  MPs expenses were leaked and by whom

             Police called in as fresh expenses leaks embarrass MPs

              8 May 2009: Parliamentary authorities call in police to investigate how details of MPs expenses were leaked and by whom

• MPs’ expenses: Tony McNulty may face police investigation over claims

  8 May 2009: Employment minister Tony McNulty may have ‘obtained pecuniary advantage by deception’

• MPs’ expenses: The high-profile cases

  21 Apr 2009: MPs whose parliamentary allowance claims have put them in the spotlight

             The question of torture: what the government said

• 27 Mar 2009: “The security and intelligence agencies do not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment”
  Tony McNulty, 1 May 2008

• Standards watchdog to investigate Tony McNulty expenses

  26 Mar 2009: Parliamentary commissioner for standards to launch inquiry into minister’s £60,000 second home claim

• MP perks targeted by standards committee

  25 Mar 2009: Payments for second London homes, jobs for family members and interest-free mortgages in the firing line

• PM steps into expenses row with inquiry call

  24 Mar 2009: Greg Hands complains to parliamentary standards commissioner over Tony McNulty’s Harrow home

• It’s time to change the rules on MPs’ expenses

  23 Mar 2009: Frank Field: The current system is so damaging to the political process that the most drastic reform is now necessary

  35 comments

• MPs’ expenses: other MPs who have faced criticism

  23 Mar 2009: As pressure grows for an investigation into Tony McNulty’s home allowance, Andrew Sparrow looks at eight other MPs who have come under fire over expenses

• MPs’ expenses: If these are the rules, the rules need fixing
  

  23 Mar 2009: Michael White: It is getting ever harder for honourable members to resist calls for external regulation of expenses

  21 comments

• Employment minister faces inquiry call over £60,000 second-home allowance

  22 Mar 2009: Tony McNulty admits ‘discomfort’ at claiming on home in Harrow East constituency occupied by parents

• A boost for the jobless

  17 Mar 2009: Tony McNulty, Welfare Reform Bill: People’s skills and aspirations will be improved – and their lives transformed

  78 comments

• Me, the weekend and you

  31 Jan 2009: Boris defends the finance sector, McNulty and Malthouse to debate on The Politics Show, spoof Twitterer mystery remains unsolved.

  5 comments

• Minister branded ‘out of touch’ for unemployment comment

  21 Jan 2009: Conservatives criticise employment minister Tony McNulty for saying there was ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ after new data showed UK jobless total nearing 2 million

• Boris Johnson calls for tax cut on foreign profits

  17 Nov 2008: London mayor presents package of recession demands to Tony McNulty

Archive (16-24 of 24)

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• Latest
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• Home Office crime warning blindingly obvious, says minister

  1 Sep 2008: Tony McNulty says there is nothing unusual about leaked letter warning of effects of economic downturn on crime and extremism

• More questions for terrorism minister

  5 May 2008: Letters: I would like to thank Tony McNulty (Letters, May 1) for taking the time to respond to your leader of April 30

• Terror remands over 28 days will be rare, minister tells rebel MPs

  27 Feb 2008: Home Office minister Tony McNulty says that new anti-terror powers would only be triggered on exceptional occasions

• Control orders and public safety

  28 Dec 2007: Letters: Tony McNulty’s attack on Gareth Peirce is unfair and self-contradictory (Letters, December 24)

• Labour ministers go ‘speed-dating’ with future voters

  9 Oct 2007: Over 100 young people are today interrogating James Purnell, Tony McNulty and Helen Goodman and giving them each a mark out of 10

  2 comments

• Labour ministers go ‘speed-dating’ with future voters

  9 Oct 2007: Over 100 young people are today interrogating James Purnell, Tony McNulty and Helen Goodman and giving them each a mark out of 10

  2 comments

• Spotlight switches to junior ministers in criminal records row

  11 Jan 2007: A letter written by the Association of Chief Police Officers warning about the backlog of crime records was received by Tony McNulty and replied to by Joan Ryan.

• Oddjob goes Toto

  24 Oct 2006: Simon Hoggart: You might think that one John Reid at the Home Office was enough. You would be wrong. He now his own Mini-Me, in the form of the junior minister in charge of police matters, Tony McNulty.

