RICH AND POOR IN INDIA

The Great Indian Divide – Rich and Poor

Everyone knows that India has riches and now dollar billionaires. Everyone also knows that it has enormous poverty. Just now, 12 million flood victims in India are homeless and many report total disinterest by responsible authorities after many days, causing many riots and roadblocks by the homeless (1028 deaths so far from flooding in India alone). Each new Indian government uses increasingly vast sums of money on such things as the military and nuclear weapons , while the hundreds of millions of the very poor suffer terrible conditions and indignities. Further, the upper 10% or so of the 1.1 billion Indians spend freely on excess luxuries. The most prestigious Norwegian national daily newspaper ‘Aftenposten’ (4-8-07) reports on India‘s nouveau riche, who spend lavish sums on children’s birthday parties in great and increasing numbers – even comparable to Indian weddings. While eight hundred million Indians live on less than half a dollar a day (reported on BBC World 19-8-2007), these parties can easily cost $400.- and the annual value to the economy of weddings is around $10 billion per annum, while the total expenditure on children’s parties soon will approach a similar figure at the current rate (stated Aftenposten). Meanwhile, the United Nations declare 42% of India’s 330 million children under 15 to be undernourished… a higher percentage even than in most African countries. A fisherman called Gupta reportedly said to Aftenposten: “India is the world’s best country to be rich in. But it is also the worst country to be poor in.

Sathya Sai’s Charity and Propaganda About it

Accumulated riches should be matched by charity, so what kind of charity do rich Indians who worship Sai Baba provide? One can see that they build plently of temples and other such unproductive showpieces rather than use the funds in a humanitarian way. For example, a vast and plush auditorium with a retractable glass roof (the Kulwant mantap) filled with hundreds of expensive (and useless) chandeliers, was donated by the rich Indian industrialist from Delhi, Kulwant Rai (whose son is under investigation for massive financial crimes by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation see here). Another case of ‘Cash for Honours’, meaning cash for blessings by God Incarnate? Two very costly and large museum buildings, which serve only to glorify Sai Baba as the Divine Creator and originator of all religions portrayed there, were reportedly partly financed by Indian donors. The two luxuriously-appointed hospitals (at least one of which was financed entirely by foreign funds) provide hi-tech heart surgery and the like, but can of course cope with only a tiny proportion of the needy population. They seem almost empty and there are no queues to be seen, as there are for other health services in poor districts. The hospitals consist too much in marbled empty spaces adorned with portraits and sayings of Sathya Sai – while the clientele are hand-picked and the data about who they are, how rich or poor, is kept secret, though it is known that Sai devotees are strongly favoured. All this while countless people have to subsist on a dollar a day. The new huge indoor stadium is surely an unnecessary white elephant – used only a few times a year, and the expensive Sathya Sai airport stands empty of aircraft with hardly any flights per week. Sathya Sai Baba also charters passenger jets to take him and his boys etc. on holiday annually to his Kodaikanal residence.

The Sathya Sai Water Project has been much praised. They supply water to villages near his ashrams, when they work – for much of all this was reportedly bungled, not completed, gerry built tapped for funds etc.. That it is all presented as a Divine Wonder shows that there is something very wrong about it all… the pomp and glory does not sit well. Further, Sathya Sai has many grand apartments exclusively for his use wherever he chooses and the array of top class vehicles he has owned through his life is very considerable. He has frequently ridden on a golden chariot made just for him, and he constantly speaks of his social works (while saying it is a sin to advertise one’s service because it makes it worthless). He has repeatedly discoursed on his tremendous self-sacrifice and tireless work to raise the masses – no one else does one thousandth of what he does, according to him. However, the outside observer cannot but notice that he does no visible work – other than two 1/2 hour appearances on most days, and inaugurates a few buildings, and occasionally takes car trips to visit other places. (Nice work, perhaps, if you live for that sort of thing!). It is time to see things as they are and change the tune!