Wayne Brown, and the controversy of the ‘miracle healer’ guru
Sunday, 3 November 2024
A self-styled “godman” who claims to be able to read minds and heal the sick drew enormous crowds in Auckland in August. His visit coincides with a turbulent time in Indian politics, and not everyone was happy, reports Jonathan Killick.
A hugely popular Indian guru was granted a visa to New Zealand at the last minute thanks to the “interference” of Auckland mayor Wayne Brown, but his visit has sparked controversy over donationsperceived as “money for miracles”.
Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, also known as Bageshwar Dham Sarkar, filled out The Trusts Arena in West Auckland with 12,000 attendees during his August visit.
But, documents show Immigration NZ nearly didn’t allow it, with officials initially denying him a visa. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has publicly taken credit for the event going ahead.
Since then, organisers of Shastri’s NZ tour have had to front up to backlash from some sections of the Indian diaspora, including allegations that the sick and poor paid donations to gain access to the guru in hopes of a miracle.
Organiser Richard Kumar says “jealous” detractors have “misunderstood”.
In India, Shastri has drawn criticism for claiming to have supernatural powers. Last year a “rationalist” society, lead by Shyam Manav, challenged the guru to read the minds of people hand-picked by the society.
It’s alleged Shastri fled the town where he had been preaching, but he says he invited the sceptics to meet him on neutral ground.
In New Zealand, the faithful lined up outside an otherwise unassuming West Auckland home for a glimpse of Shastri. Footage shows Richard Kumar welcoming him by washing his feet.
In a social media post, Kumar tells followers that the guru was praying when he heard there was a sick child on the street, and “quickly left everything and blessed him”.
Shastri also held prayer meetings at temples across the city. While all of his appearances were promoted as being free, donations were collected.
Kumar defended the donations in a video on social media, saying putting on the event had cost him $260,000. He said the donations would go toward a cancer hospital and sponsoring marriages for young women from poor families in India.
“As a one man army, I did this event, and what happened was a lot of people, a few people, threw negativity, because of jealousy and I’ve sued them through high profile lawyers,” Kumar tells the Star-Times.
Some of the responses from the Indian diaspora to his video include “$250 per head to sit for an hour and listen to guruji is not our religion”.
One said: “The problem I see here is transparency and people who paid and thought some miracle would happen are crying now… people should seek medical assistance if they are sick.”
Kumar rejects this criticism, saying “if people didn’t help, they’ve got no right to interfere or be negative, because only I know what hard times I’ve been through to put this together for the Indian community.”
He put the event together at short notice, inviting the guru to come to NZ as an add-on to an already planned trip to Fiji.
“[And, there was] no money for miracles. We never charged. That’s a bold story. You have to be very careful about what you [publish], because I will come after anyone,” Kumar says.
“If there’s any negative things written about this event, I will make a video and will viral it, because I’ve got heaps of followers, man, hundreds of thousands, and I will viral it in every different country.”
Documents released under the Official Information Act show Immigration NZ had its own concerns. It initially denied Shastri’s visa - the official reason given was that Kumar’s company was not an “approved promoter”.
Immigration became aware of “potentially prejudicial information” regarding the guru following a second application, and informed Kumar of that information in a letter. It refuses to release this information to the public.
But, after reviewing subsequent submissions it was satisfied that “concerns were mitigated”.
In August, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown wrote a column in the Star-Times taking credit.
“I interfered and the visa was granted for this person… [It] will do much for obtaining trade increases, which some bureaucrat nearly wrecked,” he wrote.
ACT Party list MP and immigration spokesperson Parmjeet Parmar also wrote to Immigration in support of Shastri.
Brown said supporting the visa was “sensible” given that India’s leader Narendra Modi is a Hindu Nationalist. The event “harvested” international goodwill by catering to the diaspora.
“Who’d have thought this nice young man could so easily out-pull Taylor Swift?,” he said.
According to Victoria University Associate Professor of social and cultural studies Rick Weiss, that was a “strong stance” to take.
“Modi has a lot of support among the Indian diaspora, but it is very divided and people feel strongly one way or another,” says Weiss.
Weiss says many celebrated Hindu religious figures are politically neutral, but Shastri had taken public photos giving Modi his blessing.
“Sometimes these jet-setter gurus … can be very political.”
He says the diaspora can be targeted because they are often wealthier than Hindus back home. And, they have the proverbial blessing to do so from the Indian government.
“Modhi has massive support outside India, and that’s important to him.”
In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused the Indian Government of orchestrating “drive by shootings” of Sikh separatists on foreign soil.
Sikhs living in North America have been calling for their own state in India in the face of rising Hindu nationalism, and it appears to have been met with swift retaliation.
There have also been alleged assassination plots linked to Indian officials in the US.
A prominent West Auckland Indian businessman says the diaspora in New Zealand “doesn’t want that crap here”.
“It’s spilling [into NZ] and as a Kiwi Indian I see that as a danger. We don’t want this to become another Canada, where we start having religious hatred - that’s not what NZ is about.”
The businessman wanted to be anonymous, for fear of backlash.
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He didn’t believe Shastri necessarily promotes Hindutva, but says some may have viewed it that way.
He says there is also likely an element of jealousy from different Hindu groups who may have felt they ought to have been given the option to host such a prominent guru.
“There was always going to be a bit of a power play.”
As for the perception that donations were made in order get access to the guru’s blessings, the businessman doesn’t believe the guru or Kumar specifically courted that.
“I think its more blind beliefs that people have, thinking that if they touch his cloak, to use a biblical term, they will be healed.
“They’ve probably seen claims on YouTube or the university of Whatsapp that ‘this baba [elderly man] healed me’”
He says the tour may have simply been let down by “a lack of good governance”, and as a result organisers have had to publicly defend the donations.
Richard Kumar insisted on meeting with the Star-Times . However, he soon cancelled saying he was busy with other media interviews.
“I’m a very vocal and open sort of a person. What is true is true, and people should know, there’s no lies… It was the biggest ever, and most successful event,” he says.