Little Cumbrae House © Eddie Dowds
We mentioned the sale of the Little Cumbrae, or as we prefer locally, the Wee Cumbrae, back in 2009:
Little Cumbrae seems to be sold at last
I avoided the temptation then to refer to Baba Ramdev, and use words like conman near his name, but two years on, the Wee Cumbrae remains much as it was two years ago, with none of the great developments the buyer foresaw, after the penniless guru was flown over to celebrate the purchase.
He is described as not even having a bank account – of course not, when you are cooking the books you have make sure there are no financial records around to incriminate you when the bubble bursts.
This article gave a great build up to the Wee Cumbrae yoga project, and some worshipful praise for Ramdev – carefully failing to mention any of the investigations the authorities have running regarding him and his organisation:
Exclusive: She donated an island to Baba Ramdev – Rediff.com News
I find it really sad the way the apparently otherwise sensible and wealthy people are taken in by these types. It may be rampant in America, where the TV evangelists can be excused in a way, given the mental state of much of their audience, but that excuse doesn’t really work for Scotland.
The yoga guru was recently ‘forced’ to abandon a declared ‘Hunger strike to death’.
BBC News – India: Protests against crackdown on Baba Ramdev
I have to say that this would seem to show he doesn’t have much willpower, or conviction (of the non-criminal type in this case) or it was a con. After all, it doesn’t take much effort to stop eating, and unless the authorities start force-feeding you with tubes, then your chances of a successful and fatal conclusion are pretty certain.
A great way to gain publicity and sympathy amongst followers though, without having to deliver on the original promise, and claim you were prevented from doing so by the corrupt authorities.
Small wonder the word ‘artist‘ is sometime seen in close association with the word ‘con‘.
Incredibly, after £2.5 million for the island, the buyers are still looking throw away a further six-figure sum in order to develop this “penniless fellow’s” yoga retreat.
They previously made the point that Baba Ramdev does not even posses a bank account – he doesn’t need one!
Yoga followers fail to take up position on Scots island – Scotland on Sunday
Yesterday Poddar insisted that the organisation was still attempting to raise money to continue with its plans for the island. “We want to make sure everything is in place before we open to the public so we are trying to raise funds so we can do that,” she said.
“With the planning and an architect, health and safety restrictions and fire issues, we’re looking at a six-figure sum that we need to raise.”
“We are very much still online to develop Little Cumbrae. Ultimately we do want to build a retreat centre there where people can come and practise yoga and get better.”
She said that members of the public were still welcome to visit the island to appreciate its natural beauty, but that retreats would not be open to the public until next summer at the earliest.
Secret Scotland 