Staff Sex and Bullying Allegations At Sathya Sai School Leicester (UK)

As I have mentioned, we learn that several parents of children at the  Sathya Sai School in Leicester, England, are deeply troubled.  

See my article: Will Authorities Find Sex Abuse and Staff Bullying At ‘Sathya Sai School’, Leicester, UK? Posted by Barry Pittard on September 1, 2012.

(Note:  I may be contacted with assured confidentiality at:  bpittard (at) westnet.com.au)

Allegedly, a Physical Education teacher, Cheng Ho Lim, sexually harassed a female teacher.  

Allegedly, too, his wife (the school Principal), Usha Lim, has bullied and physically punished children at the school. This in a manner that genuinely democratic countries no longer tolerate. Properly qualified teachers and education researchers know that there are humane and enlightened methods. If any such allegations are correct, British authorities need to investigate, which they are trained to do, keeping in mind the safety and well-being of children.

At its website, the Sathya Sai School states:

“… the school aims to use positive techniques to enhance behaviour, encouraging early intervention, re-direction of children and a positive reinforcement of good behaviour … The School is committed to learning and self-improvement. It has all its efforts and energies focussed on the child’s spiritual, moral, physical, cultural and academic development. We ensure that the physical environment is pleasant, safe, secure and well-resourced …”

It is important that parents be informed of their civil rights, responsibilities, and of such issues as the duty of care of those in charge of children. No one must be allowed to browbeat, sweet-talk or in any way side-track them. For example, officials of the Sathya Sai Organization, such as  Dr. Michael Goldstein, world head of the Sai organization, Dr Madhavi Majmudar, the chair of school directors, and others involved in handling issues, such as Kalyan Ray. 

Not even the most respected media and scholarly researchers can obtain straight answers from those at the top of the highly cultic international Sathya Sai Organization. For decades, Sathya Sai Organization leaders have profoundly and shamefully failed to show duty of care, worldwide, to parents of Sai Baba’s sexual and other types of abuse. In some cases, men much older – like Mark Roche, now a psychotherapist, and Al Rahm, a building contractor and formerly one of the foremost leaders in the Sathya Sai Organization – have spoken to the BBC about Sai Baba sexually abusing them when they were young. I was privy to the great anguish and courage which led up to their decision to go public.

At the highest level, the Sathya Sai cult have a long track record of rather Soviet-style intervention and cover up of scandals.

If there is cover up of crimes and unprofessional behavior, citizens must act. In democratic jurisdictions throughout the world, there are strict laws about mandatory reporting in professions of suspected child abuse.

The BBC and other world leading investigative media have trenchantly shown that the international Sathya Sai Organization has, all along, shown an extraordinary lack of accountability and transparency.  As those who study them come to expect, such authoritarian sects often act as a law unto themselves. Especially is this so in the case of those sects which, like the Sai Baba cult, posit that the divine guides them and that civil sanctions can, where escapable, be ignored.

Millions in many countries saw Dr Michael Goldstein, of Covena, California, USA, Sathya Sai Organization world head, caught by hidden camera in ‘The Secret Swami’, angrily bullying the perfectly proper young female BBC interviewer Tanya Datta. In polite fashion, she asked questions any investigative journalist is mandated to ask. The sanction to use hidden camera – a tool  the BBC uses most sparingly, and in cases where there is gross evasion from fair and reasonable public scrutiny – came from the top BBC management, including the legal department.

 

 

Correspondents who are well-placed to observe, report the Leicester Sathya Sai School Principal’s involvement, along with national and world Sathya Sai Organization officials, in a cover up.  In my 1 September post, I wrote:

…. A most recent example are the troubles afflicting the cult’s ‘Sai School’ at Leicester, England. Worried parents have called in British social workers to investigate. My colleague Robert Priddy wrote of alleged troubles and scandals at the school in 2009. His August 2012 update – given developments that may prove much harder for the Sathya Sai cult to suppress – he posted recently. See:  Sathya Sai Schools: Leicester, Puttaparthi, Gothenburg etc. up-dated.  Posted by robertpriddy on July 20, 2012.

Among the difficulties the Leicester community faces (where many people of Indian birth or extraction live) is that discussion about child abuse is profoundly taboo among a great many Indians. Nonetheless, they live in a far more democratic society than India, and need, like anyone else in the community at large, to become conscious of, and to obey, British laws. Unless we protect children, how can any of us say that we truly love and responsibly care for them?

Any observer of international trends in the last decade or more in the exposure of child abuse will note one feature above all: That in the most developed democratic countries, it has taken the most enormous struggle, first:

–  to expose endemic physical and sexual child abuse; second:

–  to enable effective community-wide education; and third:

–  to enshrine strong state and national legislation that integrate social worker, police, and court action at all levels, such as home, school, workplace, institutions …..

Vast efforts have brought much action (though seldom near enough) to protect people of all ages and social backgrounds from physical and sexual abuse. India and other countries lag far behind. Yet India now strives, along with China, for superpower status. Rather like an emotionally immature person inside a big, lumbering body. Her atomic projects, armed services, finance and industry, etc., forge ahead, while her voices of conscience, like those engaged in the current peaceful mass movement against India’s government and corporate corruption, go largely unheeded. The reference to child protection in the Indian Constitution is, tragically, ignored. For an overview and further sources across time in India (before circa 2008), see the UNESCO document:  The History of Child Rights in India, By Jyoti Rao

I have written of some courageous counter-trends within India. See:

‘Child Abuse Rife In India. But Who Would Speak Out?‘

‘Child Abuse. Landmark Indian Government Study. Abuse of Indian children ‘common’’

Child Abuse in India. Will Minister Renuka Chowdhury Act?

In a couple of days or so, I wish to comment on an email which I have just received from someone who has had deep involvement in the Sathya Sai Organization in the UK.

————————————————-

Brief Notes and Links on the Origins of the Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Cult

David Bailey (UK), at one time Sai Baba’s leading western follower and envoy, and his wife Faye Bailey, as they traveled to Sai centers round the world at Sai Baba’s command, increasingly had deeply distressed parents and others coming up with appalling accounts of Sai Baba sexually abusing boys and young men.  David, like myself, was a lecturer in Sathya Sai Baba’s education wing. Faye had been a prominent leader in the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia, after which Sai Baba unexpectedly chose them as husband and wife.  Smitten with terrible pains of conscience, they resigned and wrote a seminal document in the history of our former devotee movement of exposure – The Findings. Eventually, worn down by all their intense and prolonged efforts to inform the world, they told like Hari Sampath, Glen Meloy and myself that they now wished to live in peace and quiet.  See: David Bailey’s ‘The Findings’ its consequences. Posted by robertpriddy on September 19, 2008.  David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses.  Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba

See the link below for my tribute to my magnificent closest collaborator in the Exposure, the late Glen Meloy. In his 24 years of dedicated service alongside legendary figures in the Sathya Sai movement, Sai devotees dearly loved Glen.  Like others who stood forth for truth and goodness (a phrase very deep and dear to Glen), he suffered the utmost lack of love and honor from the moment he attempted to get the leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization to show duty of care for the many families round the world whose children had been abused.  See:  Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam.

Hari Sampath was formerly a member of Sathya Sai Baba’s security and intelligence wing and Glen Meloy (q.v) showed from circ early 1999 strong leadership in international coordination efforts. Hari Sampath was at that time on a Green Card in the USA, working in software engineering for a major corporation. After a couple of years of intensive involvement, he returned to India, and embarked on other work. Glen  Meloy and I increasingly developed our own worldwide network and were involved in many activities, such as supporting survivors and their families and friends, documenting accounts, cooperating with those who were setting up websites (blogsites were a development quite far-off), dealing with the media, government and police instrumentalities, and civic and religious institutions. 

