Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Sunday said the operations of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust will not be affected despite the death of its founder and chairman Sathya Sai Baba. The R 40,000-crore spiritual empire has come into sharp focus after the death of the spiritual leader. With this, the chief minister has tried to put to rest any speculation that the government would take over the trust.
?The trust is in order. It will run in the same way as it is running now,? the chief minister told the media. Reddy said that he spoke to the trust members who assured him that the trust?s activities will continue unabated.
As uncertainty looms over the successor, speculation is also rife about the possibility of a war of succession breaking out among the members of the Satya Sai Central Trust which manages several welfare activities across the country.
Sources said that there will be no one individual managing the trust, but Baba’s close aides Satyajith (his personal care taker) and Ratnakar (his nephew) will have a more prominent role in it from now. The new entrant to the trust is Ratnakar who was included into the trust after the death of his father Janakiram. There is also speculation that Satyajith may be included on the instructions of Baba himself who had said last year that Satyajith should be given a more important role and hence should be made part of the trust.
It is still not known how the trust will manage all the health facilities, educational institutions apart from a host of assets spread over nearly 100 countries. Another key personality who could play a big role in the future is K Chakravarthi, an IAS officer. He is the secretary of the Shri Sathya Sai Central Trust. SV Giri, who resigned as Central Vigilance Commissioner in 1998, had also joined the ashram as the VC of the Sri Sathya Sai University. The other key member is Justice PN Bhagavati, former Chief Justice of India who is a member of the trust. Indulal Shah is also another influential member of the trust.
The Central Trust runs the university complex, a speciality hospital, a world religious museum Chaitanya Jyoti, a planetarium, a railway station, a hill-view stadium, a music college, an administrative building and an airport, an indoor sports stadium in Puttaparthi.