• Family again faces deportation after minister rejects appeal

  24 Aug 2005: A new appeal against the deportation of a family of five asylum seekers from Malawi was last night rejected by the immigration minister, Tony McNulty.

• Leading by example

  5 Aug 2005: Leader: To his credit Tony McNulty, the Home Office minister, ignored the injunctions of GB Shaw, PG Wodehouse and John Wayne, all of whom advised: never apologise, never explain.

• Prev
• Latest

Tony McNulty Expenses Outcry. Select List of Major UK News Articles

Via the news organization Silobreaker, Friday, March 27, 2009 8:23 PM, below are some links to major British media articles on the Tony McNulty expenses uproar.

McNulty has close ties with the wealthy and powerful Sathya Sai Baba sect, and with its UK leader  Ashok Bhagani and other key members. The aim to set up a powerful transmitter in the UK for Sai Baba’s international radio satellite broadcasts has been a part of this relationship.

The Harrowing of Harrow East MP Tony McNulty

The Tangled Web

McNulty first said that he would not hand back the more than 60.000 pounds sterling that he had claimed for a house in which his parents live. Under closer scrutiny, he then said that he would. He also first said that he had done no wrong. But subsequently said that the “arrangement is indefensible”.

John Lyon, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, is to launch a formal investigation.

McNulty has been widely tipped to be the next Home Minister and also Lord Mayor of London for 2012.  However, he is now under a cloud of approximately the size of the roof of his parents’ house for which he claimed expenses.

See also my related blogs:

Tony McNulty MP Expenses Furore. His Sathya Sai Baba Sect Ties Also Need To Be Probed

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 26, 2009

Tony McNulty Brit MP. Expenses Scandal Erupts. His Sai Baba Cult Nexus Yet To Be Probed

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 23, 2009

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Silobreaker List To Date

• Greg Hands MP on the DNA database – BBC [7 hours ago]

•  Watchdog investigates ministers second-home claims – Glasgow Herald [17 hours ago]

•  Question time briefing: Treasury – ePolitix.com [03/26/2009]

• MP’s battle over DNA database – Guardian Unlimited [03/26/2009]

• Minister Investigated By Sleaze Watchdog – Sky News [03/26/2009]

• Sleaze watchdog will investigate Tony McNulty home expense claims – Telegraph [03/26/2009]

•  Wednesday 25 March 2009 – Hansard [03/26/2009]

• Probe into minister’s home expenses – Ananova [03/26/2009]

•  Watchdog to investigate McNulty – Guardian Unlimited [03/26/2009]

•  McNulty facing MP expenses probe – BBC [03/26/2009]

•  Global Association of Risk Professionals Presents European Risk Congress – Yahoo! Canada [03/25/2009]

•  Another MP flayed over expense claims – Gulf Times [03/25/2009] 

•  Gordon Brown backs minister Tony McNulty in second home expenses row – Mail Online UK [03/24/2009]

•  Brown backs McNulty over expenses row – Mail Online UK [03/24/2009]  

• Brown gives employment minister Tony McNulty his backing over $60,000 expenses claim for parents’ home – Mail Online UK [03/24/2009]

• Twenty more outer-London MPs profit from the Tony McNulty wheeze – First Post [03/24/2009]

• 20 MPs profit from London home wheeze – First Post [03/24/2009]

• PM calls for expenses inquiry – Guardian Unlimited [03/24/2009]

•  Second home row minister Tony McNulty broke rules, says Tory – Guardian Unlimited [03/24/2009]

• Brown backs full picture review of MPs expenses and earnings – Glasgow Herald – Digital Journal [03/24/2009]

• When Staying Within the Rules is not Enough[03/24/2009]

• Tory: Home row minister broke rules – Guardian Unlimited [03/24/2009]

• Will new expenses row force Standards Committee to act? – First Post [03/24/2009]

• Give us a £40k pay rise and we’ll surrender perks! Shameless MPs reveal ‘solution’ to expenses row – Mail Online UK [03/24/2009]

• Gordon Brown last night intervened in the MPs’ expenses row by backing the review announced by the Westminster standards watchdog. – Glasgow Herald [03/24/2009]

• MPs face new expenses probe as calls mount for a halt to the gravy train – Daily Express [03/24/2009] 

• Minister broke rules, says Tory – Guardian Unlimited [03/24/2009] 

• Another minister attacked over allowance – The Times [03/23/2009]

• Shake-up of MPs’ expenses planned – ITN [03/23/2009]

View Video Clips From BBC and Other Sources:  Tony McNulty’s favoured Indian guru is exposed for his magician’s tricks. Also Sai Baba’s world head Dr Michael Goldstein and close colleague of Ashok Bhagani is exposed by BBC hidden camera in a fit of anger and denial of accountability, transparency and duty-of-care.

Sleight Of Hand. The Sleightness of Sathya Sai Baba (Exposing film clips)

Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash  (Film clip)

Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating

BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)

Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba). Revealing Footage

Further Articles on Ashok Bhagani:

By Robert Priddy

(Former longtime head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway. Retired academic, University of Oslo).

– Ashok Bhagani denies fully documented facts

(The latter article is valuable because of references and links concerning Ashok Bhagani’s ties with The Eastern Eye).

– BBC Acted “Totally Irresponsibly” Says Ashok Bhagani

– Ashok Bhagani, Sathya Sai Baba cult promoter in UK

By  Barry Pittard:

– Tony McNulty Sathya Sai Baba Cult Supporter Tipped As UK  Home Minister

–  Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?

–  Ashok Bhagani – Blotting Out Conscience and Memory?

–  Ashok Bhagani and The Secret Swami

–  Ashok Bhagani Uses Race Card

–  UK Sai Baba Head, Ashok Bhagani Exposes Himself

Tool For Media and Other Investigators

Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List

Tony McNulty MP Expenses Furore. His Sathya Sai Baba Sect Ties Also Need To Be Probed

Those wishing for hotlinks to my blog of yesterday on the Tony McNulty MP expenses furore in the UK, and some questions which it prompts in relation to the Sathya Sai sect can go here as well: 

Tony McNulty Brit MP. Expenses Scandal Erupts. His Sai Baba Cult Nexus Yet To Be Probed

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 23, 2009

God may save the Queen, but will she save her Minister, McNulty? 

 

Sai Baba-related Minister Tony McNulty Faces Expenses Enquiry

Great Britain’s State Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, Tony McNulty, is yet again under fire. Recently, he was in trouble for falsely talking up the economy. McNulty’s previous portfolios  as Immigration Minister and Minister for Security and Counter-terrorism at the Home Office also gave him some rocky rides.

Britons Angered Over McNulty’s Expenses Claims

 Last weekend, the Daily Mail broke a story about his taking large tax-free expenses for a house in which his parents live.  But McNulty himself lives in Hammersmith, a few miles from his Harrow constituency.

With hundreds of thousands of Britons unemployed, such revelations have angered many.

At first, but subsequently doing a volte face, McNulty was adamant that he was not going to hand back the at least 60.000 pounds sterling that he had claimed for a home where his parents live. This tax-free claim the Daily Mail and other newspapers (which quickly took up the story) have suggested cannot be justified by his parliamentary duties.  See:

McNulty faces probe over parents home claim

Monday, March 23 01:36 pm

Probe Needed Into McNulty-Sathya Sai Baba Sect Nexus

A probe into irregularities should enquire about any payments that Sathya Sai sect officials or other members may have paid to Tony McNulty.

The powerful and extraordinarily wealthy worldwide Sathya Sai Organization broadcasts in the name of  Sai Global Harmony, transmitted internationally by satellite 24/7 via WorldSpace Radio Corporation. The head of this, Dr Michael Nobel, has shown high partiality to Sathya Sai Baba but has been exposed by the Royal Swedish Nobel Foundation and in the New York Times. See my article of yesterday.

The Sai Baba sect leaders would include the UK head of the sect, Ashok Bhagani, with whom McNultyis said to be good friends.  Bhagani’ s daughter has a lengthy employment history with McNulty, who has made many visits to Sathya Sai Baba gatherings.  See:

Tony McNulty Sathya Sai Baba Cult Supporter Tipped As UK Home Minister.

 Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?

 

British PM Brown Says: Investigate paid job’ Outside Parliamentary Duties 

Although Gordon Brown’s response seems made to get the spotlight off McNulty, it contains a solid suggestion:  investigate paid jobsthat MP’s might be taking beyond their parliamentary remit. 