Until he died of cancer on January 1, 2005, Glen Meloy and I continued to coordinate worldwide exposure activities.  By this time, Robert Priddy, the former long-time head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Sweden, and retired academic of the University of Oslo, co-founder had done much investigative and documentary work, often independently.

V.K. Narasimhan and Robert Priddy. The former was the Editor of ‘Sanathana Sarathi’, following Professor N. Kasturi, and one of the few people around Sai Baba who did not toady to him. Both Priddy and I (he for much longer than I) had a trusted friendship with ‘VKN’, essentially a very private man, and one of India’s foremost and most courageous newspaper editors.

After Glen Meloy’s death, Robert Priddy and I became likewise close and trusted collaborators, and have remained so.  See:  A Sathya Sai Saga. Barry Pittard Recollects. Part 6.

After speaking out, including to Sathya Sai Baba, and spending a great deal of time in researching abuse accounts at first hand, including those he gathered in private from Sai Baba’s students, Terry Gallagher gave up. His brother-in-law, Neville Fredericks, is the present head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia.

Neville Fredericks (right), head of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization. Nationally and internationally, its top leaders assiduously cultivate power elites in politics, mainstream religion and civic groups, but many of these, as a result of our own former devotee and allied network activity, will have nothing to do with the cult. As the Sai leaders – to their great chagrin – know only too well. Fredericks is a brother-in-law of first Australian SS Org. Head, Terry Gallagher, who resigned after carefully investigating at first hand sexual and other abuse claims against Sathya Sai Baba. Gallagher showed what other leaders have grossly failed to show – conscience and preparedness to heed some of the great many accounts of sexual and other forms of abuse.

On the phone, Terry told me that he felt that he had done what he could to investigate the coverup surrounding the murders in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom on 6 April 1993 and many cases of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of boys and young men. He said that his  stance in resigning headship of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia brought strain on his relationship with his wife and brother-in-law, and that he was at last getting back on a better footing with them.

I see things differently. To me, crimes are crimes, and they need proper reporting and prosecution – and whatever recompense we can obtain for survivors – such as expert counseling.  See:  Sathya Sai Organization, Australia, Ex-Head Terry Gallagher’s Testimony Against Sathya Sai Baba

Selection of Articulate Voices Who Have Dissented – At Great Cost, But Great Reward Of Conscience

A Letter From Shirley Pike, Ex-President , North Central Region – Iowa, U.S.A.

Elena Hartgering – My Story

Experiences of a woman – Åsa Samsioe from Sweden 

Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia

The Late Leo Boogaard: A Dutch Voice of Conscience On Sathya Sai Baba

New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom

Stephen Carthew, A Voice of Testimony From Australia, On The Dangers of Cults

Letter from Stephen Carthew 

(Late) Ron and Peggy Laing: Deeply Alienated From Sathya Sai Organization

The Sathya Sai Organization: Almost overnight, dissenters treated as demons!

Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide OrganizationThere is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA ”INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL

            Subscribe in a reader

 

Will Authorities Find Sex Abuse and Staff Bullying At ‘Sathya Sai School’, Leicester, UK?

A great many responsible schools, businesses and other organizations know – and follow – the well-tested and proper processes necessary to deal with report of crimes such as sexual and physical abuse. Not so, however, the highly secretive, cultic International Sathya Sai Organization.  See:  Barry Pittard – On Institutional Cover Ups and Psychological Denial. September 5, 2011.

(Note:  I may be contacted with assured confidentiality at:  bpittard (at) westnet.com.au)

A most recent example are the troubles afflicting the cult’s ‘Sai School’ at Leicester, England. Worried parents have called in British social workers to investigate. My colleague Robert Priddy wrote of alleged troubles and scandals at the school in 2009. His August 2012 update – given developments that may prove much harder for the Sathya Sai cult to suppress – he posted recently. See:  Sathya Sai Schools: Leicester, Puttaparthi, Gothenburg etc. up-dated.  Posted by robertpriddy on July 20, 2012

‘Sai School’, Leicester,UK. Yet another Sathya Sai cult institution facing sexual and physical abuse allegations

We have very trustworthy, on-the-ground informants in the UK.

A first-hand informant states:  

“Parents who had the courage to complain (about) the headteacher to the social services are now in a vulnerable position to face the bullying headteacher Usha Lim.”

Touchingly – including struggles with English expression – one correspondent writes:

“The headteacher Usha Lim has reported couple of parents to the police, so things are getting a bit touchy here …. The drama unfolds  even after all the complaints against headteacher Usha Lim and reporting her to the social services by the parents.  She is still there, thanks to Dr. Michael Goldstein who is the ‘godfather’ supported by Kalyan Ray, while the chair of school directors Dr Madhavi Majmudar and her stooges just obeys their masters”.  

A source reports that:  

“The headteacher is accused of bullying, emotional abuse, physical punishment of children. Parents complained to the social services who conducted an inquiry which proved true. Even sexual abuse is heard of. The top officials at Puttaparthy etc. are busy protecting their names and the headteacher’s”. 

And further:  

“Dr Michael Goldstein and Kalyan Ray along with Dr Madhavi Majmudar (chair of school directors) are doing their best to hide this news from the rest of the world”.  

World head of Sathya Sai cult, Dr Michael Goldstein, of California, USA. Caught by hidden camera in rage at the young female BBC interviewer, Tanya Datta, in ‘The Secret Swami’, 2004, seen by millions in many countries.

For information-dense articles about Goldstein, which have valuable recondite links, see Robert Priddy’s article:  Dr. Michael Goldstein; self-important fantasist, deceiver of self and others. For but one of many examples of Goldstein’s blinkered views – of the sort highly disagreeable to clear-thinking members of any society – see my:  Sai Baba Saved Devotees From 9/11 Says Dr Michael Goldstein

Allegations At A Glance

Headteacher:  Usha Lim. Wife of another accused Cheng Ho Lim.

Accusations:  That she emotionally abuses and physically punishes students.  Also faces questions from parents and social service investigators on the issue of covering up sexual and other abuses.

Usha Lim, principal of the Sathya Sai School in Leicester, UK. Faces allegations that she has bullied, emotionally abused and physically punished children at school.

Cheng Ho Lim:  Husband of Usha Lim, above. He is a Physical Education teacher at the same school.

Accusation:  A female staff member alleges that Lim has sexually harassed her.

Cheng Ho Lim. Physical Education teacher at the Leicester Sathya Sai School, UK. Husband of the school principal, Usha Lim. Faces allegations of sexual harassment of a female teacher at the school.

Parent Allegations Against Top Sathya Sai Organisation Leaders In Attempts At Cover Up In The Leicester Case

Note on Dr Michael Goldstein:

Parents at the Leicester Sai School are deeply concerned that Goldstein and the Puttaparthi authorities now, in an urgent attempt to cover up the allegations, intimidate people and, in other cases, mollify and co-opt.

Irrespective of the exceptionally qualified and experienced sexual abuse professionals around the world (and many, many! others from a great array of professions, trades and study areas) who have first-hand experience of survivors of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of boys and young men, Goldstein told the BBC that he is a  “consummate professional” and would recognize sexual abuse among boys and young men if it had occurred. Goldstein most audaciously trespasses on the professional preserve of others. He is NOT a sexual abuse professional!  See:  The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision.

In fact, the BBC, which spent months of exhaustive investigation, unearthed yet more compelling cases even than the many which we had painstakingly, and from many countries, documented from 1999. (See here for transcript and short BBC video clip).

