Letter from Andries Krugers
Dagneaux
to Staff NYT & Keith
Bradsher
|
Date: 12-09-02
From: Andries Krugers Dagneaux
To: executive-editor@nytimes.com; managing-editor@nytimes.com; foreign@nytimes.com
Sent:
Friday, December 06, 2002 6:24 AM
Subject: To Staff NYT & Keith
Bradsher, regarding the Dec 1st article 'A Friend in India to All the World', Sathya Sai
Baba & Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Dear Sir,
With great interest I have read your
article printed on Dec. 1st ‘A
Friend in India to All the World’ about the Indian president Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam who recently visited the Indian
guru Sathya Sai Baba.
You forget to mention the important fact
that this ‘holy’ man Sathya Sai Baba is very controversial. Many followers have
become ex-followers since the year 2000 because of well documented allegations about
sexual abuse of young men and boys and killings (in 1993). As is known from the literature
about cults and religious groups like Jehovah Witnesses (see e.g. David V. Barrett’s
‘The New Believers’), ardent
followers only suddenly become ‘apostates’ and stop their involvement with a
religious organization when they have the feeling that they have no option left. This
alone is a strong indication that the allegations are true.
Here is a well researched on line article that gives a good
overview about these allegations i.e. Ms A. Nagel’s article
‘A
Guru Accused’.
Personally I became an ex-follower in
2001. Here is my story that describes how and why I became an-ex follower called
‘Calumny’ Confirmed.
http://77.170.120.22/ex-baba/engels/witnesses/andries.html.
Note that the men that I
mention in my story who have been inappropriately sexually approached by Sathya Sai Baba
are an addition to the list that Ms A. Nagel mentions in her article ‘A Guru
Accused’.
More articles and news
can be found at http://www.exbaba.com.
The reason why I consider it
so important that the NYT mentions these allegations is mainly because I don’t want
new people put faith in SSB because I know unfortunately from experience that it is a
devastating experience when one has to find out after many years of total trust and
intense devotion that your guru was not worth this devotion at all. This is also the
reason why I appeared on Dutch TV on Nov. 11th on the station SBS6, in a
program called Tabloid during prime time. I was interviewed in this TV program about the
allegations and the harm that is done to ardent followers who fell into Sathya Sai
Baba’s trap.
Besides there is an
unresolved question why Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and other high ranking Indian politicians
continue to visit Sathya Sai Baba now that he has been exposed as not so holy beyond
reasonable doubt. For me personally this is a mystery, except when these politicians are
themselves ardent followers, which seems to be the case for prime minister A.B. Vajpayee
only.
I would be happy if you
could soon follow up on this article including mentioning the allegations of former
devotees which depict Sathya Sai Baba unfortunately not as a friend and not so holy after
all.
In the article you wrote that Sathya Sai
Baba is 'Famous for seldom saying much in public even to his followers'. This is not
true. Some of his public speeches that have noted down can be seen on http://www.sathyasai.org/search/default.htm
.
Please do contact me if you need more information.
Your Sincerely,
Andries Krugers Dagneaux
Hogevecht 8
1102 HA Amsterdam Zuidoost
The Netherlands
Phone +31 20 691 33 55