An enquiry needs to ask McNulty to disclose his entire dealings with this cult which has been strongly exposed by the BBC in 2004 and other major investigative media in the UK and and other countries. 

Further Reading 

The Daily Mail, which  initiated the story, now reports – last updated at 8:53 PM on 25th March 2009:

Tony McNulty’s political career in doubt as he faces inquiry in    ‘second home’ expenses row

Tony McNulty’s political career was in peril last night after Westminster’s sleaze watchdog launched an investigation over claims that he abused his expenses … 

The probe will look at his decision to designate the house in his Harrow East constituency as a ‘second home’ even although he rarely stays there.

The investigation, which could drag on for months, is deeply damaging for Mr McNulty.

Until the scandal broke, he was being tipped for a future Cabinet position.

MP perks targeted by standards committee

The Guardian Wednesday 25 March

Payments for second London homes, jobs for family members and interest-free mortgages in the firing line

The Guardian Tuesday 24 March 2009

             PM steps into expenses row with inquiry call

The prime minister also tried to wrongfoot the Tories by saying that Sir Christopher Kelly, the standards committee chairman, should at the same time examine the issue of MPs’ outside interests, including paid jobs outside parliament.

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View Video  Clips that reveal the risk to the British Labour Government for tolerating Tony McNulty’s long flirtation with a cult leader so resoundingly exposed in the British media, and far beyond

• Sleight Of Hand. The Sleightness of Sathya Sai Baba (Exposing film clips)

• Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai BabaCheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)

• Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating

• BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)

• Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)

• The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba). Revealing Footage 

NOTE: Dr G. Venkataraman, Sai Baba’s radio chief and world deputy chairman, has said on Sai Global Harmony’s official website that the aim is to transmit Sai Baba’s message into every home. What he conceals is that the agenda of the sect is to see Sathya Sai Baba ruling the world.

Has, then, Tony McNulty been taking consultancy fees or any other kind of payment in regard to the Sathya Sai Baba cult’s plans? These are to ensure that Sai Baba’s message is heard via powerful satellite transmission of Sai Global Harmony through WorldSpace Corporation across the UK, just as it broadcasts to other countries.

Tony McNulty Brit MP. Expenses Scandal Erupts. His Sai Baba Cult Nexus Yet To Be Probed

A big scandal has erupted in the UK surrounding  British Labour Member of Parliament, Tony McNulty.

Will Sai Baba Take Heat off Brit Minister Tony McNulty MP

Some of my readers will recall that McNulty is connected with the head of the Sathya Sai Organization in the UK, Ashok Bhagani. Evidence suggests the two men are friends.

It is also known that Bhagani’s daughter has long been working, with varying hours of service, for Bhagani in his Westminster office.

Tony McNulty has represented the Harrow Constituency since 1997, and been a government Minister since 2002. He is currently Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform, although widely tipped to become Home Minister. His wife is Christine Gilbert, the chief inspector of schools, with whose Ministry questions about Sai Baba’s secular fronts in Education in Human Values have been raised. The Times of London writer Dominic Kennedy raised on page 3. this issue of unacknowledged sect influence in UK, referring to June Auton, a familiar figure in Sai Baba’s UK organization. See:

‘Suicide, sex and the guru. The reputation of Sai Baba, a holy man to the rich and famous, has been tarnished by mysterious deaths and allegations of sexual abuse’.  The Times – August 27, 2001

The international Sathya Sai Organization has been going all out to penetrate the world’s satellite radio waves.  It is known that McNulty has been involved in efforts to bring these plans to fruition.

As declared by the director of Radio Sai Global Harmony, Dr G. Venkataraman, the aim is to get Sathya Sai Baba and his message into every corner of the globe. See:

Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister of Propaganda’ – Dr G. Venkataraman

Note: Launched in November 23, 2001, Radio Sai Global Harmony in conjunction with Sri Satya Sai Books and Publications Trust, all part of the International Sathya Organization, delivers 24/7 satellite broadcasts via WorldSpace Corporation in many regions of the world. The latter’s supremo, Dr Michael Nobel, has extensively sung Sai Baba’s praises. See comments about Nobel in Robert Priddy’s articles:

Sathya Sai Baba’s hunger for international recognition

Dr Michael Nobel, Sai Baba man. Warned by Nobel Foundation, Sweden

Nobel has been effectively disposed of in reports by e.g., The New York Times and by the Royal Swedish Nobel Foundation itself (see links in the Robert Priddy article). Sai Baba’s statement in a discourse (November 18, 2001), very far from omniscient, is also exposed for all eyes except those of his smitten followers:

“They are giving the Nobel Prize to many people. The man who gives the Nobel Prize (Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee) is coming here on the 22^nd November. The ones who will show this to the whole world, TV people, are all coming here on the 22^nd.