The Sai Cult’s Decades of Soviet Style Lack of Accountability and Transparency

Despite great changes worldwide in institutional accountability, transparency and compliance with the law, the International Sathya Sai Organization plunges on in its crass attempts at covering up each new outbreak of sexual and other abuses in its institutions. This profound irresponsibility is but one of many evidences that it is an authoritarian cult, impervious to reform. It has learnt nothing from our many years of unrelenting exposure of the cult. Our good standing in our professions, trades has been well-established with many great media, the United Nations, and in our own communities. Our efforts have sparked investigations in leading responsible media in many countries. We have made proper representations to many national governments and institutions throughout the world.

More than a decade of exposure effort has taken untold sacrifices in health and in activities which our workers would far rather have been doing. It has also attracted almost unimaginable libel and defamation and, in some cases, threats to life against our people. Our key workers have never given in, and are not likely to. We can all attest, as can many leading journalists and others worldwide that, although many Sathya devotees are kind and decent people, Sai Baba’s key servitors are most certainly  bullies and cover up merchants of the first order.

For example, the top-level UNESCO investigation and its September 2000 Media Advisory. See:  BBC Exposed Sai Baba Top Aide’s And Indian Foreign Minister’s Ploy With UNESCO. Posted by Barry Pittard on April 28, 2011

With the personal assistance of the then Indian foreign minister, the Deputy world chairman of the international Sathya Sai Organization, Dr G. Venkataraman, who is the director of the Sathya Sai international satellite radio station, made a concerted attempt to undo the successful representation to UNESCO of former devotees around the world.  For a further glimpse at Venkataraman, see: Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister of Propaganda’ – Dr G. Venkataraman.

The BBC assistant producer of ‘The Secret Swami’, David Saville, was able to expose the Puttaparthi-Indian Foreign Minister-UNESCO Director and Assistant Director nexus to undermine the opportunity for a venue for former Sai Baba devotees from many countries.

——————————

  UNESCO MEDIA ADVISORY

“UNESCO’s withdrawal was prompted by several factors. Certain decisions were taken by the ISSE without consultation, such as plans to hold some of the sessions at the Ashram of the Sathya Sai movement in Puttaparthi, and the inclusion of some speakers in the conference programme without their previous consent. Furthermore, the Organization is deeply concerned about widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba. Whilst it is not for UNESCO to pronounce itself in this regard, the Organization restates its firm moral and practical commitment to combating the sexual exploitation of children, in application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires States to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence”.

UNESCO WITHDRAWS FROM CONFERENCE

Paris, September 15 – UNESCO has decided it will no longer sponsor nor take part in a conference it had been due to co-organize with the Institute of Sathya Sai Education (ISSE, Thailand) and The Flinders University Institute of International Education (Australia), in Puttaparthi, India, from September 25 to 29. The decision means UNESCO is no longer associated in any way – through sponsorship, organization or participation of any kind – with the conference on Strengthening Values Education: Innovative Approaches to Teacher Education for Peace and International Understanding.

UNESCO’s withdrawal was prompted by several factors. Certain decisions were taken by the ISSE without consultation, such as plans to hold some of the sessions at the Ashram of the Sathya Sai movement in Puttaparthi, and the inclusion of some speakers in the conference programme without their previous consent. Furthermore, the Organization is deeply concerned about widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba. Whilst it is not for UNESCO to pronounce itself in this regard, the Organization restates its firm moral and practical commitment to combating the sexual exploitation of children, in application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires States to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence.

(See: http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/10/UNESCO.htm and the advisory on the wayback archive machine at: http://web.archive.org/web/20031003020809/http://www.unesco.org/education/highlights/media_advisory.htm).

Wide Danish Public Outcry Against Sathya Sai  Cult’s Projected Multi Million Dollar ‘Sai International School’

Denmark’s national broadcaster DR made the carefully researched, one-hour documentary Seduced.  It was very critical of Sai Baba. It was first screened January 30, 2002.  Danish municipal authorities acted against the Sathya Sai Organisation, ensuring that the sale to it of the famous Arresødal castle in Copenhagen did not eventuate. Bob Bozzani, one of the top officials in the Sathya Sai Organization of the U.S.A., had donated several millions of dollars to the venture. The venue was to have been used as a ‘Sai International School’. Top Sai Baba leaders Thorbjörn Meyer and Jørgen Trygved initiated several litigations against DR, all of which failed – even though they had retained the top litigation lawyers in Denmark.

The DR producer told me that Thorbjörn Meyer was so rude to the distinguished head of Denmark’s top national television and radio Director, Christian Nissen, that he had to be removed from the office. 

Seduced has had several repeats in Denmark and Norway. In an English version and retitled Seduced By Sai Baba, it screened in Australia, February 14, 2004. Litigation threats against the highly-respected multicultural national broadcaster SBS, by Sai Baba’s then Australian leader, T. Ramanathan failed. He also threatened both to sue me and to have me criminally prosecuted. See HERE and HERE. He, unlike his close associates Meyer and Trygved, never went near a court. Sai Baba devotees who know Ramanathan and a number of other leaders well know that, where the can, they bluff and bully. As indeed would befit those at the helm of a formidable cult. Here – in his threatening letter to SBS (Australia’s highly-esteemed multicultural television and radio broadcaster) – see LINK . This sorry display, by any democratic society’s reckoning – is a example of the Ramanathan’s (and a number of close Sai Baba men’s) muckracking style.

See Update to this article:  Staff Sex and Bullying Allegations At Sathya Sai School Leicester (UK)

Posted by Barry Pittard on September 4, 2012

Some Useful Video Footage

1) Three robes from Sai (Filesize 654Kb)

2) Numerous ‘materialisations (Filesize 1.12 Mb

3) Alaya Rahm tells of Sai Baba threats and oral sex abuse of him when still a minor 1.05Mb)

4) Testimony – Sai Baba tried anal sex etc. (Filesize 1.0 Mb)

5) Al Rahm tells of his learning of the sex abuse of his son

6) Alaya’s mother tells of her reaction

7) Indian student sex abuse victims cannot speak out (Filesize 340Kb)

8) The Rahm’s son’s fears if he told the truth about Sai sex abuse (Filesize 515 Kb)

9) Alaya Rahm was told not to tell and threatened by Sai Baba (Filesize 840 Kb)

Note:  The US State Department were contacted by the BBC (filesize 1.26 Mb) and confirmed their Travel Advisory warning as being directed specifically against Sathya Sai Baba. In the Danish film ‘Seduced’, There is also video testimony that many students were abused 

• 

  Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide OrganizationThere is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA ”INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL

              Subscribe in a reader

Could Sathya Sai Treasury Scandals Lead to India’s Watergate?

I have listened to many country’s national anthems. But, I must say, for purely musical reasons, the Indian national anthem has long been my favourite. The melody unfailingly tugs at my heartstrings. Even so, when I listen to it these days, there is an extra freight-load of poignancy to it. I think back to the Indian homes, from rich to poor – sometimes, VERY poor –  where I lived for lengths of time with Indian families – forever the honorary ‘uncle’.

Joys and sorrows well up when I hear the Indian national anthem, although I know some families equally dear to me wish that the words used are  in, or not in, the Hindi language.

Sheet music for Jana Gana Mana.  Words and Music by the great Nobel Prize-winning Indian poet-dramatist, musician-dancer Rabindranath Tagor, whose then still-living relatives, as well as the younger generations of the Tagore family made me feel at home when, in early 1976,  I spent time, and performed, at the Shantiniketan University, Bolpur, West Bengal.

