Shashi Taroor

Shashi Tharoor, a member of the Indian Parliament, was in 2006 forwarded as India's candidate for the post of Secretary General of the U.N. In 1993 he visited and later strongly endorsed the clandestine king-maker of India, Sathya Sai Baba, whose devotees include a series of Prime Ministers and Presidents, not least. Thereafter Tharoor was chosen as India' candidate.

In The International Herald Tribune, November 3, 2002, Shashi Tharoor endorsement came in the form of an most unbalanced story about Sathya Sai Baba.

Taroor wrote: "A private audience with the ocher-robed guru was astonishing at several levels. Sai Baba uttered insights about my family and myself that he could not possibly have known. Most startling, he materializes gifts from thin air - in my case a gold ring with nine embedded stones. He slipped it on my finger, remarking, "See how well it fits. Even a goldsmith would have needed to measure your finger.
But a skilled magician can do that, and it would be wrong to see Sai Baba as a conjurer. He has channeled the hopes and energies of his followers into constructive directions, both spiritual and philanthropic."

The world could never have afforded to have as Secretary General of the United Nations a man who Tharoor explicitly believes in "materialisation from thin air" miracles by a guru who claimed to be God Incarnate, the Father who sent Jesus"... which 'materialisations' can be seen to be sleight of hand by anyone with a slight knowleghe of conjuring techniques, and the 'nine embedded stones' he pretended to materialise for Sashi Tharoor have cheap artificial 'stones' in them, synthetic sapphires with silver paper behind the stones to make them shine! (See videos on this website - link to video clip Sai Baba's fake lingam production See also document Sathya Sai Baba green 'diamond' proven a fake)

Unsurprisingly, Shashi Tharoor did not mention, that Sathya Sai Baba's having been implicated in police executions in his own bedroom in 1993 while he stood by, which murders were never cleared up a suddenly-terminated CID investigation and were never dealt with by any court due to Government intervention. Nor did Tharoor mention that Sathya Sai Baba is very widely and most credibly accused of homosexual abuses against both students and foreign young men and boys who cannot bring a case against him in India, where he has shown he is legally inviolate due to Supreme Court judges who are his devotees, besides devotee Home Minister s (S.B. Chavan and Singh) and a series of Prime Ministers.

The agenda of Tharoor in his visit to Sai Baba and his prostrations there can now be discerned... he was at that time gunning for the Indian Government to put his name forward as Secretary General of the United Nations, which they later did. His political ambitiousness is well-known in India, and controversy has surrounded him often. Apart from having been under-secretary general of the UN and being a well-established writer on India, his chief international attraction, one surmises, was that he is suave, European-looking and the cultured type of Indian with a British accent, which makes US, UK and European politicians feel comfortable. The Indian government at the time were known to be strongly under the influence of Sathya Sai Baba in appointments of personell (the PM and President worshipped him!). In the event, the UN vote indicates how much Tharoor was deemed Tharoor lightweight - and probably too biased towards Indian agendas - for the job, as compared to Ban Ki-Moon.

Shashi Tharoor was UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Executive Assistant to Secretary of the United Nations. Two articles in the western press highly lauding Sathya Sai Baba - that of award-winning journalist Keith Bradsher in the New York Times of December 1, and now, three days later in the International Herald Tribune, a high profile UN and novelist type Shashi Tharoor - isn't any 'leela.' My take is this:

"In writing of Indian culture, I am highly conscious of my own subjectivity; arguably, there is more than one Indian culture, and certainly more than one view of Indian culture."

As a diplomat and writer, Shashi Tharoor has explored the diversity of culture in his native India. By exploring the themes of India's past and its relevance to the future, he has produced both works of fiction and nonfiction. In reaction to his works The Great Indian Novel and Show Business, Tharoor has been referred to as "one of the finest writers of satirical novels currently operating in English" (Shashi Tharoor). Though his works are pointedly satirical and comedic, Tharoor contends that his novels "... are to some degree, didactic works masquerading as entertainment" (HAPR). His most recent work, India: From Midnight to Millennium, is a nonfiction account of India's past and projected future inspired by the 50th anniversary of India's independence.

Biography Shashi Tharoor was born in 1956 in London and educated in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi (BA in History, St. Stephen's College), and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (Shashi Tharoor 2).