Major British Newspaper Called Investigative Journalist off McNulty-Bhagani story

In 2008, a leading journalist from one of Britain’s top newspapers, The Guardian, attempted to investigate this McNulty-Bhagani nexus.  As soon as he made headway, he got called off the story.  However, on Saturday November 4, 2007, The Guardian had run Paul Lewis’s story The Indian living god, The paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards.  See my article:

UK Guardian On Sathya Sai Baba and Duke’s Awards

There have been instances where sudden spikings of Sai Baba related stories, much to the upset of journalists who have put in a lot of investigative slog – such as senior journalists on CanWest (where wealthy Canadian Sai Baba cult members threatened the withdrawal of considerable business advertisements). At the 11th hour, the editor of The West Australian pulled a story by award-winning journalist Torrance Mendez that was to be front paged. However, it is known that The Times, BBC, CBC (Canada), SBS (Australia) and India Today have all withstood considerable pressures by Sai Baba’s extremely wealthy and well-connected emissaries.

The Sathya Sai Organization is noted, whenever it gets wind of an upcoming media story, for attempting to keep critical stories OUT of the news. As perfectly fits its authoritarian, cultic status, it does not stand for openness, transparency and accountability. See the BBC film footage from its 2004 documentary:

Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)

BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba). Revealing Footage

See footage from India’s equivalent of the BBC, Doordashan:

Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating

The McNulty-Bhagani Nexus

There are questions to be asked about what kind of contributions may have been made by Bhagani to McNulty. Also, whether McNulty’s links with the Sathya Sai Baba sect are more than would be required of an MP on behalf of constituents.

Why has McNulty had such close association with the Sathya Sai Baba cult? This – when the Times of London, the BBC, CBC, SBS, ABC, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and serious media in other parts of the world, including India Today, all stood by the integrity of their investigations. Why, in short, Tony McNulty’s persistent linkage with the Sai sect?

In background: Sathya Sai Baba’s photo. Is Sai Baba behind Tony McNulty MP in more ways than have been made known? Will McNulty declare moneys that he has received from any strongly Sathya Sai Baba-connected source? Will he disclose why he has made many visits to Sathya Sai Baba venues? Will he say what his interests are in Sai Global Harmony and in the setting up of a powerful transmitter in Great Britain?

The Daily Mail Story: Tony McNulty Expenses Disclosures

Yesterday, Sunday, Mar 22 2009, The Daily Mail ran a lengthy story that suggests McNulty has been, if not outrightly corrupt, then taking expenses of a kind bound to anger millions of Britons who are facing dangerously rising unemployment rates. See:

Minister’s £60,000 expenses for parents’ home: ‘Rumbled’ Tony McNulty drops claim… then calls for it to be curtailed

Among other newspapers reacting to the Daily Mail reports, the BBC has responded:

McNulty defends expenses claims

It will be interesting to watch the development of this story. In the meantime, my articles on Tony McNulty are:

Tony McNulty Sathya Sai Baba Cult Supporter Tipped As UK Home Minister

Posted on February 18, 2009

Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?

Posted on February 22, 2007

Articles on Ashok Bhagani

By Robert Priddy

(Former longtime head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway. Retired academic, University of Oslo).

Ashok Bhagani denies fully documented facts

(The latter article is valuable because of references and links concerning Ashok Bhagani’s ties with The Eastern Eye).

BBC Acted “Totally Irresponsibly” Says Ashok Bhagani

Ashok Bhagani, Sathya Sai Baba cult promoter in UK

By  Barry Pittard

Ashok Bhagani – Blotting Out Conscience and Memory?

