PUTTAPARTHI: With doctors treating Sathya Sai Baba beginning to obliquely admit that the end may be near for the spiritual leader, the coterie surrounding him has stepped up the behind-the-scenes battle for control of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, said to wield enormous power and possess great wealth around the world.
With Sai Baba’s nephew R J Ratnakar and the other members of the trust vying for control, the Baba’s favourite disciple Satyajit is said to have been chosen to head the trust as part of a temporary arrangement in case of the Baba’s death.
He will wield joint cheque-signing powers along with Ratnakar.
While the power play goes on in the cloisters of Prashanti Nilayam, Puttaparthi has turned into a garrison town with some 5,000 policemen brought in to keep the peace should the spiritual leader pass away.
Anxiety levels among devotees are soaring as they see huge video screens being erected all over town, helipads being cleared and all visitors to town being frisked: all pointers to an influx of VIPs in the days to come.
With doctors airing their anxieties that Sai Baba’s organs are not responding, or responding minimally, to treatment, people here are putting two and two together.
Meanwhile, the interplay between the cabals in the cash-rich trust has put the 33-year-old Satyajit in the eye of the storm.
He is a product of the ashram, having lived there since the age of five, going on to top the MBA programme in the Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, and then giving up aspirations to a corporate life for a life in service of Sai Baba.
Since 2003, he has been the Sai Baba’s personal caregiver.