Sathya Sai Airport “white elephant” for sale!

The Sathya Sai Airport is now on the market. This is one of Sai Baba’s several white elephants, one which stood unused (except for the odd VIP visit by private jet) for years and has handled nothing but occasional charter flights (only two-three per week at best) since then. This is how the self-proclaimed defender of India’s poor and suffering’s lets money be used for most wasteful self-publicity projects.

How Sai Baba wangled his airport from the authorities

I have earlier reported how I was told by my close friend, V.K. Narasimhan (since deceased, former editor of Sai Baba’s journal and very close servitor) about the interview he attended in 1990 where Sai Baba convinced Indian Airport authorities to finance and build a large airport near Prashanthi Nilayam, telling them that they would earn 10 lakhs of rupees in the first year. There were no earnings whatever for many years, however, as VKN pointed out. The frequency of traffic, at best about 2-3 flights of medium jets per week for several years at periods when Sathya Sai Baba was in residence, can surely not have paid the way of the airport since. It has been virtually closed much of the time in recent years. It is hard to rationalise such a huge waste of funds in such an impoverished land and many Sathya Sai Baba building projects - including two massive contructions at PN devoted mainly to his own glorification - were hardly to VKN’s taste.

Later I learned from my IAS friend, V. Ramnath, that Mr. Kaw (see image above) was the Secretary of Civil Aviation who had been a devotee since the 1960s when Sai Baba’s car stopped beside him while he was standing in a road in Aranachala Pradesh. Amusingly, Sai Baba had has Mr. Kaw - who is a relative heavyweight - actually sit on his lap during one inverview with his family. This is the man Sai Baba influenced to get his airport built.

Mr. Kaw tried to trick his superiors but was caught out

The Indian Express journalist from New Delhi, Swati Chaturvedi, exposed and documented (7 Feb. 199 the corruption of Mr. M.K. Kaw - a favourite devotee of Sathya Sai Baba acting on his behalf. As Civil Aviation Secretary, originally arranged for Indian Government permission for the Sathya Sai Airport to be built. No one knows who funded it, as the Sathya Sai Central Trust financial accounts are not open to public scrutiny, but the same Trust apparently ended up owning it.  He wrote “It took barely 48 hours for M.K. Kaw to clear an international cargo hub at the Sai Baba Trust-run airport at Puttaparthi in Karnataka. Kaw also directed that all help from the Government, including setting up a customs office, be provided to the private trust. ” However,  the Minister of State Jayanthi Natarajan confirmed that Kaw’s order had been overruled and the matter referred to [Minister C.M.] Ibrahim. Kaw refused to comment In the process of clearance, Kaw has bypassed both the Ministers. September 17: The Sathya Sai Baba Central Trust applied to the Civil Aviation Ministry to set up an international cargo hub in Puttaparthi. See full text from Indian Express Minister aborts an unofficial “miracle”