Ashok Bhagani and The Secret Swami

Ashok Bhagani Uses Race Card

UK Sai Baba Head, Ashok Bhagani Exposes Himself

For Media and Other Investigators

Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List

Sathya Sai Organization Libels Those Who Have Left It

 

It pleases Sai Baba’s Internet defenders – not to mention those elsewhere – grossly to misrepresent those former devotees active in bringing many allegations about Sai Baba and his cult to international light. It portrays former devotees as but “a small handful of disgruntled” individuals.

This “disgruntled” label is familiarly used by Sai center leaders when they inform their congregations to pay no heed to the allegations. They, under strict instructions, say that it is “Swami’s wish” that devotees do not read the Internet writings against him.

But, as Sai Baba’s apologists would have it, those such as Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, myself and many others who have left Sai Baba are in some kind of unholy conspiracy. Among those who pronounce such unustainable defamations is the deputy chairman of the Sathya Sai Baba Organization, Dr G. Venkataraman. See:

Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister’of Propaganda – Dr G. Venkataraman

Indian Nuclear Scientist Now Sai Baba’s Global Radio Chief

Sathya Sai Baba’s Deputy Head, Dr G. Venkataraman, Speaks of “Mr Idi Amin”

The Declaring of Non Persons and Annihilation of Personal History

However, there are many in the Sathya Sai Organization who suppress a palpable  fact:  namely, that many of those who have left it, having investigated the allegations – particularly in their own Sai centers – were held in high esteem for decades.

These continuing Sai Baba center members have allowed themselves, year after year, to be party to defamation of many former devotees by the core leaders, which has been echoed all the way down the leadership heirarchy. Some top leaders who have so shamefully hidden vital facts from many rank-and-file devotees include:  Michael Goldstein, Indulal Shah, William Harvey, Bob Bozzani, Jagadeesan, Ashok Bhagani, T.Sri Ramanathan, Thorbjørn Meyer, Steen Piculell, Leonardo Gutter …  (Note the incredible top-heaviness of males in the Sathya Sai heirarchy!).

As the siftings and sortings of both documentary and psychological history portray themselves, it will be to their lasting shame that so many Sai devotees have stifled their consciences and commonsense.

As the Sathya Sai Organization has now only too potently seen, ever wider political, civic, religious, academic institutions now shy away from them when the sect attempts to gain outreach in communities around the world.

There has been a huge effort by former devotees to bring to international attention the facts relating to:

• serial sexual abuse
• police killings in Sai Baba bedroom (See V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy:  Sai Baba Bedroom Killings)
• financial scandals concerning vast donations from many countries
• scams involving the sale of apartments at Puttaparthi
• cover up by successive Indian governments e.g. HERE. HERE. HERE. HERE. HERE. HERE. HERE.
• repeated failure of Sai Baba’s prophecies and promises disease cure
• huge misappropriation of funds from donors worldwide, deployed to incredible pomp and extravagance
• Sai Baba’s very serious errors in regard to scientific and historical facts (covered very well by the Australian scholar Brian Steel:  my commentary and links to these are found in – Revealing Materials On Sai Baba Of India and Huge Sai Baba Gaffes). Note:  Brian Steel has done much groundbreaking work that will be of singular service to scholars and investigators well into the future.  See:  Recent Research on the Claims of Sathya Sai Baba. Also my appreciation of his work:  Sai Baba Researchers’ Huge Debt To Scholar Brian D. Steel

Further Reading

Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment

Sai Baba. Some Dissenting Themes and Resources

Cultic Depersonalization or Demonization of Dissenters

Some Key Cultic Responses To Critics

Sathya Sai Baba Cult. Blind Eye To Massive Slander

Terribly Revealing Film Clips

• Sleight Of Hand. The Sleightness of Sathya Sai Baba (Exposing film clips)
• Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)
• Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating
• Sai Baba Cultists’ Gull Wider Communities
• BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)
• Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)
• The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba). Revealing Footage

Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Considerable Concern’ In Wider Hindu Community

Some of Sathya Sai Baba’s propagandists, and many devotees, strive to make it appear that an assertion disfavouring him is an assertion against Hinduism and India.

In actual fact, a great many Hindus do not at all approve of Sai Baba, as anyone who has travelled extensively in India or who knows many non-resident Indians knows only too well.

A Simple Test to Guage Sathya Sai Baba’s Wider Prestige

A small but powerful test:  simply,  if you are not Indian, ask your Indian friends their reaction to the name Mahatma Gandhi

Loved 'Father' of modern India, but 'belonging' to the world

or Shirdi Sai Baba

Shirdi Sai Baba. Great renunciate and servant of all

and then their reaction to the name Sathya  Sai Baba.