At the same time, whatever may seem to be the contraindicators, there can be few, if any, countries in which, in general, those of different persuasions can get along together. Too often, it is the hotheads whom we come to hear about. We don’t always hear, for example, of how some Hindus and Muslims risked their lives to save Sikhs who were set upon in pogroms, after two Sikh bodyguards assassinated Mrs Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 . Following the assassination, there were four days in which marauding maniacs killed thousands of Sikhs in a retaliatory blood let. The bloody-mindedness of some of the top leaders (like longtime Sathya Sai Baba devotee) PM Narasimha Rao, and Rajiv Gandhi with his utterly callous  “when a big tree falls” pronouncement, and many newspaper editors are appalling. From time to time, India gets some good people on Commissions of enquiry. But she needs good leaders, so that there is not the dire need for Commissions.

A number of times, in widely different parts of India, courageous, quick-thinking Indians have saved my life or limb. Once, I was spared the blade of an RSS thug, when RSS workers mistakenly thought that I was a Christian missionary. Another time, Indians in a huge crowd making for a ‘sacred’ spot lifted me aloft and bore me to safety. In another far part of India, the police had to assure my safety, because a westerner been arrested on charges of spying.

As a poor traveler, I have been nursed back to life by Indian families who had been strangers, and so tenderly as if I had been of their own family. The list of beneficent occasions is much longer, and knows no Hindu, Moslem, Sikh, Parsee, Jain, Christian etc., distinctions. The poor of India, among whose hovels I have worked, have, touchingly, been no less generous-spirited to me than the rich, even – or perhaps especially! – when these ragged and destitute people saw that I was traveling poor myself.

Therefore, as my regular readers may have noted, I speak not too kindly of the Indian elites. They are venal. They are selfish and cruel. They heavily support a system of brutal suppression and torture by sections of the armed services and police. Without their endemic corruption, India would stand tall in all the world.  See my articles:

Police and Army Rapists Rarely Punished, Says Kavita Krishnan (Of AIPWA)

Wikileaks and Indian Troops Atrocities Reports. Sai Baba Fails To ‘Clean Up Own Backyard’

These rulers, time and again, betray my Indian brothers and sisters. I will say it, although I hesitated, because I do not want anyone to presume upon the common and all-too-decent Indian type. Indians at large are very gentle, tender and infinitely patient. Those of their fellows who are not, or who are selectively so, presume upon the others. But Indians can be tigers, especially in parts of the north, and one enclave in the south, where martial traditions remain strong. In general, though, to my mind, I spot a fierceness more often on the cricket field  than off it.

Sachin Tendulkar looks heavenward. But Sachin, I don't think your Sathya Sai got admitted to Swarga Loka. But why not look down here in the real world, and with compassion, where you will find his many sexual abuse victims, boys and young men (many grown much older now), round the world? Do you not have a brave heart when off the cricket field?

Frighteningly, what Manmohan Singh so gravely risks is that, because he has shown his teeth to peaceful anti-corruption protesters – or to be more accurate – got his security forces and police to do the tooth-showing and bovvyer boy musclework, his piddling weakness in the face of immense corruption could plunge the Indian nation into the most terrible bloodshed. By which I mean – he should fix cankerous corruption in his own house, and not ‘fix’ honest and decent protesters.

However, I am encouraged by a number of tidal changes that I now see.

Quite apart from his deep prostrating, longtime association with Sathya Sai Baba, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh now looks to be a spent force. His government is mired in many scandals. Given the evidence so long in front of international former devotee coordinators like Robert Priddy and myself, one can really raise a question:  Will the revelations now exploding in the Indian media about Sai Baba and key players on his Sai Central Trust broaden out to include some of the figures in local, state and central government spheres?

India's PM Manmohan Singh. At the Feet of the Late Sathya Sai Baba

Might Manmohan Singh and others be about to face their Watergate? 

It will be a test of what the producer of the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami”, Eamon Hardy, threw into question, to use his words, of “India’s maturity as a democracy”.

Manmohan Singh and other members of his government, and a succession of past Prime Ministers and Presidents, and countless other high-ranking individuals in Indian politics, the armed services, police, government, and so on, have protected Sathya Sai Baba. Will, now, the wealth, the family connections, the underhand political wheeler-dealing and other antidemocratic tendencies in India thwart attempts at genuine reform? Will the big Sai Baba-prostrating money-bags like the Tatas, the Rais (the scion of the latter family threatened to sue us and got told firmly where to go!) at last, after too many decades, find that there is something in India that money won’t buy?

Or will the legions of corrupt misleaders continue to overpower democracy? Here is our chance to see.

Anti-Corruption Rallies In Upsurge Across India

Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi by Sathya Sai Baba's golden casket

Large numbers of Indian citizens are rising up. Are they rent-a-crowds fomented by his immediate political rivals to power? Or by the Pakistan government’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)? It would not surprise if any or all of these should want to have a hand. But good Indian citizens inform me that many of these marches against government corruption are deeply genuine, no matter under whose banner the crowds protest.

Some masses rally to the call of solid, old-fashioned anti-corruption crusaders such as Anna Hazare. Others to Swami Ram Dev, whom a range of serious commentators depict as somewhat a religious fundamentalist, politically naive, and a bit of a hot-head, but well-meaning and brave nonetheless. Certainly, both have daily put their lives on the line. Both have also embarked on fasts-unto-death, in the way the better-informed still remember of Mahatma Gandhi.

Are the Indian People Sick of Their Leaders’ Golden Casket Worship?

Anna Hazare. Widely respected, old-style Indian anti-corruption crusader

The Wikipedia entry on Anna Hazare states:

Kisan Baburao Hazare (Marathi: किसन बाबुराव हजारे) (born 15 June 1937), popularly known as Anna Hazare (Marathi: अण्णा हजारे), is an Indian social activist and anarcho-pacifist who is especially recognised for his contribution to the development of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India and his efforts for establishing it as a model village, for which he was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third-highest civilian award—by the government of India in 1992.^[1]

After leading a number of nonviolent protests in Maharashtra state against corruption, Hazare started a fast unto death on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption act as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, a law to establish a Lokpal (ombudsman) with the power to deal with corruption in public offices. The fast led to nationwide protests in support of Hazare. The fast ended on 9 April 2011, the day after all of Hazare’s demands were agreed by the government of India. The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee (of government and civil society representatives) to draft an effective Lokpal Bill.^[2][3]

Another prominent Indian social justice crusader who has risked his life many times is Swami Agnivesh.

Online edition of India’s National Newspaper
Friday, May 27, 2011

Mahant held for slapping Agnivesh

Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD: In an unsavoury incident, the human rights activist, Swami Agnivesh, who was accompanying the anti-corruption bill crusader, Anna Hazare, to a visit to Gujarat on Thursday, was slapped by a Mahant.

The incident occurred before the start of a public meeting to be addressed by Mr. Hazare. While meeting people, Swami Agnivesh tried to greet Mahant Nityanand Das, the chief of a temple near Nadiad, while the latter he slapped him.

The Mahant, who was arrested by the police, told journalists before leaving the venue that his anger against Swami Agnivesh was for his comments about the holy Amarnath shrine of Lord Shiva.

Swami Agnivesh, on the sidelines of a recent peace conference in Srinagar, had allegedly commented that the ice lingam of Amarnath was “artificially made,” and that the annual “Amarnath yatra” was a “religious deception.”

