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Vir Sanghvi

Vir Sanghvi’s Smear Campaigns Against Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Vir Sanghvi Menu (click on a link to go to relevant section):

Introduction To The Indian Journalist Vir Sanghvi
Vir Sanghvi’s ‘Counterpoint’ Columnist Article
Did 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?
Vir Sanghvi - In Conclusion

Introduction To The Indian Journalist Vir Sanghvi:

Vir Sanghvi (born July 5th 1956) is a television journalist, columnist and talk show host from India. Vir Sanghvi is the former editor for Sunday, former consulting editor for Anada Bazaar Patrika, former editor for Imprint, founder-editor for Bombay Magazine, writer for the Counterpoint and Rude Food weekly columns and the editorial director for Hindustan Times (which publishes mostly negative information against Sathya Sai Baba). Vir Sanghvi was educated at Mayo College, Ajmer and Oxford University. 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 sleaze & slime, propaganda and sensationalism to promote his personal bias against the revered Indian guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Vir Sanghvi’s “Counterpoint” Columnist Article:

On November 25th 2006, Vir Sanghvi wrote a Counterpoint columnist article in the Hindustan Times entitled “The Truth About Sathya Sai Baba”. Vir Sanghvi openly admitted his bias by saying he was “not big on Sathya Sai Baba” and referred to the guru as the “old boy”.

In his Counterpoint article, Vir Sanghvi made the following defamatory and 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?

The 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”?

The answer is “no”. To Date: Alleged victims (including their mothers, fathers and relatives) have all failed and refused to file a basic police complaint, public greivance or court case against Sathya Sai Baba in India for the alleged molestations of “children” or “little boys”. The only people who have “failed to exercise duty of care and ignored mandated reporting” are alleged victims and their mothers and fathers who have all (without exception) refused to file a single police complaint, court case or public grievance in India against Sathya Sai Baba. Why would parents purposely ignore the alleged molestations of their children? The irrefutable fact that no one has lodged any sort of official complaints against Sathya Sai Baba in India strongly solidifies the argument that Sathya Sai Baba never abused anyone and alleged victim’s accounts are unbelievable and come from non-credible sources. Gerald Joe Moreno wrote an article entitled False Pedophile Allegations Against Sathya Sai Baba, which provides information about Ex-Devotee’s shocking smear campaigns against the guru.

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 boys”. One would think that a journalist of Vir Sanghvi’s calibre would have the basic integrity and common sense to research and confirm criminal allegations before peddling rumors, gossips and conspriacy theories as the “truth” in the Hindustan Times. To Date: Vir Sanghvi (nor anyone else for that matter) has been able to confirm or document even one single case of alleged pedophilia against Sathya Sai Baba.

Are The Homosexual Allegations “too numerous to dispute”?

The answer is “no”. To support his claim that the homosexual abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba are “too numerous to dispute”, Vir Sanghvi suggested that readers enter “Sathya Sai Baba” and “homosexuality” into a Google search. Because there were almost 18,000 results, Vir Sanghvi concluded that the homosexual allegations are “too numerous to dispute” and some of those allegations must be true. What kind of journalist determines criminal sexual behavior by relying on Google results? This type of ridiculous logic is shameful and reveals Vir Sanghvi’s shabby research and poor journalism.

Let us turn the tables. For example, enter “Obama” and “homosexuality” into a Google search and you will get an astounding 1,300,000 (plus) returns: View Results. Enter “Jesus” and “homosexuality” into a Google search and you will get an astounding 2,000,000 (plus) returns: View Results. Enter “Mother Teresa” and “homosexuality” into a Google search and you will get 700,000 (plus) returns: View Results. Enter “Krishna” and “homosexuality” into a Google search and you will get 600,000 (plus) returns: View Results. Using Vir Sanghvi’s lamentable illogic, one must conclude that some of these results are indicative that Obama, Jesus, Mother Teresa and Krishna engaged in acts of homosexuality. What kind of journalist uses this type of propaganda as “evidence” against others? The only type of journalists who engage in this type of sleazy propaganda are tabloid journalists who care less for facts and care more for sensationalism.