More gold for Pomp and Sai-cumstance Baba (Puttaparthi Sai)

Sathya Sai. All that glitters is not true gold.

The qualitative difference of reaction to your question (which is actually about what constitutes true gold) will commonly be altogether striking.

Many Indians – Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists, Humanists, Rationalists and so on – are appalled by the incredibly lavish pomp and circumstance that surround Sathya Sai Baba. They do not want his going around in a golden chariot and all the rest of the panoply to represent the greatness of their country. See:

Sai Baba’s Birthday. Vast, Costly Pomp and Ceremony

Sai Baba, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates, Et Alia.

Interfaith Movement Far Ahead of Sathya Sai Baba In Bringing Mutual Diolog

Moreover, the ‘sarva dharma’ (respect for all faiths) emphasis that Sai Baba has long driven is not repaid by any significant signs that the officials of the world’s religions have recognized Sai Baba. It is abundantly clear that the interfaith movement throughout the world has done infinitely more effective work in getting divers faiths talking to each other in amity. See:

Muslim Leaders Initiative Bold. Sai Baba’s Efforts Fail

(I have written elsewhere – Saudi King Abdullah: Jews, Muslims, Christians Must Diolog – of the interfaith call by King Abdulla of Saudi Arabia. It is a very partial one. At least millions round the world who know nothing of Sathya Sai Baba have heard of King Abdulla. If any such friendly get-togethers were to occur among  the Muslims, Jews and Christians to whom the king refers, there would need to be the focused avoidance of any entanglement in the  harsh world of realpolitik – in which King Abdulla is no doubt highly troubled by Iran, which is a non-Arab country).

‘Considerable Concern Among the Hindu Community’

A major Hindu leader (to whom on request I shall gladly direct responsible and reputable media) once wrote to me:

“There is considerable concern among the Hindu Community, especially among the educated. It is very hard to get any action from the temples as they do not wish to cause difficulties with the Sathya Sai Baba groups. People are starting to distance themselves from Sathya Sai Baba. It’s going to be gradual process of education. The biggest impact it appears was the ‘The Secret Swami’ … it seems it has had a tremendous negative effect on Sathya Sai Baba”.

An example in which a major leader in the Sathya Sai Baba movement can be seen, with great slides of fallacious reasoning, playing the culture ‘card’ as though the case for Sai Baba is somehow settled among “the Asian Community” is Ashok Bhagani, head of the Sathya Sai Baba Organization in the UK. Referring to the BBC’s The Secret Swami, he told The Asian Voice, June 26, 2004):

“I saw the documentary on Thursday and it made my blood boil. The BBC is a premier channel and it was irresponsible of them to show a totally one-sided, biased and unbalanced documentary that they knew may stir something amongst many members of the Asian community”.

Further Reading

Ashok Bhagani denies fully documented facts (by Robert Priddy, former head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway)

Robert Priddy, former long-time head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway

UK Sai Baba Head, Ashok Bhagani Exposes Himself

Ashok Bhagani and The Secret Swami.

Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?

Some Video Resources

The Secret Swami (BBC Television):

(154 MB, Broadband)

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

http://home.hetnet.nl/~seduced/seduced.wmv
(21 MB, Modem)

‘The Secret Swami’ showcased with selected transcripts and brief
video clips

Ashok Bhagani Uses Race Card

Ashok Bhagani. Part 2.

In The Eastern Eye (June 25, 2004), Ashok Bhagani, head of Sai Baba’s UK Sathya Sai Organization, states:

“I saw the documentary on Thursday and it made my blood boil. The BBC is a premier channel and it was irresponsible of them to show a totally one-sided, biased and unbalanced documentary that they knew may stir something amongst many members of the Asian community”.

One notes Bhagani’s shoddy slide of reasoning to incorporate the entire Asian community. He begs the question that the Indian community at large is somehow favourable to Sathya Sai Baba. It has always been far from being so. A major national Hindu leader has emailed me (December 5, 2006), saying:

“There is considerable concern among the Hindu Community, especially among the educated. It is very hard to get any action from the temples as they do not wish to cause difficulties with the Sathya Sai Baba groups. People are starting to distance themselves from Sathya Sai Baba. It’s going to be gradual process of education. The biggest impact it appears was the ‘The Secret Swami’ … it seems it has had a tremendous negative effect on the SSB”.