Since May 1978, Tharoor has worked for the United Nations. He served over 11 years with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose Singapore office he headed during the "boat people" crisis (SAJA). In October 1989 he was transferred to the peace-keeping staff at the United Nations Headquarters in New York (Shashi Tharoor 2). In this position, he served as Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations. Dealing with a range of issues in this capacity, Tharoor addressed a variety of peace-keeping issues around the world and led the team responsible for the United Nations peace-keeping operations in the former Yugoslavia (Shashi Tharoor 2). On January 1, 1997 Shashi Tharoor was appointed Executive Assistant to Secretary of the United Nations Kofi Annan (Shashi Tharoor 2).

As an author, Shashi Tharoor has written many editorials, commentaries, and short stories in Indian and Western publications (SAJA). In addition, he is the winner of several journalism and literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers' Prize (SAJA).He is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, the India International Centre in New Delhi, and the American PEN Center (SAJA). He is also an elected Fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities 1995-96 (SAJA). Shashi Tharoor is married to writer Tilottama Tharoor and is the father of twin sons (SAJA).

On his earning his Ph.D. at age 22: "I finished my Ph.D. at 22, but I had a powerful incentive: fear. I was terrified that my scholarship would run out while I was halfway though research and I would spend the rest of my life working too hard to find the time to write it. The day I got to the States on a scholarship I was earning more (after conversion to rupees) than my father earned in India to support a family of five in what most people would consider style" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).

About his writing method: "I do it on the computer. I tend to write pretty fast (and no doubt unkind critics will say it shows)...with all of my books I have known bursts of frenzied writing on weekends when I've woken up and written pretty much straight from 7 am to midnight, pausing only for meals and tea. So you see that my working methods are not to be recommended to any sane writers out there" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).

On Indian subcontinental literature: "I think the general crop of Indian writers in English is amazingly good. I think they're doing some of the most exciting, innovative writing being done in English today, breathing new life, new concerns, and yes, new language into English literature" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).

On Indian expatriates: "...his [the expatriate's] nostalgia is based on the selectiveness of memory...his perspective is distorted by exile... his view of what used to be home is divorced from the experience of home. Expatriates are no longer an organic part of the culture, but severed digits that, in their yearning for the hand, can only twist themselves into a clenched fist" (in The Washington Post).

On Indian nationalism: "Indian nationalism is a rare animal indeed. It is not based on language. . .geography. . . ethnicity. . . religion. Indian nationalism is the nationalism of an idea, the idea of an ever-ever land that is greater than the sum of its contradictions" (Tharoor The New York Times).

On Indian diversity: "If America is a melting-pot, then to me India is a thali, a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast" (Srinivasan).

On the United Nations: "I believe the UN is still the one indispensable world organization we have. Sure there are wars going on, but the UN can only stop those wars where it has a mandate to do so, which means the parties are willing (or persuadable) to stop...Within those limitations I think we have a pretty good track record" (The Shashi Tharoor Chat).

Coll, Stephen W. "A Nation Comes of Age." The Washington Post 3 Aug. 1997, X05.

Kamath, M. V. "Sashi Tharoor's India: From Midnight to the Millennium." On-line. India World Short Stories. 23. Mar. 1998.

Rajay. "Review of The Great Indian Novel: A Twice Born Tale. On-Line. Panwala Web. 16 Feb. 1998.

SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association). "Bio of past SAJA guest speaker Shashi Tharoor." On-line. SAJA. Columbia University. 1997. 12 Feb. 1998.

Srinivasan, Rajeev. "Freedom: An Interview with the author of India: From Midnight to Millennium." On-line. Rediff On The Net. 1997.

Tharoor, Shashi. "Growing Up Extreme: On the Peculiarly Vicious Fanaticism of Expatriates." On-line. Mnet [from The Washington Post]. 12 Feb. 1998.

Tharoor, Shashi. "India's Odd, Enduring Patchwork." The New York Times. 8 Aug. 1997. A31.

Tharoor, Shashi. "Whose Culture Is It Anyway? The role of culture in developing countries: an Indian writer's view." On-line. Harvard Asia Pacific Review (HAPR). 12 Feb. 1998.

"What the Critics say about Show Business of 'Bollywood'." On-line. Arts-Online.Com Film.