On September 11 2015 Mata Amritanandamayi personally blessed and gave a huge cheque to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The amount of Rs 100 crore is worth $15 million. Let's be clear from the start, this is not political corruption :
"spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi said she was not warming up to the BJP or any other political party and her only wish is to establish dharma"How does she intend to restore Dharma on Earth?
"The money was donated for the construction of toilets under the Namami Gange and Swachh Bharat programmes."Has she also made the same kind of donation to the Indian government when Mahmohan Singh from the Congress Party (the enemy of BJP) launched a similar sanitation project? We cannot find any information along these lines.
Anyway, a few days later she made exactly the same gift to the state of Kerala in order to celebrate her 62nd birthday :
"Mata Amritanandamayi Math today offered an identical amount for construction of toilets and sanitation works in Kerala"Giving $30 million in a single month, that's a lot! It almost reaches the $46 million that she has pledged in 2 years for the 2004 tsunami relief effort. Following any natural disaster she usually gives approximately $1 million. What is so essential about building toilets?
In facts, this toilets project called "Swachh Bharat" reminds of another story. In October 2014, the spokesperson of MAM disclosed what Amma had in store for the villagers in Odisha :
"Our aim is to enable them construct, install and maintain toilets in their own communities"In order to do that, women from Bhoi Sahi village are taught masonry, plumbing and electrical wiring. They must be able to build toilets in their own home. This charitable project spreads at a large scale :
"We have already placed an order with the new plumbers to build 3,000 toilets in the district. We will pay them Rs 10,000 per toilet for their efforts"Rs 10,000 to poor women for each new toilet. That is really compassionate. The devotees should send their donation to support such a helpful initiative.
But let's remember that teaching plumbing and masonry to poor women is part of another charitable project, mentored by Ammachi Labs, funded by the United Nations (UN). 3,000 women are supposed to be thus trained.
Let's also remember this : Government to hike grants for construction of toilets. Indeed, ending open defecation in India is not Amma's idea, it is a plan set up by the government. A plan requires means, especially financial ones. Paying people to build their own toilets was part of the plan :
"Rural households without sanitation facilities will get Rs 15,000 each for constructing toilets"It is time to link the data each to the others.
1) The governement grants Rs 15,000 to people who build toilets if their area lacks sanitation facilities. It would be impossible to handle the people individually, therefore the overall project management is assigned to NGOs. The Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM) is one of them, so it gets Rs 15,000 each time that a construction is completed, in order to compensate the benevolent workers.
2) MAM doesn't resort to people who have skills in plumbing and masonry. It has decided to teach these techniques to 3,000 women. MAM plans to build 3,000 toilets. Is it a coincidence? Each woman gets Rs 10,000 (instead of Rs 15,000?) as wages. How much does MAM gets from the UN to train them?
3) MAM has just given $30 million to build more toilets along river Ganges and accross Kerala. If this new phase of the government plan unfolds like the previous ones then the money will be distributed to various NGOs, including MAM!
Are we mistaking or is money circling down a profitable drain?