Sai Baba Smackdown

File under: Satscams and Hands Where They Don't Belong

In what is quite unusual for the Indian press, a Hindustan Times columnist puts the smackdown on the Babaster:

The homosexual abuse allegations are now too numerous to dispute. (Enter ‘Sathya Sai Baba’ and ‘homosexuality’ on a Google search and you will get an astonishing 18,000 references.) I am prepared to believe that at least some of the young men who claim to have been fondled or otherwise assaulted by the Baba are liars.

But can every single person who claims to have been fondled be a liar? By now, the list of complainants runs into triple figures. And that’s just the Westerners. (The Indians seem less able to speak out against the Baba.) Surely, there is a case for the old boy to answer?

Bizarrely, none of the fondling-of-devotees stuff seems to perturb any of the Baba’s high-profile followers. And, when you ask the many senior politicians, who turn up at the Puttaparthi ashram to fling themselves at the Holy One’s feet, whether they are legitimising the Baba’s activities, the only responses you get follow predictable lines: “Even Jesus had to face criticism” etc etc.

As long as he's got millions thinking he's God, Sai Baba will have enough politicians in his back pocket to coverup many more misdeeds with young men. Like it or not, the world is probably going to have the Babaster's hands down its pants until he croaks, and nothing short of a young man exclusionary zone with a 1000-mile radius is going to keep privates private from his grabby mitts.