Love, lakhs and dhoka: Satya Sai trustee won't quit

The drama unfolding in the Satya Sai Central Trust is quickly turning into one about love, lakhs and dhoka.

The love is all about the Sai Baba himself. All the trustees are swearing their unshakable love and devotion to him and that everything they do is for his sake.

But the Rs 35 lakhs seized from a car that left Puttaparthi on 18 June is haunting the trust members. V. Srinivasan, whose van was carrying the unaccounted cash, was grilled for seven hours by Penukonda police on 27 June.

Today, at a lengthy press conference, Srinivasan dismissed calls for him to resign.

“It is a tempting thing to give resignation. I can just drop it and go," said  Srinivasan at a press conference in Puttaparthi today. “If it had happened in my company, sure I would resign. But I was chosen by Bhagwan to serve in his temple. If I run away from such a _pariksha (_test) then it would be a great dhoka on Bhagwan.”

But the trustees are also showing signs that they realise they need to be transparent in a way Sai Baba did not have to be. “He was divine,  we have to be professional and pragmatic,” said Srinivasan.

The public is already jittery about reports of money being spirited away, about family members complaining of being left out of the loop, even threatened. Now the Central Trust is trying to reassure the public that it is business as usual.

“Baba in his foresight left an adequate corpus,” he said. “Our job is to be prudent in how we spend it. Salaries are being paid on due date. All statutory returns are being submitted by us. Donations received are being credited and receipts issued. Response to the ad for recruiting doctors is good.”

The trust, he claimed, was not just being transparent, but it was going above and beyond the call of duty.

Srinivasan said the trust has decided to pay Rs 9.75 crores in income tax based on its valuation of the money and gold found in Sai Baba’s personal chambers even though the government had not asked for any taxes yet. Asked how all those valuables ended up in the Baba’s chambers, Srinivasan said, “We have no knowledge of that at all. We don’t know why Baba acted that way. We don’t know the source of the money. The Baba had no bank account in his name. Money was kept by him for public use.”

Yet again and again the trust’s reputation ran around the 35 lakhs seized from a van after a late night chase.

A mildly exasperated Nagananda, long-time legal counsel with the Trust,  said, “This Rs 35 lakhs is being blown out of proportion. We spend crores every month and you are asking about 35 lakhs.” He had more grievances, “You in the media talked about Rs 5-10 crores that was seized, which was untrue. Which van was it seized from? Where is that retraction?”

Srinivasan tried to set that story straight. He explained that 12 devotees had given Ratnakar, a trustee and Baba’s nephew, that money to build Baba’s Mahasamadhi. The trust being a public charitable trust could not take money for a religious building. So it had appointed Shankarnarayan Consulting in Bangalore as its project consultant. The money was being sent to them. The devotees, who he refused to name, had filed affidavits in the court with their PAN numbers.

“The trust has no connection with these funds,” he said. “The funds were not seized from any vehicle owned by the trust.”

Trying to wash its hands off the money might have worked for the Sai Baba. But the trustees are finding it difficult to put the embarrassment of the late night seizure and police chase behind them. Now come added complications. Family members are speaking up. There are demands for a greater role for Baba’s caretaker Satyajit who has not spoken to the press yet.

“There is no gag order on Satyajit,” said Srinivasan. “He is a former student. He is concentrating on Vidya Vahini now.” But the trustee tried to make it clear that anyone who comes forward with claims about “the wishes of Baba” would not find a very sympathetic audience, even if they were his relatives.

“Officially we do not recognise any family member,” said Nagananda. “And oral instructions are difficult for a trustee to act on legally.”

They would rather turn the conversation to all the good works the Trust does, the super specialty hospitals, the institutes of higher learning, the Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini rural education programme, the water supply schemes.

But the government wants numbers. It wants reports about its financial transactions, flow of funds and accounts. Some say what the government really wants is to take over the institution, or at least monitor the Trust.

“I am not saying we are objecting to it. But we don’t feel any necessity for it,” claimed Srinivasan. “We are capable of managing our affairs. But it is for the government to decide.”

The trustees are planning to meet with the press more regularly and issue an annual report. But whether that’s enough transparency to rewind the damage and restore public confidence is anyone’s guess.

“Please have patience,” pleaded Srinivasan. “All this will also pass.”

Listen to Srinivasan speak at the press conference: