OPEN LETTER FROM JuST GROUP PETITION ADMINISTRATION  TO GERALD JOE 'VISHWARUPA' MORENO

You are questioning the integrity of the JuST group and the hundreds who have signed their petition. We note your concerted efforts to cast slurs on members of JuST and others who call for judicial accountability of Sathya Sai Baba and his Organisation. Despite much evidence for accusations such as sex abuse, being accomplice to unsolved murder, dozens of documented lies, false materialisations, false 'omniscient' predictions, systematic rumour spreading etc, you show no concern and make no effort that these be investigated. You express no compassion for those who have suffered at his hands (i.e. for the sexually abused, for relatives who have suffered & other victims of his deceits) or through the dereliction of duty of care by his organisation. That is not the behaviour of any ‘genuine’ or ‘sincere’ truth seeker. You show far more interest in questioning the legality of the petition on all conceivable grounds than in investigating the actual facts and issues at stake.

Nowhere do you show that you have investigated or questioned anything about SSB or his Organisation or received any reply from any of them. That you made zero effort to learn the other side of the matter indicates strongly that you have made up your mind about the overriding issues already. Since you claimed in an e-mail that you do not actually believe Sathya Sai Baba is God, you should at the very least be publicly questioning his continually repeated major lies to that effect. Instead you try to undermine the only people who, free of rigid Sai censorship, are asking genuine questions and reporting facts and honest accounts.

In your one-sided campaign, you blow up all manner of trifling details, cast highly speculative doubts on people without having any relevant facts, even libel one sex-abused ex-devotee as ‘mentally ill’. This reminds us of Soviet techniques!  However, we have looked into your criticisms and your sabotage with bogus signatures and have made some minor adjustments in routine and presentation.

A response to some points you belabour may be of general interest:-

A LEGAL PETITION FOR LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

There is no contradiction, as you invalidly argue, between our asserting the full legally unchallenged legitimacy of our petition and our suggestion of testing it in court. You fail to understand that statute law and the practice of advocacy do not always agree, moreover, precedents can be created and judgements overturned. Naturally, we do not consider your website as a legally valid ‘court’ for any such purpose. Further, since international legislation on petitions hardly exists or is ratified anywhere, what is legal all depends on the nation or state and its system of law. Your talk of violations of "the Initiative and Referendum laws" is vague, highly uncertain and trivial. A law in Texas, say, can be invalid in France - or an issue may not be covered by legislation at all. Your tit-for-tat challenge to us to take legal action against you is fatuous. As and when the JuST group backs any legal actions they will be of quite another order of importance, you may rest assured.

We have so far found no laws making the petition less than 100% legal, nor found that laws anywhere have been broken by it. Your attack is a red herring.

YOUR CONFUSED ALLEGATIONS ABOUT ‘FREE SPEECH’

You expect the Petition to be open to you and other opponents to publish your antagonistic comments, but no petition is ever a forum for those who disagree with it. You have peculiar notions about how the freedom of expression works in a free society.

You mistakenly assert that the petition maintains 'soviet-style' control over the submissions. But deletion of bogus names, unduly defamatory or pornographic content is only right, so this is done. No complaints about this have yet been registered by any responsible body, nor from any authority which has received the petition. We do not regard ourselves as accountable in detail to you, who represent only yourself (according to your website’s disclaimer).  You have mostly leapt to superficial conclusions without considering alternative explanations.

In a mail on your website, you liken ANY abuse of the petition by false signers (you being the prime abuser yourself) with SSB's alleged sexual abuses of many minors and young persons (which I remind you include oral sex together with vile, powerful threats by Sai Baba and anal sex, both also involving minors). This alone shows a sadly deranged sense of values and proportion, plus failed logic. Despite your brief pro forma criticism of the Sai Organisation and disclaimer, you are factually running their errand as whitewasher for them and Sai Baba.

SABOTAGE BY FALSE "SUBMISSIONS"

Essentially, all petitions are necessarily founded on decency and trust, which you ignore in trying to contravene it by your several bogus postings (i.e.deceits). Please refrain from further concocted "submissions”. The vast majority who choose to sign the petition are doubtless honest people, not bent on stooping to counterfeit by inventing bogus e-mail addresses, setting up false e-mail accounts, or wanting to discredit the petitioners by means fair or foul. No electronic or handwritten petition (or other public undertaking, for that matter) is 100% proof against fanatics and lawbreakers, but our site is more secure than most. We are confident that even the great majority of SSB devotees would not stoop to those dirty tricks

To provide you with confidential information from signers when validating signatures, which you demand (on no authority) is wholly out of the question. We keep our guarantees of privacy to signers at whatever cost!  

Ask yourself why people choose to sign up, despite exposing their names to slander and threats from Sai followers and possible ridicule from associates, employers and the wide world, which will of course never regard Sai followers as anything but deluded cultists. Naturally, the desire for the truth to be investigated inspires most of them, and not the motives you slur them with.

In any community, there are always only a relative few who dare speak up on such sensitive issues as here involved and against such a large, rich, and – frankly - fanatical religious sect. You constantly imply that well over 800 signatures do not represent views of real, outspoken people. Perhaps you do not realise you come across with a rather inquisitorial attitude.

Many ex-devotees we know hold back from risking being compromised by admitting to have been duped so wildly. Many others we know refrain so as not to harm family and friends who are still dependents of the cult or are still in doubt. Others fear retribution, persecution in India or at home and slander and dirty tricks on the Internet. Reasons for not signing also include anxiety caused by the deep spiritual fraud of Sai Baba and the superstitions he has engendered. All the more honour to those who sign anyhow!

AD FREE SPEECH: WE MOST OFTEN ANSWER EVEN HYPERCRITICAL QUERIES

Different administrators during the 3 years of our operation have entries by Sai people and others who ignore netiquette and the rules of common decency. You want removed every comment which you consider to express “hate, anger and bitterness” against SSB. This censorship you demand would be draconian and judgemental, since only the signer can know if these are his/her subjective motives. You wanted nothing changed or edited out – this would presumably also mean sexually abusive comments and threats (i.e. a number have been posted by Sai disrupters, then removed)! Your ideas of free speech are in total disarray.

If not holding public office, a person is under no automatic obligation to reply to anyone who asks it, let alone demands it. Nonetheless, several active members of the JuST group have sent many replies to queries of all sorts, though we found that none of them had valid grievances against the petition. As the petition’s working group, we mostly reply also to persons with grudges, each according to their approach. But there are limits of course! We have long since posted some questions and our replies here at http://saiguru.net/english/news/petitionnews.htm.

Your website under your alias, 'Vishwarupa', promotes pictures of Sathya Sai Baba and not least the infamous Swami Premananda, beside pictures of Jesus Christ. Yet Premananda is a convicted double rapist and murderer serving two life sentences in India. This indicates that you do not care at all for rigorous proof or legality!

THE PETITION CONTINUES SUCCESSFULLY TO SUPPORT TRUTH AND COMPASSION

You stated: "And one last point, despite the Online Petition being online for 4 years, how many people from "Governments, NPO's, Dignitaries, Lawmakers, Police, UN" have submitted a verifiable signature? You evidently believe that such authorities would sign any public petition! No, they receive petitions, and not one has so far questioned the validity of ours. Besides, the Public Petition is has only been online for 2 1/2 years. Get some facts straight, Moreno!

The petition contributed much in bringing together a global network of contact persons and activists who intend that the truth about SSB shall be known, leading to many articles and statements. It played a role in the BBC's decision to proceed with their documentary, and contacts reached through the JuST group were made available to their team, who carried out extensive researches worldwide and contacted numerous abused persons. It is a support to the spirits of sexually abused ex-devotees and to mourning relatives of the murdered.

Do not expect any further answer to your antagonistic mails or postings.

From the current working committee the Sai Petition (6 members) on behalf of the collective JuST Group.