Andhra Pradesh - Others   

Not in the picture

By Our Staff Reporter

PUTTAPARTHI, NOV. 23. Photographers and videographers of the media were denied coverage of Satya Saibaba's 79th birthday celebrations here on Tuesday by functionaries of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, which manages the activities on the Prashanti Nilayam campus, for the first time in the history of the spiritual town.

As lensmen of various newspapers and television channels gathered outside the Sai Kulwanth Hall for an entry, the functionaries of the trust told them that there were not allowed to cover the birthday function.

When a few lensmen sought to know the reasons the functionaries refused to explain and sent them out forcibly.

The functionaries told the lensmen that the photographs of the function would be given to representatives of various newspapers in the afternoon.

The reason

Later it was learnt that the reason for the denial was their abrupt departure from the auditorium yesterday when Saibaba was giving his discourse on the occasion of the convocation of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning.

The action of the lensmen leaving the centre of the auditorium, where mediapersons would be seated, during the mid-way of Saibaba's discourse was said to have hurt the sentiments of the devotees and the trust functionaries.

The trust functionaries generally tell mediapersons that they could not leave the auditorium till the completion of any function as such an act would violate the discipline in the large gathering.

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