For Online Viewing and/or Dowloading

Resources

The Secret Swami (BBC Television) Broadband 154 MB

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

• Sleight Of Hand. The Sleightness of Sathya Sai Baba (Exposing film clips)
• Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)
• Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating
• Sai Baba Cultists’ Gull Wider Communities
• BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)
• Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)
• The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba). Revealing Footage

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UK Sai Baba Head, Ashok Bhagani Exposes Himself

(Part I)

As reported in The Eastern Eye (June 25, 2004), Ashok Bhagani, a Trustee of the Sri Sathya Sai Charitable Trust, UK, claims to have been a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba for 38 years. There are also former devotees of Sai Baba who have given notable service to this organization for many decades, who have left it with the highest of ethical motives. One can enquire whether Ashok Bhagani  has undue vested interest in defending his guru, and in providing face-saving disinformation, despite the many facts that have become known. Soon after the searing BBC documentary ‘The Secret Swami’ (2004), Bhagani was interviewed by at least two newspapers, and it is instructive to examine his claims and defenses to vindicate Sathya Sai Baba. In the Asian Voice (June 26, 2004), he states:

“The BBC has acted totally irresponsibly. The allegations in the documentary are completely factless and baseless…What actual evidence does the BBC have to substantiate these claims? These allegations have been circulating for years and have never been proved. As far as I’m concerned, there are 30 million happy devotees in the world, but every so often you will get two or three who will make these wild allegations.”

Is not Bhagani’s estimate of “30 million” not grossly irresponsible? Has he used a respectable polling organization?  Or did he do his own – rather exhausting! -counting of heads, pan world?

Far from acting irresponsibly, the BBC did not conspire at their desks and cobble together a few pulp-fiction articles to make an investigative documentary. It investigated in various countries and, of course, many compelling interviews and testimonies did not make the actual program. David Savill, one of the BBC producers, informed some of us by email that 80-plus hours of footage remain.

But core leaders like Bhagani do not tell their members about those many individuals, including very respected former leaders, who have tried to get the Sathya Sai Organization to deal responsibly with the allegations – transparently, accountably and with duty-of-care. These same former devotees – despite the shocking slurs of Ashok Bhagani, Indulal Shah, Michael Goldstein, G. Venkataraman, Thorbjörn Meyer, Steen Piculell, J. Jagadeesan and others who history cannot help but roundly and shamefully condemn – are in excellent standing in their professions and communities. They stand ready – as they have been before at the most senior levels with several leading world media and organizations such as UNESCO, several governments, police forces as well as major academic and civic institutions that the Sathya Sai Sai Organization has tried to inveigle – to document the results of their careful and principled investigations.

What have Sathya Sai Organization officials like Bhagani to fear from those who raise questions? Here at a glance are but some of the seriously documented allegations: That Sai Baba:

• is a large-scale serial sexual abuser of boys and young men
• was complicit in the police killings in his private quarters on June 6, 1993, and the massive cover-up that followed including by local, state and central government authorities
• countenances and overlooks financial irregularities on a vast scale, including massive donations from abroad that have made (see e.g., the Rediff news organization, August 16, 2003) his Central Trust the largest single recipient of overseas charitable donations
• makes promises of divine cures that typically do not eventuate
• produces watches and jewellery which, when assayed, prove to be cheap trinkets
• utters prophecies that – predictably! – commonly do not eventuate
• makes monumental blunders about known historic and scientific fact
• completely contradicts himself across decades of his officially collected, so-called “Divine Discourses”
• has been formidably protected by successive Indian governments, state and central, and by the Indian police and judiciary at the highest levels

Useful reference to Ashok Bhagani:

http://tinyurl.com/2rkxz5

For Online Viewing and/or Dowloading

Resources

The Secret Swami (BBC Television) Broadband 154 MB

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

• Sleight Of Hand. The Sleightness of Sathya Sai Baba (Exposing film clips)
• Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)
• Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating
• Sai Baba Cultists’ Gull Wider Communities
• BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)
• Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)
• The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba). Revealing Footage

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