Here is the original article on the missing pundits, posted Jan 24th in Hi India - it is more comprehensive and has more quotes from university officials.
Some pics of the crown wearing rajas with the pundits as well. From what I experienced of life at MIU, I think the paper is pretty close to the truth at least with regards to the lack of compensation for the pundits. http://hiindialive.com/?p=42525 PENNIES FOR PANDITS : THEIR WHERE ABOUTS AND WELL – BEING IS UNKNOWN Hi India Team CHICAGO: The temperature is below sub zero, walking conditions on roads of Chicago treacherous with snow blizzard and knee deep snow. One thinly clothed 19 years old, with no jacket, no head cover, no hand gloves and no socks, approached Hi India reporter on Devon Avenue and asked for directions to any nearest Gurudwara where he can get some shelter, clothes and food. Further inquiry and probe by Hi India revealed a pathetic and sad story of Vedic Pandits – their plight and flight from Maharishi Mahesh’s family controlled outfit at Fairfield, Iowa came upon. It is a story was that of human exploitation, illegal employment and under payment of wages, child labor , human trafficking and grueling conditions of employment. This is also the story of missing 163 Pandits and remaining 350+ Pandits still at the Vedic City. THEIR WHERE ABOUTS AND WELL – BEING IS UNKNOWN As many as 163 of the 1,050 young Indian Vedic Pandits, as young as 19 years of age, who have so far been brought to the US and lodged at the camp – Maharishi Vedic City and the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, have done the disappearing act in the past 12 months. But shockingly enough, the managers of the great seer’s heirs and their $300-million assets in the US have not stirred a finger to trace them. Nor do the authorities at the yogi’s Global Country of World Peace (GCWP), a country without borders set up in the year 2000, know about the plight or flight of these Vedic scholars called ‘world peace professionals’. 163 Pandits missing – Nobody Knows – Nobody Cares -their Plight or Flight at Mahesh Yogi Institute at Fairfield, Iowa “They have jumped the fence for immigration purposes or for chasing their American Dream,” is all the varsity bosses would say to Hi India when questioned about these men on the run. The GCWP, one among the countless teaching centers and hundreds of colleges, universities and schools created by the man whom the electronic media called ‘giggling guru’, runs a Vedic Pandit program claiming to ‘bring about peace on earth where there will be no war’. Under the project to recruit Maharishi Vedic Pandits, the publicity literature is distributed mostly in Indian villages with a Hindi-speaking population living around the poverty line. Children are enrolled with the permission of their down-at-heel parents who are promised education up to 12th standard for their wards who would then be turned into Pandits or master the art of Hindu religion rituals. After some 10 to 15 years, the qualified Pandits will have a choice to either remain with the organization and make a living, or leaving the center and working outside on their own. Investigations by Hi India have, however, nailed the lies of the GCWP. It was found that kids for the Pandit program are enrolled at the tender age of five years and are rarely provided education beyond fifth standard. What’s more, they are shown the ropes of the religious rituals only to later turn them into money-spinners. The compensation of Pandits less than 75 cents an hour After all, the elaborate sacred ceremonies are performed by these young Vedic scholars for a hefty fee from God-fearing devotees or other persons seeking the blessings of God to ward off their troubles or drive away the evil spirits affecting their life. However, the truth is that after the Vedic Pandits are brought to the United State from India, they are lodged in makeshift trailer homes in barricaded/fenced enclosures with round-the-clock patrolling by guards lest the tormented youngsters play the vanishing trick. Many of the 163 Pandits who have been missing from the organization either have disappeared from Chicago’s O’Hare international airport or have vanished into thin air from the barricaded/fenced, ill-equipped dwellings. On January 5, Hi India’s team tracked down some stranded Pandits who were discovered to be living a dog’s life: penniless, shelter-less, without food, clothes and direction, shivering in biting cold after a violent snow blizzard with frost bites, with reality staring them in their faces. But those in charge of Maharishi’s Fairfield complex turned a cold shoulder when Hi India told them about the pitiable conditions of their former breadwinners. While one excused himself after saying that he had ‘no idea’, another said with disdain: “They have jumped the fence for immigration purposes.” According to one Pandit in despair, before the visa application at the US embassy in India, a contract is prepared and signed by the organization and the concerned Pandit for rules, regulations and compensation. The Pandits are initially sent to the US for two years, and thereafter, either their visa is extended for six more months or they are sent back and recalled for two more years. The contract is drafted in English but the copy is neither given to Pandits nor it is translated or explained to the fifth-grader emigrants for whom the Queen’s language is all Greek and Latin, unable as they are to speak, read or understand English. In this contract, it is stated that they will be given $50 compensation while in the US and