The Mahant had earlier announced a “reward” of Rs. 51,000 for anyone who would dare to hurl a shoe at Swami Agnivesh in public. He said he had nothing against Mr. Hazare and totally supported his crusade against corruption, “but I cannot take the Swami’s comments against a holy shrine of the Hindus.”

Human right activists strongly condemned the incident. “We condemn the attack on Swami Agnivesh.” Said Father Cedric Prakash, a human right activist and convener of Prashant, a voluntary organisation.

Swami Ramdev, anti-corruption crusader, dragged off by PM Mohan Singh's militia

India’s billionaire “heroes” get humbled

By Alistair Scrutton | Reuters – Sun, 27 Feb, 2011 12:31 AM EST
NEW DELHI (Reuters)

But a Who’s Who of corporate India has now been mired in controversy in the past year. Even the icon of India Inc, Ratan Tata, went to court to stop the release of leaked taped conversations of lobbyist Nira Radia and top industrialists, politicians and journalists, with talk of swinging deals, granting favours and ministers taking bribes. The tapes published in local media showed Radia, whose lobby company represents Tata and Mukesh Ambani, speaking to politicians to ensure Andimuthu Raja was appointed telecoms minister. Raja is now under arrest over the graft case. The founder of Satyam Computer was arrested in an accounting fraud — software services had previously been seen as one of India’s cleanest sectors — and the head of India’s $4 billion cricket premier league was fired over alleged irregularities. “The image of the socially responsible businessman, the untainted hero, has taken a beating,” said V. Ravichandar, head of Feedback Consulting in Bangalore, which advises multinationals.

Even the slightest selection of recent Indian newspaper headlines tend to tell the story quite well.

India: Protests against corruption spread

Reuters

Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi have come in for criticism for sending hundreds of police using batons and tear gas on Sunday to break up a hunger strike by Swami Ramdev and tens of thousands of his followers in Delhi.

“India is a democratic country. Peacefully protesting and assembling without arms is legal,” said Arvind Kejriwal, an associate of Mr Hazare.

Teachers stage protest against corruption

TNN Jun 18, 2011, 10.51pm IST

DHARWAD: Inspired by the tirade launched by social activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Baba Ramdev against corruption, teachers in Dharwad staged a protest against corruption and exploitation in the education sector.

Responding to the call given by Karnataka State Secondary Teachers’ Association (KSSTA), large number of teachers from Dharwad, Belgaum, Haveri, Gadag, Bijapur and Bagalkot districts participated in the sit-in protest in front of the office of the additional commissioner for public instruction here from 3pm to 5pm.

MLC Arun Shahpur, KSSTA vice-president R M Kuberappa, general secretary M G Sindagi and others spoke on the occasion. They said that corruption in education sector is spoiling the atmosphere as those who are compelled to pay bribe tend to recover the money by resorting to illegal means. “It also encourages people to get illegal things done by offering inducement. This trend will make life difficult for law-abiding citizens. Immunizing education sector is the need of the hour,” the speakers said.

Students protests against corruption in India – Dimapur

DemoTix. 25th of April 2011Student activist from Dimapur Naga Students Union (DNSU) burns candle during a candle light protest called by North East Student Organization (NESO) to show solidarity to the anti- Armed Force Special Power Act (AFSPA) campaign by Iron Sharmila and anti corruption Lokpal Bill by Anna Hazare. The seven Indian north eastern state has, today called a protest to show its solidarity to Iron Sharmila, who has been on fast for more than tens years to remove AFSPA in the region and to Indian social activist, Anna Hazare corruption campaign against the prime minister and cabinet

Churches in India endorse protests against corruption

By: Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International

---

“The poor are the worst victims of corruption,” says India’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Vincent M. Concessao. Photo: Shutterstock

Bangalore, India
Churches in India have joined the growing support for social activist Anna Hazare, who launched a hunger fast on April 5 to call attention to the problem of corruption in government and is urging the passage of a strict anti-corruption law.

Corruption has become a major national issue in recent months, with allegations of massive corruption running into billions of dollars in wireless telecom licensing and in the preparation for Commonwealth Games that was held in New Delhi last October.

——————————————

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)

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

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government

Sathya Sai Devotees Suspect Foul Play In Guru’s Health Crisis. Seek Court Order

In some major Indian newspapers, there are now reports of Sai devotees taking action that challenges the conduct of those close round Sathya Sai Baba, including urgent recourse to law.  They suspect the gravest chicanery practised by forces vying for control of Puttaparthi. 

IANS (Indo Asian News Service) reports, see full text below:

Former MP and former chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD)  Adikeshavulu Naidu also made a sensational allegation that the trust in collusion with the hospital had kept Baba hostage. He said there was a conspiracy behind the 85-year-old Baba’s illness.

Naidu said Baba was being denied food and better medical treatment. “The top doctors are being denied access to him and when facilities are available to even take him abroad for treatment nothing is being done,” he told reporters in Chittoor.

The accused number prominent members of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust. In one case:

Naidu blamed Baba’s aide Satyajit and said he is not allowing Baba’s ‘darshan’ for his devotees for the last six months. He claimed that those who are not physicians are in the team of doctors treating him. He also alleged that the government was not acting despite knowing all the facts.

If these followers can sustain their case, the chances are that the scandal will be very great. Hitherto, we have had utmost difficulty in getting any but the media outside India to investigate the Sai Baba cult. One of the foremost Indian editors privately told me:  it is not possible to investigate Sai Baba – his people are too powerful.  The mass circulation magazine India Today is one of the rare exceptions.  One of the journalists associated with the December 4, 2000 India Today cover story, Vijay Jung Thapa, had to have security mounted (‘close body protection’) during and for some time after he was involved in the exposure story on Sathya Sai Baba. Those of us who have great respect for the Gurka people of Nepal (of which Thapa is one) were not suprised by his courage, professionalism and tenacity in digging into the story. I see that he has now risen high as of 2008, getting the Editorship of The Hindustan Times, which has also, by the way, run an outspoken article critical of Sathya Sai Baba by a former editor. Unfortunately, it was all too impressionistic, rather than the product of hard-nosed research.  See my:  A Top Indian Editor Vir Sanghvi Fails Research Test.

India media to make some attempt to expose Sai Baba have been:  Tehelka, The Cavaran and (to a small extent) Hindustan Times. The job of exposure has been via the foreign media. Owing to a great many sacrificial hours put in by former devotees in good standing in their communities around the world there were, on television – BBC, CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), Salon.com (USA), SBS, ABC (Australia). In paper media – Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Guardian (UK), Marie Claire Magazine, Salon.com, BT, Bild, Focus, Trouw, Speegelbield, Noordhollands Dagblad, Sokaren, Gatopardo, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Age, Australian Financial Review, West Australian (a major front page article by an award-winning journalist (Torrance Mendez) was pulled at the 11th hour!), Adelaide Advertiser, etc., …..

There has long been a profound lack of Puttaparthi and international Sathya Sai Organization accountability and transparency.  Their failure in duty of care, not only in developing countries but in advanced democracies, has been simply appalling. For the type of morally cheap but financially expensive legal tricks they have used against a family who had been among the most prominent Sathya Sai devotees in the world, and whose son, Alaya, is one of many around the world who, over the decades, have reported sexual abuse of boys and young men – see:  Alaya Rahm – Some Key Statements. And the full statement of the Rahm family and the International JuST Group is here.  An incisive encapsulation of key circumstances is provided by the independent British author of many books and papers Kevin Shepherd:  23.6  The Alaya Rahm Lawsuit in California

Leading Indian journalists and editors, police chiefs and investigators, politicians and a few scholars who have tried to penetrate the heavy veil know of Sai secrecy of the horrific cover up of the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom by Puttaparthi officials in close association with the then powerful Home Minister S.B. Chavan, and central, Andhra Pradesh State and local governments. It is out of no idleness that the BBC entitled its 2004 documentary, which has been seen in some 200 or more countries, The Secret Swami.

