Amidst one bye one new emerging controversies almost on daily bases, Asaram Bapu on Sunday announced Rs. two crore assistance for flood affected areas of Bihar. Asaram Bapu himself announced this at his Ahmedabad ashram today when he was addressing a routine gathering. Sources say Asaram Bapu is in Ahmedabad for last three-four days.

When contacted, Ahmedabad ashram’s spokesperson Uday Sanghani supported the fact and said that ashram had already started relief missions in flood affected areas of Bihar. He said calamity in Bihar is so big that everybody has to contribute something. Asaram ashram has huge manpower. Part of which is now employed for relief work in Bihar. Sanghani said “In later stage, we would possibly adopt a village in Bihar as a part of our relief plan. For now we are mobilizing man power with relief materials in trucks. We have huge presence of our devotees in Bihar and surrounding states and we want to contribute to the relief and rescue work applying maximum of our resources.”

Meanwhile critics of Asaram Bapu and neutral observers of Asaram affairs when contacted and informed about this announcement said “Asaram Bapu is in need to generate good-will. There is no check on him about whether he would spend Rs. 2 cr. really as he has announced or not . Asaram ashram might have worked for rescue in other calamities in previous years but has never announced such assistance publicly before. Now after much controversy Asaram Bapu seems desperate to do something for public good. Though this is a welcome step anyway, it is interesting to learn that Asaram’s organization is so rich that is has announced as much as Rs. 2 crore as an assistance which is double than state of Sikkim’s announcement of Rs. 1 cr. assistance for Bihar. Himachal Pradesh state government has announced assistance of Rs. 2 crore which is matching to Asaram Bapu’s individual announcement. Asaram Bapu is that big. It is good if he really employs his men and money power to service oriented projects such as Bihar flood relief. If Hindu religious organizations genuinely spend their money to public good it would be a welcome scenario and in line with what Christian Missionaries are doing worldwide.”