another $150 in India. This $150 is not given on a monthly basis to the families of Pandits but, rather, is considered as bond money. If the Pandit ‘behaves well’, his so-called compensation for two years is given to him or his family on his return from the US. The contract is prepared in a way to obtain Visa. Obviously after giving a patient hearing to their tale of woe, Hi India had many questions for the GCWP as to the number of current Pandits at Fairfield, the type of contract, their families back home, compensation, pending wages, insurance benefits, etc. However, only vague replies were received from GCWP spokesperson Ms Eloise Raymond, the official at center, who said that only 5 per cent of Pandits had disappeared. Well, the Pandits are enrolled, trained and sent to the US to help in passing round the hat to raise funds by showcasing the various Vedic traditions and reciting Vedic Shlokas. The devotees and followers are asked for donation for conducting the prayers and other rituals for them. The donations range between $1,800 and an amount totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Interestingly, as soon as the custodian of the Vedic City finds out that some Pandits are desperate to bid goodbye to the US, a mock travel plan is organized and the Pandits are taken in a van to the O’Hare airport and dropped at the entry gate, after asking them to wait till the aircraft arrives while the van driver goes around and comes back in a short while. But as one Pandit who was about to flee told Hi India, “by this time, some of the strong-willed Pandits run away from the airport for better prospects and the rest of them are picked up by the driver and taken back to the Vedic City”. Surprisingly, all the officials are allegedly hand-in-gloves with the authorities and have no travel plans, no tickets are reserved or bought, and their baggage is not brought to the airport along with them in the van. Of course, those who have bolted try to get some help from local cab drivers or local residents and merge into other ‘American Dream Chasers’. These ‘absconding’ Pandits have no legal documents or IDs other than the local Pandit ID issued by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Organization. Hi India wonders why the passports of absentee Pandits are not sent to the Indian Consulate for proper action, why the families of Pandits are not informed in India, why no missing person’s report is filed at Fairfield, IA or at O’Hare Airport, why no constructive action is taken to trace or find the missing Pandits?. In fact, the Pandits are paid peanuts, just $50 a month with no medical or health Insurance, no declared weekly offs or national holidays, and no signed contract in the US.In a written reply to Hi India, the GCWP laid the blame at Pandits’ doors, and shrugged off their responsibilities–moral, legal or even consideration for human life falling in wrong hands. It was also claimed that the Vedic Pandits could pursue higher education up to the Master’s and Doctoral degrees but the fact is that most of the Pandits had not studied beyond the fifth grade. What was even more shocking for Hi India was the revelation that the higher authorities, including Dr. Nader, were not even aware of the serious situation in the Vedic City–flouting of labor and immigration laws–arising out of regular disappearance of Pandits.. Again, as per the Sheriff Department and Police department of Fairfield, Iowa, no missing person report has ever been filed with them by GCWP. Even GCWP’s Elois Raymond admitted that no publicity flyers, advertisement or intimation to families in India had ever been initiated for the missing Pandits. Hi India is sure the great seer may not have imagined that his devoted Pandits would be given a raw deal by his heirs and protégés. As per the sources from the Consul General (CG) of India office in Chicago, in situations where an Indian passport holder is considered or presumed AWOL (absent without leave) and his passport is left behind, his passport has to be returned immediately to the nearest Indian Consulate and informed about the circumstances in which Indian citizen is missing. Efforts to locate and other measures like informing families in India are to be taken. As per the sources in CG office, no passport from GCWP has ever been returned, deposited with the CG office or any other missing person information is shared. US law clearly dictates that – Under no circumstances, the passport of any person can be held, retained and especially employers are not permitted to keep an employee’s passport. QUESTIONS TO MAHARISHI YOGI CENTER AT FAIRFIELD, IOWA Why the compensation of Pandits is only 75 Cents an hour and that too is held as ransom for two years? Why no Police report is filed for missing person report for Pandits? Why no constructive efforts were taken to track them- such as flyers and advertisements? Why the Passports of Pandits are retained or held in violation of US law which states that under no circumstances employer can hold passports of the employees. Who has the possession of the passports now? Why the nearest Indian Consulate was not contacted, informed or Passports returned. Under Indian law, for Indian Citizen abroad, it has to be returned immediately to Indian Embassy or Consulate? Why the families of missing Pandits in India were not informed? Why no airline tickets or travel plans were there for missing Pandits at O’Hare? Why Pandits have no leave or sick leave as per US labor laws? Why Pandits have no Medical or Group Life Insurance or Workman Compensation Insurance.
