India does not have a specific law protecting privacy. But the Supreme Court has ruled that Article 21 of the Constitution states, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law,” includes the right to privacy. Thus what a person does in his personal life is his own business and nobody has the right to intrude into or compromise his privacy. When the media recently exposed the ‘nefarious’ deeds in Swami Nityananda’s ashram in Bidadi near Bangalore, so was the media overstepping the bound of propriety?
Nityananda’s situation is nothing new. These ‘men of god’ have been falling from grace since time immemorial. However, what is important to realize is the fact that the ‘media’ is criticized many a times for drawing attention to these issues, on grounds of privacy although the time has come when exposing hypocrisy is crucial as well as mandatory.
The very institution of godmen holds tremendous water due to the unrestrained power that is exercised by them in the name of being messengers of god. There are several other public figures like politicians, film stars etc., who stand on a thin line between the public and private life. But in case of godmen the issue becomes more sensitive as they are considered to be individuals with high moral values. They are looked upon as the connecting bridge between men and god. And they have supposedly attained moksha overcoming the temptation of worldly pleasures.
The godmen enjoy grants by the government due to their proximity with the politicians who are highly superstitious and an insecure lot. They enjoy a lot of power with all political parties that grant them land on lease and also support their various activities. As reported by Tehelka, controversial godman Chandraswami from Andhra Pradesh was seen in the portals of Chandrababu Naidu and YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
According to the figures with the Ministry of Home Affairs as reported by IBN-Live during the year 2003-04 s as many as 14,700 groups in India have received foreign funds worth Rs 4,856 crore. Also the United States heads the list of donor countries to India with Rs 1,492.62 crore, followed by the United Kingdom (Rs 677.59 crore), and Germany (Rs 664.51 crore).
Various television evangelists in the United States have also been involved in sex scandals, which have been extensively covered by the media. Simon Jones in his blog mentioned “One major problem about bringing the whole unsavory situation into the public arena is that the God’s kingdom would suffer disgrace.”
Certainly, it is not a matter of questioning people’s faith as these godmen have proved to have serious psychological impact on their followers and comfort them. But when these so called messengers of god are caught in surreptitious circumstances the media is certainly justified in exposing them and highlighting their hypocrisy.
In an interview with BBC, Basava Premanand who has persistently pursued Sathya Sai Baba over the years believes that it is his duty to dispel the ‘curse of gullibility’ blighting his country in the form of myth and superstition, and replace it instead with the ‘gospel of pure, scientific understanding.’
There is an apparent lack of control and accountability these men are subjected to. Hence media needs to work as a watchdog to restrict their activities and highlight them in cases of any discrepancy.
