Braja Bihari's Latest Fiasco

BY: SHYAM KRSNA DASA

Jun 04, VRINDAVAN, INDIA (SUN) — Braja Bihari is considered one of the most influential and accomplished devotees in ISKCON, yet how many know that he also makes mistakes of a high caliber?

The Gurukula under the leadership of his wife, Ananda Vrindavana Mataji, has been very busy developing the Gurukula as a business. When, due to pressure from devotees, they could not at this time take over the Goshala and kick out the cows, (despite the GBC resolution that gave them a green light) the husband and wife entrepreneurs somehow managed to get ISKCON to look at paying for land so they could get more money from ISKCON to build their dream business and retirement estate for their friends. The only problem was that they relied on Anita Kathrapal, the Academic Director of the Gurukula, to broker the deal with the owner. She arranged, for a price that was six times over the land value, and Braja Bihari fell into the trap.

Braja Bihari, as the only bank account signer of the committee they set up with 'moneybags' Gopal Bhatta to harvest cash for their (BB and wife) business plan, rushed to withdraw the advance money to give to his business confidant, Anita Kathrapal, so she could pay the owner.

Much to Braja Bihari's horror, he found that he had been betrayed, as the land was worth far less than he thought. So, he asked for the money back. Unfortunately, no one on the committee knew that he had made this sneaky deal. Too bad, the owner refused to give the money back. Too bad, Anita probably got her share, as is the Indian way. I am sure that the land mafia will make sure that Braja Bihari and his business partner, Anita, will have to pay some price.

Gopal Bhatta found out that the Bank Account of the committee administering what was mainly his money, was less 40 Lakh, which is around $100,000 bucks US. You can imagine the extraordinary meetings that went on.

Then to make matters worse, the ISKCON Temple President, under the recommendation of Braja Bihari and his wife, used the same Anita Katrapal to broker a deal with the Vrindavana Municipality, a Mrs. Puja Sharma, for another 40 Lakh to make sure that the Kedia Land which is in dispute with the Municipality would be secured in ISKCON hands so building could commence.

What happened to the money? Well, no one knows? Did ISKCON get the land? No! Braja Bihari and his wife and their Academic Director are the only ones who really know.

Sounds like a comedy of errors! So much money has been lost by Braja Bihari and his wife. They have an Academic Director who is now very suspect and she cannot be removed, as the teachers at the Gurukula are Indian non-devotees who now have a full up and running Union, so they cannot be removed easily. It is more or less impossible for a union member to be removed.

In addition, Braja Bihari and his wife are so scared of Indians that they are too scared to do anything with the Indian teachers they have filling their Gurukula. I think they need to start something new to get rid of all those unionised Indian teachers.

After the whole fiasco, in order to save their so-called reputation, they went on by accussing nice Vrindavana Temple President, Devamrita prabhu, of being responsible for the loss of 80 Lakh (approx. 200,000 USD). In light of that accusation he resigned as a Temple President, despite the fact that it was not his fault.

So what are they doing with Srila Prabhupada's Gurukula and why are the Temple and the VEB, as well as Gopal Bhatta, listening to the likes of Braja Bihari and his wife? These two really must have some good karma backing them, for there is no way that so many of the devotees who know them would trust them with a burnt out match! Really, how can such devotees get away with what they are doing? If it was anyone else, the GBC would drum them out of ISKCON, quick smart.



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