NEW DELHI: Chandraswami, the favorite god man of the celebrated presidents of 5, Race Course Road, New Delhi, and Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, insists that he is as close as ever to Prime Minister P.V.N.Rao.
The swarthy swami, who was forced to eat humble pie in Ayodhya last month when his much hyped Som Yagya flopped, dispelled the notion that he was out of favor with Rao. He said he had been in contact with Rao since his Hyderabad days and could even today visit him at Race Course Road whenever he wanted to.
“It is not as if lam there all the time but I can go there when I wish,” Chandra swami boasted during an interview at his palatine residence in Safdarjang Development Area.
It is indeed true that the godman influences and echoes what the Prime Minister feels, then his comments on Ayodhya were significant. He said the temple would come up exactly on the dispute site after “an atmosphere of reconciliation” would be established between Hindus and Muslims. The mosque, he suggested, could be built anywhere on the outskirts of Ayodhya, perhaps in Faizabad town where Muslims are in a majority.
Chandra swami asserted that Rao was not the “type of person” to accept large sums of money from brokers like Harshad Mehta, “Besides, what will he do with the money,” a straight faced Chandra swami asked with a wave of his pudgy hand, weighed down with numerous diamond studded ringsand an even bulkier diamond watch.
The godman’s house confirmed his reputation of being a rich powerbroker, an international jetsetter and a Rasputin like figure for the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Adnan Khashoggi. A trademark Meredes stood in the porch, a fancy fountain adorned the ground floor, and an army of security men and attendants minded the queue of visitors.
Chandra swami was at his evasive best when asked about the FERA charges pending against him and the reasons for his and the late Rajiv Gandhi’s animosity towards each other, But the reference to Rajiv provoked him to hit Out at another arch rival.
“It is not as if I had anything against Rajiv Gandhi. Thercisonly one man I have been dead against and am sull against. That man is Vishwanath Pratap Singh,” Chandraswami said somewhat abruptly. Headded thateven when the whole country was treating V.P.Singh as a Saint, he (Chandraswami) had been warning about the kind of person he was. On the fact that Rao had not convincingly disproved Harshad Mehia’s charge, Chandraswami said, ““Wait and see. Watch what is going to happen.”
Article extracted from this publication >> July 30, 1993
