Recently a curious video of a girl—wearing a turban, sari and elaborate jewelry—talking at a UN assembly in Geneva went viral. 

The assembly, held on Feb. 24 and open to the general public, featured a girl known as Vijayapriya Nithyananda from a “country” known as the “United States of Kailasa.” She claimed that Kailasa’s “supreme pontiff,” a person named Nithyananda, faces “persecution and human rights violations” for being the torchbearer of Hinduism. 

“He was banned from preaching and exiled from his birth country,” she stated. “What measures can be implemented to stop [his] persecution?”

Days after this video went viral on March 2, UN officers told the BBC that that speech wasn’t recorded because it was “irrelevant.” But the video has thrown a highlight on Nithyananda, a self-styled guru, and the string of prosecutions—not persecution—that he faces in India. And the United States of Kailasa? That doesn’t exist both. 

Self-styled “godmen” or gurus will not be unusual to India, the world’s largest democracy. There, common gurus have constructed sprawling empires on the enterprise of spirituality—estimated to be value over $30 billion in India alone—they’ve cast political connections, and even run parallel governments. Over a dozen high-profile gurus are at the moment sitting in jail for crimes starting from rape, murder, and blackmail. 

Allegations of abuse in opposition to Nithyananda first appeared in 2010 when police arrested him after a video went viral displaying him having intercourse with an actress. Nithyananda concurrently claimed he was “practising savasana”—a yoga pose through which you lie face-up on the ground—that he’s impotent, and that the video is doctored. The court docket ordered him to bear an impotency check, proving otherwise. He was not convicted, and was released on bail inside two months. But subsequent allegations landed him in far more hassle.

Representatives of Kailasa on the UN assembly in February. Photo: Facebook / Kailasa’s SPH JGM Nithyananda Paramashivam​

Since 2018, he’s been below trial for rape, fraud and legal intimidation after a police criticism served by two former devotees, together with a U.S.-based lady who alleged he raped her a number of occasions over the course of 5 years. In 2019, police launched a manhunt for him following a criticism of child abuse in his ashram.

Nithyananda has denied all fees and published a viral video saying, amongst different issues, “No judiciary can touch me.” 

Then, in 2019, he announced that he had arrange his personal nation, the United States of Kailasa, on an island apparently bought by his rich followers off the coast of Ecuador. The Ecuadorian government was quick to clarify that they’ve neither granted asylum to him, neither is he within the nation. India’s Ministry of External Affairs, too, issued a statement saying that they had cancelled his passport. Trials based mostly on fees in opposition to him are delayed indefinitely for the reason that police say they will’t discover him. 

Nithyananda is nowhere to be discovered, say the police, however he reveals up on his digital sermons. Photo: Facebook / Kailasa’s SPH JGM Nithyananda Paramashivam​​

Nithyananda continues to seem in virtual sermons, and his representatives preserve displaying up at abroad occasions, together with at a cocktail party hosted on the British House of Lords final 12 months, causing outrage. This month, a blog known as TAPinto Newark printed particulars of officers within the U.S. metropolis signing a sister-city settlement with Kailasa. Newark retracted the settlement days later.

Newark officers told the press that they have been deceived into virtually recognizing the state of Kailasa. “We hope cities throughout the country and around the world are now alerted to the deceptive activities of this baffling syndicate,” a Newark spokesperson told the New York Post. 

This month, the New York Post additionally reported that U.S. state California had additionally signed a certificates of particular Congressional recognition for Kailasa in Jan. 2022, which was rescinded quickly after as effectively. 

Members of Kailasa in Newark on the ceremony to signal a sister-city settlement with Newark, whose metropolis officers later stated they;ve rescinded it. Photo: Facebook / Kailasa’s SPH JGM Nithyananda Paramashivam​

Nithyananda’s platforms have additionally printed information of receiving a cultural agreement from the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, and another certificate from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for “Kailasa’s Hindu Heritage Month” celebrations. In 2021, town of Fall River, Massachusetts, signed a letter for a “Kailasa Day” within the metropolis. Fall River officers admitted it was their fault for not being extra vigilant. 

A congressional spokesperson from California, who spoke to the NY Post on situation of anonymity, is quoted as saying that they get a whole bunch of such requests yearly and normally, there’s no hassle. But this was a mistake.

“It was an attempt for the group to achieve legitimacy. They exploited our office with a non-binding letter.”

VICE World News reached out to Nithyananda’s representatives, however didn’t hear again on the time of publishing. 

The latest information prompted a response from Nithyananda’s “representatives,” clarifying in one Facebook post that Kailasa is a “borderless service-oriented nation”—a digital nation in essence. They then denied all allegations in opposition to Nithyananda, saying he’s not a fugitive because the Indian authorities label him, however is in an undisclosed location on account of “persecution” and “innumerable attempts” on his life. 

In a video statement posted this Thursday, Vijayapriya, the lady talking on the UN, stated: “Kailasa and its representatives have not frauded [sic] anyone, nor are we fake. We are a legitimate organisation.”

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