Thursday, November 27, 2003

 

Note:      Here is my letter to Sri T. Ramanathan and the Executive of the Australian Sathya Sai Organisation  It was emailed last Saturday, 22, 2003. I asked the Webmaster to immediately confirm receipt. No such confirmation has come, although the Webmaster (Chris Parnell, an 'old' co-worker of mine in the publishing arm at Sai Towers in Puttaparthi) is well-known to be prompt in his responses).

 

Barry Pittard, Australia. Email: bpittard@beachaccess.com.au

 

B. Pittard to Sri T. Ramanathan and Australian SS Org Executive

Dear Webmaster (Chris Parnell?),

 

1. Please kindly forward this email. I would like to ensure that each of the Executive Members receives it.

 

2. Please confirm that you have received this email.

 

Thanks, Barry

 

To:

 

Executive Members, Sathya Sai Organisation of Australia-Papua New Guinea

and T. Sri Ramanathan
Regional Central Coordinator
Sathya Sai Organisation
Australia & Papua New Guinea
43/84, St. Georges Crescent
Drummoyne NSW 2047

 

 

Dear Executive Members,

 

On the Australian website of the Sathya Sai Organisation of Australia and Papua New Guinea, public accusations against me appear in notices found on the pages at:

 

http://www.saiaustralia.org.au/release/100.html

http://www.saiaustralia.org.au/release/100-criminal.html

http://www.saiaustralia.org.au/release/100-civil.html

 

Under the signature T. Sri Ramanathan, Regional Central Coordinator Sathya Sai Organisation Australia and Papua New Guinea, these notices refer to me in a manner that is opined by lawyers I have consulted who are specialists in these matters to be defamatory and actionable. I may also suggest that, in the moral and spiritual context, they are reprehensible.

 

Your accusations are provably untrue, and furthermore you published on the World Wide Web, for all to see, a private unlisted address which you seem to have obtained by some extraordinary means, by which action you violate common and natural ethics concerning privacy in this country.

 

Quite apart from my own situation, you have, as can only be expected, both hurt my family members and, in exposing a private address to the world, run heartless risks of causing a security vulnerability, especially since I am involved in spearheading the work of international exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and those in his organisation who refuse the normal democratic open channels of accountability.

 

 I require that you withdraw these website references forthwith.

 

At the same time, I also require that in a News posting you announce, in a well-displayed part of this same official website of the Sathya Sai Organisation of Australia and Papua New Guinea, that your accusations against me have been withdrawn because there are no Sathya Sai Baba devotees within your Organisation who are able to demonstrate contact by me such as you have stated in your two notices. That is the fact, unless you have members ready to perjure themselves.

 

If, within a few days of my sending this communication to you, I find that you take no steps to see (i) that the notices are removed, and (ii) that you post a retraction, I shall take further action as I deem appropriate in consultation with my most eminent legal advisors.

 

In the Bcc: section of this email, I have included several outstanding public names and authorities who will attest to the sending of this communication to you.  

 

Barry Pittard