Sai Baba visit puts Chavan on the mat

Mumbai: Ashok Chavan, chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra, has been severely criticised by rationalists for violating the Indian Constitution by inviting controversial Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba to his official residence, Varsha, on Sunday.

"As the administrative head of the state, he is expected to abide by the Constitution which, under an amendment of Clause 51 in 1976 under former prime minister Indira Gandhi, states that one of the fundamental duties of the citizen is ‘to develop the scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform'," Dr Narendra Dabholkar, president of Andhashradha Nirmulan Samiti (Superstition Eradication Committee), told Gulf News.

He said it was unfortunate that Chavan has "betrayed" the Constitution by "following the so-called miracle-maker".

"Do you know that this Sai Baba says, ‘My miracle is my visiting card', assuming he is endowed with some divine powers," Dabholkar said, criticising his "miracles" as "jugglery".

What riled Dabholkar was that many Congress ministers and leaders, including Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, S.M. Krishna, Sushilkumar Shinde, Shivraj Patil and Nationalist Congress Party's Jayant Patil and Patangrao Kadam are Sathya Sai Baba's followers.

To him, all of them are failing to develop a "scientific temper and a spirit of inquiry".

Chavan hosted the guru in spite of protests from anti-superstition activists and held a function that was off limits to the media. Chavan has answered his critics with "I have been Sai Baba's bhakt [disciple] for 50 years and there are thousands of others who revere him."

Even the Shiv Sena has disapproved of the Baba's visit to Varsha. Sena leader in state assembly, Subhash Desai, said, "We have no objection if Chavan visits Sai Baba at his ashram. But Varsha is not Chavan's personal property. It belongs to the state's 100 million people and therefore no such event should be held there."