kudos to you brother!!!!

THIS is what I wrote for the international news site nowpublic.com, reporting from New Delhi.

[ Phenomenally influential religious Indian saint Asaram Bapu on Saturday shrugged off charges of occult activities in his commune, saying the allegation was part of an international conspiracy to defame his "pure and totally clean" institutions, even as Canada was added as yet another domain abroad for his religious activities.

Addressing hundreds of thousands of followers at the industrial township of Noida, bordering the Indian capital New Delhi, he claimed that popularity of his works were not to the liking of certain vested interests.

"There is an international conspiracy underway to target my pure and totally clean image, as there are vested interests jealous of the works being done by my devotees. They also feel threatened by the success of the children studying at our educational institutions," he said, adding he was not aware of any occult activity.

Though the entire four decade-long spiritual journey of Asaram has been full of thorns, the mysterious deaths of four children in July at two centres of learning run by him in India have been inviting media ire. Undeterred, people turned in large numbers Saturday to listen to this saint and frequently shouted slogans in his favour. Meanwhile, many have also approached the Government demanding actions against the media for its "biased coverage" of the controversies surrounding Asaram.

Earlier in the day, he told this journalist that all allegations against him were false and frivolous, aimed at hurting his image internationally. He expressed "shock" over the deaths of the children which he said should be enquired properly. Asaram was joined by the father of one of the deceased children, who gave him a clean chit. "Where is the question of Shri Asaramji's involvement in the death of my son?" he wondered, adding: "Shri Asaramji Bapu is innocent, he is our guru. You cannot level such heinous charges at him."

Asaram's spiritual domain is spread across hundreds of centres throughout the world, including the US, with lakhs of his followers likening the 67-year-old saint with God. Just over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of disciples congregated at Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario in Canada, reposing their faith in the Indian saint.

Kailash Sharma, a big businessman and a disciple associated with the Brampton chapter, said on telephone that his conviction in Asaram has "further solidified" and no one can ever think of any wrong being done in the institutions run by the saint. "Asaramji Bapu is our God," he said. ]

I am not aware of Bapu, but if there is any incorrect accusation on him, then it is definitely very wrong.

I agree, that media sensationalizes news to increase viewership or for some other political agenda.

I pray that the truth is what prevails at the end!

The Supreme Court has castigated the media, especially visual media for undue publicity and media trials in many cases, the last one at Noida where the Talwars were incarcerated by the media and were accused of killing their own daughter and it was almost declared that Aarushi murder was an “honour killing” by an inebriated father !!!

In case of Asharam Bapu. the first incident reported in Ahmedabad was drowning of the children, as post-mortem revealed, as a killed corpse would not take water into the lungs. In the second case in MP, a fellow student has confessed having killed the children.

Let the investigations reveal the truth before declaring the verdict of guilt on Asaram or his Ashram .

I have a copy of the complaint in which it has been communicated to the Union Minister that he should immediately act on the representation, as there is every likelihood of the situation going out of control as the followers of Bapu were getting restless, seeing regular, repeated dose of false and concocted news stories in the electronic media.

It has also been said in the representation that there was sustained move by a section of media to defame Bapuji, and hence misleading news reports were deliberately and malafidely being shown on some particular private television channels. “These reports,” it said, “are totally false and imaginative and have no basis whatsoever.”