FAQ on Change.org petition: Declaration by Sathya Sai devotees and alumni & staff of Sai educational institutions, condemning spiritual fraud Madhusudan Rao Naidu

Last updated on 3th Jan. 2019

Petition URL: https://www.change.org/p/sathya-sai-devotee-fraternity-worldwide-we-condemn-spiritual-fraud-madhusudan-rao-naidu

Frequently Asked Questions on above petition/declaration

Q1. What are the objectives of this Petition/Declaration?

A1. The main objective of this petition is the public condemnation of Madhusudan Rao Naidu. An additional but important objective of this petition is to know how many people are publicly willing to sign this petition, and also how many alumni are willing to publicly sign it.
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Q2. What is the next step after this Petition/Declaration?

A2. I am not thinking of any next step after the declaration. I feel that the petition/declaration will help us to know how many in the Sathya Sai devotee community including alumni and staff of Sai educational institutions are willing to publicly condemn Madhusudan Rao Naidu in this petition.

The earlier petition, https://www.change.org/p/president-of-indiamr-pranab-m-p-m-narenda-modi-mr-rajnath-singh-u-m-h-mr-arun-jaitley-f-m-to-stop-muddenahalli-scam-of-sri-sathya-sai-baba-impersonation-in-public-interest, by Sai Mafalda, if I recall correctly, covered multiple matters and was not focused on Madhusudan Rao Naidu alone, like in this petition. That petition was around 2 years ago and garnered over 1500 signatures.

Another aspect of this petition/declaration is a specific appeal to alumni and staff of Sai educational institutions to sign the petition.
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Q3. For some persons, everything they have read about Muddenahalli, has come from those condemning them. Do we need to give them even more sensational publicity by this public condemnation declaration/petition on change.org?

A3. Well, I think then the parts in the world where these persons live have not been impacted much by Madhusudan Rao Naidu. Very unfortunately, in India, Madhusudan Rao Naidu has achieved a lot of fame with a former Prime Minister of India who was PM for a very short time but still was PM (don't want to name him) touched Madhusudan Rao Naidu's feet on stage (in public) in Muddenahalli! That event happened a few months ago.

In such matters, what I have learned is that it is opposition to such spiritual frauds that make the general public become wary of such spiritual frauds. Silence leads to the general public, including sitting and former ministers, chief ministers and prime ministers of India, to think that the spiritual fraud is genuine!

Had Madhusudan Rao Naidu not achieved so much fame that top cricket stars of my country (India) - Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar - and sitting chief minister of my former state of Maharashtra - Shri Devendra Fadnavis - etc. are sharing or have shared in the past, the stage with him publicly and are being either reverential or respectful to Madhusudan Rao Naidu, I would not have got so agitated and written so much against him in public.

I think my public writings against Madhusudan Rao Naidu, along with many public writings by other persons, is having some impact in warning some innocent members of the public in India about him being a spiritual fraud. I don't know whether my open letters to PM, union HRD (education) minister, Maharashtra chief minister, along with many efforts by others in this regard, have had some impact. But I think it would have contributed to PM and HRD minister NOT sharing stage with Madhusudan Naidu, though they supported the free service to society being done by Muddenahalli group. The Maharashtra CM also did not attend the recent past (Nov. 2018) inauguration of Muddenahalli group's free pediatric care hospital in Navi Mumbai (close to Mumbai) and thus did not share stage with Madhusudan Rao Naidu. [He had shared the stage with him in Nov. 2017 perhaps because Sachin Tendulkar had also shared the stage for that event.] So I think such public opposition to Madhusudan Rao Naidu is having some impact.

In any case, silence, I am sure, will contribute to more people including top ministers and chief ministers and prime ministers of India, getting trapped by the imposter Madhsudan Rao Naidu.
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[Not a FAQ but something I would like to share:]
Q4. Why did you (Ravi S. Iyer) publish this petition, instead of it being published by other individuals or some group?

A4. An alumnus of Sai university had recently (on 25th Dec. 2018) put up a public post on Facebook that was critical of Madhusudan Rao Naidu. He said (in part), "Madhusudan Naidu is blot on Sai Baba's name ,deceiving so many people ...". Mr. V.R. Ganti and I (Ravi S. Iyer) were publicly appreciative of him on Facebook. The alumnus then followed up with another public post (on 26th Dec. 2018) where he said (in part), "There are only few like ,Mr Ganti and Mr Iyer who are speaking against the asatya and adharma of muddenhali ,most of us are mute spectators ,more of the elderly devotees and Sai alumni need to speak up ...".  The post concluded "May be we need a united front now .....". This was shared by Mr. V.R. Ganti here: https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10213854270615592. Mr. Ganti tagged me in a comment in that post which said, in part, (slightly edited) " I think --Name-snipped-- Garu has a point. Unless we are united nothing is possible."