Few have had the courage to speak out publicly on the issue, as has former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary V.P.B. Nair, who was in office at the time of the killings. It is a sad commentary that very few have dared to speak out as Nair and (the late) B. Premanand have done. See the BBC Film Clip of V.P.B. Nair making his statement and my articles:  V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings and: The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision

It is ironic, too, that NRI’s (Non Resident Indians) get to see coverage in the foreign media;  whereas, there is a heavy blanket of suppression in India. What of the ‘shining India’, beloved of both the naive and the forked of tongue? It makes the notion of ‘Indian democracy’ an oxymoron, and echoingly hollow

Grabs For Power and Wealth – Is There More Than the Usual Skullduggery Going On At Puttaparthi?

These latest reports reflect, in part, private information about power ploys within the Puttaparthi ashram that we have been receiving from within India. The accounts have come from sources found in the past to be reliably informed.

In the years that we have been exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his cult, my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have worked under certain unavoidable constraints. Sometimes, we receive information that, so as to protect those who are vulnerable, we cannot possibly refer to.  Another constraint is that any premature release of information, and of information that we cannot check, can only risk our credibility.

With some caution, several posts back – see:  Sathya Sai Baba’s Health Condition Again At Grave Risk, Posted by Barry Pittard on April 5, 2011, I wrote:

“By a number of usually well-informed sources , we are told that there is a battle royal going on for control of his organization. We learn of serious chicanery leveled against Sai Baba family members and others. Alert media, law firms and other investigators will need for example – very quickly, before witnesses are hushed up – to get hold of stakeholders who have been disaffected, and also those, including many leaders in India and abroad, who have resigned from the Sathya Sai Organization on a matter of ethical principle. Robert Priddy and I can coordinate contact with many individuals of excellent repute in their professions, trades and wider communities, who have provided evidence for major world media, governments, institutions, and so forth.

Experts in law, media, etc., well know that, well-handled and cross-checked, disenfranchised individuals and groups can yield accurate information. At the moment, we are doing some cross-checking of our own. Readers can watch this space.

Note: Investigative media and other serious enquirers can contact me at:  barrypittard@gmail.com“

                                                                                      ————————————————————-

Indo Asian News Service feeds state (Note: IANS is an organization which we have found, compared to a number of other Indian services, quite efficient and reliable):

Hyderabad, April 15, (IANS): Is there a conspiracy behind the health of spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba? Is the Baba, who has millions of followers in India and around the world, being kept hostage by those close to him? A petition has been filed in a court seeking direction to the hospital authorities to reveal the facts about Baba.

A former MP, Adikeshavulu Naidu, has alleged that Baba is being held hostage. An advocate filed a petition in a court at Penugonda, seeking a direction to the Andhra  Pradesh government, the hospital and the Sathya Sai Trust to come out with all the details about the Baba’s condition.

The petition, filed by Bhaskar Reddy, will be heard Saturday. The petitioner alleged that the hospital and the trust were suppressing information about Baba’s condition and that there is lack of clarity in the daily medical bulletins being issued by the doctors of Sathya Sai super speciality hospital at Puttaparthu.

The petitioner also sought direction to the state government to come out with all the details of the trust and its activities as it involves several hundreds crore rupees.

A group of devotees also moved the state human rights commission Friday, seeking direction to the hospital to show Baba’s video clips to his devotees to clear the air over his actual condition. The group Dalit Janasabha argued that not showing the clips was a violation of human rights. It alleged that Baba was being kept under detention in the name of treatment.

Former MP and former chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD)  Adikeshavulu Naidu also made a sensational allegation that the trust in collusion with the hospital had kept Baba hostage. He said there was a conspiracy behind the 85-year-old Baba’s illness.

Naidu said Baba was being denied food and better medical treatment. “The top doctors are being denied access to him and when facilities are available to even take him abroad for treatment nothing is being done,” he told reporters in Chittoor.

Naidu blamed Baba’s aide Satyajit and said he is not allowing Baba’s ‘darshan’ for his devotees for the last six months. He claimed that those who are not physicians are in the team of doctors treating him. He also alleged that the government was not acting despite knowing all the facts.

Baba, who was admitted to the hospital on March 28 with heart and lung problems, suffered multiple organ dysfunction. Doctors said he remains stable but critical.

————————————————————-

NOTE:   Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major  media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is:  Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:

‘Marie Claire’ Magazine: April 2011. Sathya Sai Baba Still Further Exposed

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011

Further Reading

Sathya Sai Baba fully silenced, even maltreated and imprisoned?

Posted by robertpriddy on April 16, 2011

QUOTE:

One well-informed critical source in India has informed me that “Former trust members and ex-MPs are openly threatening to expose the entire sb charade if they are not adequately “paid off”…politicians are descending to grab whatever their grubby hands can….while sb aides are hoping to make a fast buck and make a run for it…and sb trust members and close family are involved in a bitter fight….all this is out in the open…and a public interest legal petition has been filed in an Andhra court to ascertain the facts of the whole dirty affair…”

Lengthy, detailed archival Sai Finance and Deceits and further deceit documentation here

For a broad sweep of many revelations which the Sathya Sai Organization cannot wish away if there is ever court or other investigative action, see:

Sathya Sai Devotees Suspect Foul Play In Guru’s Health Crisis. Seek Court Order

“Can We Trust the Central Trust?” by ex-President of Moscow Sathya Sai Centre, Serguei Badaev

Donations to Sathya Sai Central Trust misused by/for directors etc.

Sathya Sai Baba failing – at the mercy of power brokers- eg. corrupt ex-IAS ashram boss Chackravati

Puttaparthi and Misconduct of Sathya Sai Baba’s Officials

Posted by Barry Pittard on December 16, 2009

V.P.B. Nair Told BBC Sai Baba Bedroom Killings Were “Coldblooded Murder”

Posted by Barry Pittard on January 6, 2011

Many Notable Sathya Sai Baba Cult Leaders Resign

Posted by Barry Pittard on February 18, 2011

General Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction) (Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):

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

Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Is Puttaparthi Glitter the ‘Shining India’?

  

Amid golden glitter, Sai Baba says he will rule world

Many are the demonstrably mistaken accusations thrown at those who have stood forth to expose Sathya Sai Baba and his international sect.  For example, typically taking our remarks badly out-of-context, it is said that we are: “India bashers”. But these defenders of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult do their cause harm; and we learn that many Sai devotees will have nothing to do with them – although we also know that some who are close to Sathya Sai Baba have assisted them in various ways.

The absurdity and intellectual dishonesty of their attempts to defame will not win them the favour of astute and questioning readers.

Often, there is the tacit assumption that to criticize Sathya Sai Baba is itself a slight against India. This is offensive to a great many Indians from all walks of life who do not think that Sai Baba is a reflection of all that is good in their country.

Anyone who has lived in India lengthily, as I have, comes to know how profoundly Indians across classes and divides deplore the corruptions and abuses of human rights and democratic freedoms which they see perpetrated by the power elites in their country.

Yet this is the India that Sai Baba has said he will transform. He has spoken of first “cleaning up his own backyard”, before saving the entire world before he dies. He is now very old and sick. See:

Sathya Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs at 85th Birthday

Posted by Barry Pittard on December 11, 2010

Confirming many reports of Sathya Sai Baba breaking down and weeping in more recent times, there is now brilliantly clear and revealing video footage for all to see.

