Sanjay Kishore Dadlani
Middlesex University Student Residing In The UKSanjay recently referred to Vir Sanghvi's Anti-Sai article entitled,
"The Truth About Sathya Sai Baba", which he found on a Hare Krishna site. Apparently Sanjay is lagging behind because I already fully responded to the article
before he mentioned it. The following is my response:
Vir Sanghvi Menu (click on a link to go to relevant section):Introduction To The Indian Journalist Vir SanghviVir Sanghvi's "Counterpoint" Columnist ArticleDid Sathya Sai Baba Just Celebrate His 80th Birthday?Did Sathya Sai Baba Engage In Questionable Behavior With "little boys"?Are The Homosexual Allegations "too numerous to dispute"?Is There A List Of Western Complainants That Run "into triple figures"?Can All Of Sathya Sai Baba's Miracles Easily Be Performed By Conjurors?In ConclusionIntroduction To The Indian Journalist Vir Sanghvi:Return To MenuVir Sanghvi is an Indian journalist who is a staunch critic of Sathya Sai Baba. He is currently the editorial director for the Hindustan Times (which may explain why they almost exclusively report negative information about Sathya Sai Baba), former editor for
Sunday, former consulting editor for
Anada Bazaar Patrika, former editor for
Imprint, founder-editor for
Bombay Magazine and currently writes a
Counterpoint weekly column in the Hindusan Times. Vir Sanghvi was allegedly educated at Mayo College, Ajmer and Oxford University, is reputed as being one of the youngest editors in India and is also a television personality.
Don't let all of these credentials fool you. Vir Sanghvi is willing to
compromise his integrity and reputation as a journalist by resorting to disrespectable research, bias and sensationalistic propaganda to promote his views against Sathya Sai Baba.
Vir Sanghvi's "Counterpoint" Columnist Article:Return To MenuOn November 25th 2006, Vir Sanghvi wrote a
Counterpoint columnist article in the Hindustan Times entitled
"The Truth About Sathya Sai Baba". Not only did Vir Sanghvi
not know that Sathya Sai Baba turned 81 (he claimed Baba turned 80), he
admitted that he is
"not big on Sathya Sai Baba" and referred to him as the
"old boy".
In his
Counterpoint article, Vir Sanghvi made the following
inaccurate claims about Sathya Sai Baba:
- Sathya Sai Baba just celebrated his 80'th birthday.
- There is a "sordid controversy" about Sathya Sai Baba engaging in questionable behavior with "little boys".
- The homosexual allegations against Sathya Sai Baba are "too numerous to dispute".
- That the list of Western complainants runs "into triple figures".
- All of Sathya Sai Baba's miracles can easily be performed by conjurors.
Did Sathya Sai Baba Just Celebrate His 80th Birthday?Return To MenuThe answer is
"no". Sathya Sai Baba just celebrated his 81st birthday. Nice double-checking there, Mr. Vir Sanghvi.
Did Sathya Sai Baba Engage In Questionable Behavior With "little boys"?Return To MenuThose opposing Sathya Sai Baba wage an unremitting smear campaign against him that accuses him of
"serial pedophilia" and the sexual abuse of
"boys" and
"children". These allegations are fallacious, unsustantiated and wholly
untrue. There are no testimonies from
"boys",
"children" or parents of children that support the erroneous claim that Sathya Sai Baba is a
pedophile who engaged in sexual interactions with
children. To date, there are
no court cases, police complaints, affidavits, public grievances or lawsuits from any parent alleging that Sathya Sai Baba sexually abused his/her
child. Not even one single legitimate complaint. Sathya Sai Baba has
never been charged with any crime, has
never been convicted of any crime and has
never had even
one single complaint lodged against him,
first-hand, by any alleged victim (child, teenager, parent or adult) in India.
Vir Sanghvi cannot cite even one single police complaint or court case that supports his erroneous claim that Sathya Sai Baba engaged in questionable behavior with
"little kids". One would think that a journalist of Vir Sanghvi's calibre would have the basic integrity to research and confirm allegations before publishing unsupported opinions, speculations and conspriacy theories in the Hindustan Times.
To date, neither Vir Sanghvi or anyone else have been able to confirm even
one single case where Sathya Sai Baba engaged in questionable behavior with
"little kids".
Are The Homosexual Allegations "too numerous to dispute"?Return To MenuTo support his claim that the homosexual abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba are
"too numerous to dispute", Vir Sanghvi suggested that one enter
"Sathya Sai Baba" and
"homosexuality" into a Google search. Because there are almost 18,000 returns, Vir Sanghvi concluded that these allegations are
"too numerous to dispute" and some of these allegations
must be true. What kind of journalist bases facts and figures on Google results? This is not only
shabby research, it is
poor journalism.
For example, enter
"George Bush" and
"homosexuality" into a Google search and you will get an astounding 1,250,000 (plus) returns:
View Results. Enter
"Jesus" and
"homosexuality" into a Google search and you will get an astounding 1,300,000 (plus) returns:
View Results. Enter
"Mother Teresa" and
"homosexuality" into a Google search and you will get 330,000 (plus) returns:
View Results. Using Vir Sanghvi's lamentable logic, one
must conclude that some of these results are indicative that George Bush, Jesus and Mother Teresa engaged in acts of homosexuality. What kind of journalist uses this type of propaganda as
"evidence" against others? In my opinion, the
only type of journalists who engage in this type of low-class propaganda are tabloid journalists who
care less for facts and
care more for sensationalism and fiction.
