"We Do Not Care"

(Read this in Russian!)

Readers might have noticed from the recent DNA article that Sai Baba and his ashram goons are ambivalent to serious questions of sexual abuse. What's new?

In 2001 the US State Dept. published a travel advisory for India that stated:

"U.S. citizens should be aware that there have been unconfirmed reports of inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader at an ashram or religious retreat located in Andhra Pradesh. Most of the reports indicate that the subjects of these approaches have been young male devotees, including a number of U.S. citizens."

As State Dept. officials will confirm, this announcement does refer to Sathya Sai Baba. Five years later we have an unnamed public relations officer representing Sathya Sai Baba and making the following callous statement:

“We do not care what the advisory says. People and organisations can write whatever they want to believe. We have no more to say on this issue.”

No shit, Mr. Chakravarthi! If ever there was proof that the Sai Organisation is an isolated and secretive cult, you just provided it! It appals me how the Sai Organisation has been named and shamed by the United States administration, and a specific warning against him and his ashram is listed on their official website as a potential danger to US citizens, and these guys say they don't care.

This is consistent with their attitude to killing people too. In 1993 six people died in a police shootout at Sai Baba's ashram that was believed to have been an assassination attempt on the guru. Two of the dead were his disciples while the others were former students of the guru's educational institutions. This incident was hushed-up and swept under the carpet by a number of influential politicians and High Court judges, but not before the news had made it's way into the international media. Speaking to The Hindu newspaper, the then World Chairman of the Sai Organisation, Indulal Shah, had the following to say:

"The matter is purely internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency investigating into it." - The Hindu, July 10th 1993

Excuse me? Six people died, and this guy tells the press that investigators should "buzz off" and keep their noses out of the ashram's "private affairs"?! What kind of harebrained attitude is this? I don't need to explain the importance of proper police investigations into the unexplained deaths of six people, much less the circumstances of their deaths by knives and gunshot wounds. And Indulal Shah is disturbed when the media come sniffing around? What does he expect? Sai Baba is arguably India's biggest and most popular guru, and when an event of this magnitude takes place it is inevitable that all eyes will be on Puttaparthi.

But no, the ashram authorities have never had a good record of press interaction when it comes to discussing Sai Baba's peculiar proclivities. When the Daily Telegraph ran a story into the allegations, they related how Chakravarthi had slammed the phone down on their reporter when asked for comment:

"When the Telegraph Magazine contacted K Chakravarthi, secretary of the Puttaparthi ashram, he said, 'We have no time for these matters. I have nothing to say' and terminated the call."

Cripes! "We have no wish", "we have no time", "we don't care", does any of this sound like wallowing in denial? It is this arrogant and irresponsible attitude that leads to many unsuspecting youths and boys being led into Sai Baba's inner apartments and asked to take their trousers off, and to be given the "boon" of an oiling on their genital area. With the "lucky ones" being afforded privileges of oral and/or anal sex with the guru, no police or judicial investigations bear fruit when all players in this deception engage in a conspiracy to hush it all up and deny it. Not even an internal investigation within the ashram. They just don't care.

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