To see this video, CLICK HERE

So great is the grip of elites who hold wealth and power in India that many Indians, both those who live inside and outside India welcome – though with feelings of deep shame and desperate hope for deliverance from the evils – well-informed information that emanates from outside India. The article (see below) by a member of School of Regulation, Justice and Diplomacy, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, may serve as but one example of writing that points to the ubiquity of graft scandals in India, while pointing to some of the attempts courageous and determined Indians are making to oppose this.

…………………………………………………………………

Some Further Reading

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

Flag Follows Trade. Abetting Indian Government Corruption

Commonwealth Games: ‘Shining India’s’ Mismanagement By Crisis. Sai Baba Not Sighted

Sathya Sai Baba’s Promise To “Clean Up” His “Own Back Yard (India) Unfulfilled

Sathya Sai Baba and the Law. Is A Real Pro-Con Discussion Possible?

Relative Weightings of Allegation and Proof In Exposing Corrupt Institutions (Pt1)

Relative Weightings of Allegation and Proof In Exposing Corrupt Institutions (Pt2)

India’s Painful Experience of Corrupt Leadership

India’s Ancient Tradition of Respect For Elders Waylaid By Corrupt Elites

Sathya Sai Fails To Save Satyam

Sathya Sai Baba crying (video)

……………………………………………………..

Disillusioned by rampant graft scandals

Sandy Gordon. From: The Australian. December 15, 2010 12:00AM

THE wealthy in India are laundering $19bn a year.

ALTHOUGH corruption in India is nothing new, recent examples appear to put the country in the category of one of the worst kleptocracies, and a survey indicates widespread disillusionment with the Singh government.

Former mines minister and chief minister of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda, is in jail on charges of having siphoned off $US1 billion ($1bn), mainly from corrupt mining deals, during his short tenure.

By laundering funds through cronies, Koda managed to acquire hotels around the world and even a mine in Africa.

Although India has passed legislation to strengthen its anti-money-laundering regime, a recent Global Financial Integrity report found rich Indians launder a staggering $US19bn a year.

Related Coverage

• Swiss Timing charged over Delhi rorts Herald Sun, 1 Dec 2010
• India ‘on a path to banana republic’ The Australian, 29 Nov 2010
• A major idea for a myna pest The Daily Telegraph, 22 Nov 2010
• Police arrest Games treasurer The Daily Telegraph, 22 Nov 2010
• Indian PM defends himself over scam The Daily Telegraph, 20 Nov 2010

According to a government audit, the 2G telecommunications licence sales of 2008 cost the Indian state $US39 billion in lost fees due to under-selling to favoured magnates.

Indian journalists, who are usually associated with the vigorous exposure of corruption, were caught up in an unholy alliance of influence between the telecommunications companies and government officials involved.

And to India’s international shame, the administration of the New Delhi Commonwealth Games was replete with examples of corruption and incompetence.

All payments for Games services are now frozen pending the corruption investigations. Legitimate providers, including some leading Australian companies, are incurring millions of dollars in losses, leaving India’s reputation in tatters and putting at risk the staging of future events.

Tax evasion is widespread, and accused evader Hasan Ali Khan (supposedly an associate of mobster Dawood Ibrahim) allegedly illicitly put $US8 billion in the UBS AB Zurich bank.

In another major claim of money-laundering and cover-up, the Indian government is trying to suppress documents linked to the accounts of Indians in the Liechtenstein LGT Bank, the bank infiltrated by a German agent.

Audits of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, the giant rural work program intended to uplift the poor, show that in some states only a small percentage of the allocated funds reaches the intended recipients.

Even the military, hitherto relatively free of corruption, has recently been involved in several land scams, including the notorious Adarsh scam in Mumbai, in which apartments intended for military veterans were instead allocated to high-ranking officials.

Smaller in scale, but if anything more excruciating for cricket-mad Indians, is the Indian Premier League scam, which claimed the scalps of several luminaries of the Congress party.

These and many other cases illustrate the rapid decline in the state of governance in India. This in turn casts a shadow over future development and stability in the emerging Asian giant.

But is this an accurate depiction of the state of affairs in India, or are there other, perhaps more hopeful, interpretations?

The emerging role of governance mechanisms such as the “social audit” by India’s vigorous civil society sector, activism in the financial and tax departments, judicial activism – particularly in the Supreme Court – and investigations by India’s media are discovering cases of corruption and seeking to impose justice. The exposure of such cases appears to indicate a system out of control.

However, you could argue that unlike true kleptocracies, at least corruption in India is frequently being exposed and the perpetrators brought to justice.

And the enhanced role of government agents in audits, tax and financial regulation can fill some of the gaps left by India’s somewhat etiolated anti-corruption mechanisms.

For example, the audit process built into the Mahatma Gandhi scheme has proved quite effective in uncovering impropriety and improving performance.

Such government processes are augmented by the activities of non-government organisations, which are conducting social audits. In an Indian first, Andhra Pradesh state has decided to turbocharge the social audit process by giving it state support and legal sanction.

In the 2G sale scam, it was the government’s audit office, the office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General, that identified the shortfall of about $US39bn. The Telecommunications Minister has been forced to resign, and other heads are likely to roll.

The Supreme Court (equivalent to Australia’s High Court) has been active in seeking to expose the corruption. The court recently ordered the government to lift the suppression of information relating to German correspondence with the government about Indians with accounts in Liechtenstein. It has played a leading role in unseating the recently installed head of India’s federal corruption watchdog, the Central Vigilance Committee.

In a case eerily reminiscent of the way Al Capone was brought to justice, the Enforcement Department of the Ministry of Finance initiated the actions against Koda, precipitating the wider involvement of other anti-corruption and law-enforcement agencies and bringing about his eventual arrest.

So at one level you can lament the apparent decline of public life in India and the breathtaking scale of corruption. But at another, you can note that many illicit activities are now being exposed and that the checks and balances built into India’s democracy still appear to be functioning.

In other words, you can either adopt a glass half-full or a glass half-empty view of corruption in India. My guess is it that it was always there, but now appears to have increased because it is more frequently exposed.

Sandy Gordon is with the School of Regulation, Justice and Diplomacy, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. An earlier version of this article appeared in South Asia Masala (asiapacific.anu.edu.au/blogs/southasiamasala)

……………………………………………………………

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)

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Tiger Woods Faces $164 Fine. Sathya Sai Baba Still Free

World champion pro golfer Tiger Woods faces a $164 fine for the driving incident in Orlando Florida, USA on 27 November 2009. Out of this small incident has erupted an ever-burgeoning series of revelations that have dominated world news headlines since that early morning.

Many commentators – even among those who agree that Sathya Sai Baba should have been answerable to proper processes of the law -keep saying:  But look at all the good social work that he has inspired.

Tiger Woods also has also brought a high profile to, and raised great amounts of money for, needy causes.

But you see – the one tiger is answerable before the law. The other one, in India, isn’t …..

——————————————-

Tiger Woods. Holding His Tongue

In regard to the Tiger Woods furore, here is a little Barry Pittard song (which is protected by APRA – The Australasian Performing Right Association)

Burning Bright

Another pro has got shot down in flames

For consorting with various sorts of dames

Now no-one’s denying a man sometimes connives

But don’t these gals know these guys have wives?

 

Says the Reporter – I’ve got this sacred duty

To service goodness and truth and beauty

I’ve millions of readers who need me to feed them

And my Publisher feeds me my bonus to heed them

 

Says the Lawyer to each blushing dainty damozel

Close your mouth now honey, we’ll pay you so swell

Or to madams who drive a harder deal

Lawyer says: trumpet small – but in essence don’t squeal

 

Lawyers and Reporters love Mademoiselles

Who tout and spout a tale that sells

Now here’s a conundrum – you can have a go

Just tell me who’s the pro, and who’s the pro!