Furthermore:

Enter “Vir Sanghvi” and “homosexuality” into a Google search: View The 10,000+ Results.
Enter “Vir Sanghvi” and “gay” into a Google search: View The 10,000+ Results.
Enter “Vir Sanghvi” and “stupid” into a Google search: View The 2,500+ Results.
Enter “Vir Sanghvi” and “offensive” into a Google search: View The 2,000+ Results.
Enter “Vir Sanghvi” and “corruption” into a Google search: View The 13,000+ Results.
Enter “Vir Sanghvi” and “hate” into a Google search: View The 89,000+ Results.
Enter “Vir Sanghvi” and “bias” into a Google search: View The 2,000+ Results.
Enter “Vir Sanghvi” and “Murderer” into a Google search: View The 7,000+ Results.

Vir Sanghvi Google 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”, “gay”, “corrupt”, “hateful”, “biased”, “offensive” and a “murderer” based on Google results? Implementing the standard that Vir Sanghvi used against Sathya Sai Baba, the answer is “yes”. Vir Sanghvi shows us how to determine guilt or innocence using Google results and implicates himself as a homosexual and hateful murderer!

For those who are not gullible, naive or sensationalists, Google results are not indicative of guilt, evidence, complaints, behavior or anything else for that matter. Google results simply return webpages (many duplicates) with all possible combinations of keywords located on any given webpage. This explains the Google results obtained for Obama, Jesus, Mother Teresa and Krishna. This also explains why Vir Sanghvi had 10,000+ Google results when his name was combined with the word “homosexuality” and 89,000 results when his name was combined with the word “hate”.

Is There A List Of Western Complainants That Run “into triple figures”?

The answer is “no”. There is no known list of Westerner complainants that “runs into triple figures”. Where exactly did Vir Sanghvi obtain this information?

On the websites 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 for one 16 year old) were adults 18 to 31 years of age. No “little boys” were listed. Perhaps Mr. Vir Sanghvi could inform us where he found his information and which reliable source supports his claim that there is a “list of complainants” that runs “into triple figures” for Westerners only?

It is strongly suspected that Vir Sanghvi referred either to the bogus online-petition against Sathya Sai Baba on SaiPetition.net (through which anyone can submit multiple fake entries under multiple fake names) or he referred to Robert Priddy’s bogus list of “Prominent Ex-Devotees Of Sai Baba” (a majority of which were never “fondled” or “abused” by Sathya Sai Baba and whose names were mostly copied 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? Vir Sanghvi is so desperate to smear Sathya Sai Baba he must resort to internet gossips.

Can All Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Miracles Easily Be Performed By Conjurors?

The answer is “no”. Mr. Vir Sanghvi claimed that “every single one” of Sathya Sai Baba’s miracles can easily be performed by “moderately-talented conjurors”. Although it is true that any alleged materialization that Sathya Sai Baba performs will be inextricably tied to doubt, one has 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?:

Vir Sanghvi - In Conclusion:

I think Mr. Vir Sanghvi owes Sathya Sai Baba an apology and should immediately retract his over-emotional blatherings until a time comes when he can factually document his accusations with verifiable, accurate and credible data from reliable and reputable sources. The style of Vir Sanghvi’s arguments is emotional, as opposed to objective. This type of childish behavior is not what one would expect from the editorial director of the Hindustan Times. Or is it?

Vir Sanghvi’s article allowed for readers to submit responses. Although several responses (pro and con) were published, the response on this page was not. Just more proof of the suppression and dictator-like control weilded by Vir Sanghvi on the Hindustan Times.

People like Vir Sanghvi use their professions and status to push their subjective, emotional and personal views against Sathya Sai Baba, instead of relying on objective facts. As stated many times before, the objective facts speak for themselves:

Sathya Sai Baba has never been proven to be a “charlatan”.
Sathya Sai Baba has never been convicted of any crime.
Sathya Sai Baba has never been charged with any crime.
Sathya Sai Baba has never had even one single complaint lodged against him by any alleged victim, first-hand, in India. As a matter of fact, not even one alleged victim has even tried to file a basic police complaint or court case against Sathya Sai Baba in India (the only place where courts would have jurisdiction over Baba as an individual defendant).

These are the cold, hard facts and no rationalist, critic, skeptic, ex-devotee or tabloid journalist can provide a scintilla of verifiable evidence to the contrary.

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