Furthermore, enter
"Vir Sanghvi" and
"homosexuality" into a Google search:
View The 500+ Results. Enter
"Vir Sanghvi" and
"stupid" into a Google search:
View The 1,300+ Results. Enter
"Vir Sanghvi" and
"offensive" into a Google search:
View The 1,200+ Results. Enter
"Vir Sanghvi" and
"corrupt" into a Google search:
View The 1,000+ Results. Enter
"Vir Sanghvi" and
"bias" into a Google search:
View The 1,100+ Results.
Since Vir Sanghvi is not an internationally revered guru like Sathya Sai Baba (who has
millions of followers), these results are high for one person. Are we to conclude that Mr. Sanghvi engaged in acts of
"homosexuality" and that he is
"stupid",
"corrupt",
"biased" and
"offensive" based on Google's results? Using Sanghvi's standard, the answer is
"yes". After all this is the standard and
"evidence" that he attempted to use against Sathya Sai Baba. Why can't others use the
same standard against Mr. Sanghvi?
For those who are
not gullible, naive or sensationalists, Google's results are
not indicative of guilt, evidence, complaints, behavior or anything else for that matter. Google's results simply return webpages (many duplicates) with
all possible combinations of keywords located on any given webpage. This explains the Google results obtained for George Bush, Jesus and Mother Teresa. This also explains why Vir Sanghvi had 500+ Google results when his name was combined with the word
"homosexuality".
Is There A List Of Western Complainants That Run "into triple figures"?Return To MenuI am not aware of
any list composed of Westerner complainants that
"runs into triple figures".
Where did Vir Sanghvi obtain this information from?
On the sites run by ex-devotees of Sathya Sai Baba, they provide a list of alleged sexual abuse victims. The list is composed of
sixteen names (many are fake names). That's it.
See For Yourself. All of these alleged victims (except one 16 year old) are adults 18 to 31 years of age. No
"little boys" are listed. Perhaps Mr. Sanghvi could inform us as to which
reliable source he viewed to support his claim that there is a
"list of complainants" that runs
"into triple figures" (for Westerners only)?
It is my strong suspicion that Vir Sanghvi is either referring to the
bogus online-petition against Sathya Sai Baba on
SaiPetition.net (in which
anyone can submit
multiple fake entries under
multiple fake names) or he is referring to
Robert Priddy's
bogus list of "Prominent Ex-Devotees Of Sai Baba" (a majority who were
never "fondled" by Sathya Sai Baba and whose names were mostly lifted from the bogus online-petition website). Why is it that a notable journalist like Vir Sanghvi
cannot back up his claims with verifiable and
reliable sources? Are these the
low standards that Vir Sanghvi must utilize in order to promote his Anti-Sai bias and poorly-constructed arguments in the Hindustan Times? Sadly, this appears to be the case.
Can All Of Sathya Sai Baba's Miracles Easily Be Performed By Conjurors?Return To MenuMr. Sanghvi claimed that
"every single one" of Sathya Sai Baba's miracles can be easily performed by even
"moderately-talented conjurors". Although it is
true that any alleged materialization that Sathya Sai Baba performs will be inextricably tied to doubt, I have yet to see any
"conjuror" who can heal people from incurable diseases, appear to people all around the world (in dreams, visions and physical form) and manifest vibuthi, amrita, kumkum, tumeric, holy water, mishri, coins, statues of gods and goddesses, siva lingams, crystals, gems, fragrances, flowers, lights, and various other substances on the altars of devotees
all around the world and in the privacy of their own homes (like Sathya Sai Baba is reputed as doing).
There are literally thousands of such stories and first-hand accounts. Even some ex-devotees (to this day)
still attest to Sathya Sai Baba's paranormal abilities.
The following links show a small sampling of manifestations and materializations typically associated with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. These manifestations occur in the privacy of devotee's homes
all around the world, thousands of miles
away from Sathya Sai Baba's physical form. Any
"conjuror" up to duplicating these alleged miracles?:
In Conclusion:Return To MenuI think Mr. Vir Sanghvi owes Sathya Sai Baba an apology and should immediately retract his erroneous, inaccurate and dishonest comments until a time comes when he can
factually document his current speculations and assumptions with verifiable, accurate and truthful data from
reliable and
reputable sources. The style of Vir Sanghvi's article is emotional, as opposed to objective. This behavior is not what one would expect from the editorial director of the Hindustan Times. Or is it?
The internet version of Vir Sanghvi's article allows for people to submit responses. Although several responses (pro and con) were published, mine was not, hence this webpage. Just more proof of the suppression and dictator-like control weilded by Vir Sanghvi on the Hindustan Times and his abject
failure to accept responsiblity for his blind guesswork, second-rate research, overemotionalism and ludicrous claims against
Sathya Sai Baba.
Return To Top MenuDuplicated From Sai-Fi.net