In a comment on that post, I (Ravi S. Iyer) wrote (slightly edited) on 26th Dec. 2018:

I think Unity with Muddenahalli group is simply not possible till Madhusudan Rao Naidu drama is stopped.

Let me be frank. Most alumni are afraid of publicly speaking up against Muddenahalli group - that is the plain and simple truth. They may give some excuse or the other for not speaking up against Madhusudan Rao Naidu like Help Ever Hurt Never or Love All Serve All, but the underlying truth - Sathyam - is fear of Muddenahalli group because the whole setup is so tangled now. Their friends or even relatives may be associated with Muddenahalli group with some of them earning a livelihood from Muddenahalli group. So if they oppose them publicly, it will spoil their relationship with those of their friends and relatives who are associated with Muddenahalli group. So the safest and easy way for them to be happy is to stay publicly silent on Madhusudan Rao Naidu.

But I do think that there are some alumni who are courageous and willing to publicly be critical of Madhusudan Naidu. My view is that one person from these alumni should put up a change.org petition for Sai educational institution alumni to publicly express their opposition to imposter Madhusudan Rao Naidu. If Shri --Name-snipped-- is not in a position to do so, then somebody else should step up. And that person should not be afraid of being mocked by other alumni, if nobody else signs the petition. I, for sure, will publicly appreciate such a person and put up a blog and Facebook post appreciating that person's courage.

So the question is: Is there one Sai educational system alumnus who is willing to put up a change.org petition to be signed by other Sai educational system alumni, but aimed at Sathya Sai devotee community worldwide, expressing public opposition to imposter Madhusudan Rao Naidu?
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As there was no interest shown in putting up such a change.org petition by alumni, I felt that as I am an ex teacher of Sai university, I should do something similar to what I had suggested to alumni to do, but which suggestion was not taken up. Therefore I decided to publish this petition/declaration which I broadened to include Sathya Sai devotees but pointedly referred to alumni and staff of Sai educational institutions.

end FAQ
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From my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2381808908702339, dated 2nd Jan 2019

Solved! Help needed to sort out possible glitch in my change.org petition for smartphone users

Update: Solution is provided below, after details of the problem.

Barbara Joy Plattner-Mullen wrote me on Facebook chat (and was OK with public sharing of it):
Ravi, I signed and shared the petition, but I was unable to post a comment, though I tried several times, each time making my comment shorter thinking there may have been a limit on character space, but no matter how succinct I made it, it would not post my comment.  Is it because I am using my smartphone and not a computer? I would very much like to post a comment...
--- end Barbara chat message ---

Ravi S. Iyer: I use a desktop in India though I also have a low end LYF smartphone. Barbara is based in the USA. I request USA based readers who have a smartphone to please try to comment on my petition: https://www.change.org/p/sathya-sai-devotee-fraternity-worldwide-we-condemn-spiritual-fraud-madhusudan-rao-naidu

Do let us know if you were able to successfully put up a comment using a smartphone.

Thanks. Jai Sai Ram!
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Solution:

On a smartphone (using Android, say), the petition may not show the Add "Reason for signing" (comment) link initially, but may only provide a way to sign the petition. Revisiting the petition ***after signing it*** and clicking the 'Join the conversation' link allows one to add a "Reason for signing" comment.

[Update: Barbara wrote: "It did initially show the "Reason For Signing" box, but after I typed in my comment and clicked on "submit", it did not go through. Afterwards, however, I was able to "ADD" a comment..."

When Ravi used his smartphone to sign the petition, he did not see the "Reason for Signing" box (perhaps as he had not logged on to change.org). end-Update.]

Step wise
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1. If you have not signed the petition, visit the petition link and sign it.
2. Revisit the petition link.
3. Browse to bottom part of petition to the end of the "Reasons for signing" (comments) that are initially displayed.
4. You may see a link there labelled: 'View all reasons for signing'. Click it.
5. You should see a link: 'Join the conversation' at the end of the last comment displayed. Click on it.
6. Right at the top of the new window, you should now see a comment box with your name where you can enter a comment and then click Add to submit the comment. After you submit the comment, it will get displayed to others who choose to see all comments by visiting the 'Join the conversation' link. Note that this will be a comment and not viewed as "Reason for signing". But the comment will be visible.