 

But says the Reader and the Viewer, whose hearts would be pure

Am I any more beautiful or gooder or truer

Than the paparazzi, and the snooper, and the spy

– Who tout juicy news, be it truth or a lie?

 

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.

—————————————————————————

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

—————————————————————————

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)

 

Guardians of Our Young? Or De Facto Sexual Abuse Pimps?

Glen Hart. Valmai Worthington. Peter Rae (Australia). Hal Honig (NY, USA). Kindly explain yourselves. Given your ‘Lord’ Sai Baba’s long fascination with boys and young men, are you warning them and their parents, and those who you lead to Sai Baba, of what you know to be the facts?

In her interview in April 1998, a close friend of mine, an Australian member, as was I, of Valmai Worthington’s group told me she saw Sai Baba covertly grasp the penis of a young man, Michael, who was a member of a group led by Glen Hart of South Australia who seemed to me to be in his mid to late twenties. Another such incident, told to me by Maria Quoos, who now leads the Sathya Sai Organization in Poland, I report in my piece “Sai Baba and Sexual Grooming”:
https://barrypittard.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/sai-baba-and-sexual-grooming/

Seeding Kundalini – or Sowing Confusion and Angst?

Straight after the interview, on the ‘hill’ behind the Mandir (Temple), my informant spoke to Michael, who told her that he was “spun out by it all” (highly confused). One keeps discovering that many Sai devotees know at the very least of Sai Baba’s holding of the penises of young males. They need to stop to ask themselves why it is that this practice is confined to young males. It is no use their responding – as they commonly do – that Sai Baba is e.g., “calming raging hormones”, “balancing the kundalini”, and other such vacuity. Do young girls not have raging hormones? And even if there were such a thing as kundalini, do young girls not have it? Whatever may be the case, Sai Baba is not a licenced medical practitioner who would, in very strictly defined clinical situations, be permitted to examine or treat genitalia. In short, Sai Baba breaks the law – on countless occasions.

Sai Baba Lacks Even Basic Circumspection

In my own interview in August of that year, I saw Glen Hart draped over Sai Baba in a most intimate way, with Sai Baba and Hart showering mutual affection – for example, both playing with each other’s hands. It looked, for example, like two young girls displaying intimacy and affection for each other. In over two decades of devotion to him, I had never seen such a display by him. Over time, over a dozen reports that Sai Baba was not the celibate Swami he purports to be I had dismissed as impossible. In retrospect, I realize that I had seen in the Glen Hart and Sai Baba display a situation that no circumspect elder would allow. What we may expect from proven letches like Bill Clinton we do not expect from a mature leader, religious or otherwise!

It may also be recalled that allegations of young male sexual molestation by Sai Baba were intensifying on the Internet right at this very time. We now learn from Mark Roche and Al Rahm (for example, in the BBC television documentary The Secret Swami, 2004) – but from innumerable others – that Sai Baba’s handling of young males’ genitals – has been going on for many decades.

Peter Rae – the ‘Sai Brother’ I Really Didn’t Know

My ex-partner’s and my group was led by Valmai Worthington of Queensland, who in the last quarter of 1997 told me by phone that Sai Baba had appointed her to look after the interests of a Sai devotee family whose two children had been very badly sexually abused by Peter Rae, an Australian documentary film maker, an old ‘Sai brother’ of mine, and attend court proceedings against Rae. I did not tell Mrs Worthington that I had also an account of this terrible occurrence from a (then) very dear Sai Baba devotee friend of mine, a medical doctor who knew the family and had received from his own sources very indicting information concerning Peter Rae. (An unusually reliable source I will share with bona fide investigators informed that the damage to one or both of the children required surgical intervention). I noticed that Peter Rae still had a priviledged seat at the entrance to Sai Baba’s mandir (temple) and was still, along with James Redmond (Sai Baba’s videographer who was also there during these months), permitted to take photographs and videos of Sai Baba in a way permitted to almost no other individual from any country. (I may add that James Redmond has told a number of us former followers of Sai Baba he has various film footage in which it is clear that Sai Baba is faking miraculous materializations)

I subsequently learnt that back in Australia, Peter Rae was still permitted to visit Sai Baba centers but must be accompanied by responsible adults in the presence of young children. However, in Puttaparthi, Rae – who I knew well, or rather thought I did! – could be often seen in the company of very young boys from a nearby village where he was making a film about Sai Baba when young. I sought out a senior member of Sai Baba’s ‘Security and Intelligence wing’ and expressed my concerns. He assured me that they would be taken seriously. Today, I would not be so naively trusting! I would at the very least do a rigorous follow-up to see whether proper accountability mechanisms had locked into place.

Former National Sai Baba Leader Warned of At-Risk Situations

Terry Gallagher, the former national Spiritual Coordinator of the Sathya Sai Organization of Australia and Papua and New Guinea, has since confirmed to me that he spent many hours with Mrs Worthington patiently going through extensive evidence he had collected (including from Sai Baba’s college students) of Sai Baba’s sexual molestations, which had caused him to resign as head of the Australian organization  However, Valmai Worthington has continued to lead groups, including boys and young men, to Sai Baba. 

(Ironically, Terry Gallagher is the brother-in-law of the current leader of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia, Neville Fredericks. Terry and his wife after years of intense devotion left Sai Baba on acute ethical grounds. He has told me that, after considerable efforts but failing to convince the organization of the seriousness of the sexual abuse allegations, he now remains silent so as to maintain a business relationship with Fredericks and to keep the peace within the family). Why is it that the prophet Jeremiah’s lamentation keeps coming into my mind when I think of those who shut up in favour of the quiet life, and lie down with grievous offenders? Jeremiah 6:14 (GWT): “They treat my people’s wounds as though they were not serious, saying, ‘Everything is alright! Everything is alright!’ But it’s not alright”. Or, if you prefer the King James version: “Peace, peace; when there is no peace”.

The Truth Commission Model May Show Sai Devotees The Honest Way Out

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 like Terry Gallagher and many other former and  esteemed  leaders and members, make them. 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/

Highly Qualified Abuse Psychologist Shirley Pike Accuses Hal Honig:  “A pimp for Sai Baba”

Over the years, concerns have been expressed relating to groups led by Hal Honig of Manhattan, New York, a U.S. cultural attaché in Rome in the 60’s and now one of the most senior leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization in the U.S., including being, Peter Pan-like, the head of the Sai Youth wing.  See my article “Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?” at:
https://barrypittard.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/will-sai-baba-keep-hal-honig-smiling/

In the late 90’s, Shirley Pike, a very qualified psychologist with years of experience sexual abuse counseling, including of many children, began to to discover compelling evidence that pointed to Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. Mrs Pike was President, North Carolina Region and President of Cedar Rapids Center, Iowah. She denounced Hal Honig at a large Sai Organization gathering as “Sai Baba’s pimp.”

But then – how many pimps does Sai Baba, India’s most powerful and influential guru, who has millions of devotees, have? And must we not hold the many group leaders who have young males in their groups – supposedly in loco parentis – extremely accountable? And what to mention Sai Baba’s often very wealthy and influential leaders around the world who cover up for him on the grand scale – even, the evidence makes clear, ensuring that governments do not ‘rock the boat with India in matters pertaining to Sai Baba?

The Public PetitionInformation on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

About the Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult

(Note: You may prefer to go 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba