SEVEN months after P.V. Narasimha Rao became the prime minister, Lakhubhai Pathak wished him and his family "a very happy, healthy, wealthy, prosperous and peaceful New Year".
SEVEN months after P.V. Narasimha Rao became the prime minister, Lakhubhai Pathak wished him and his family "a very happy, healthy, wealthy, prosperous and peaceful New Year".
Three years later, on March 15, 1995, a harassed and frustrated Pathak wrote to Rao: "You are nothing. You are lower than dirty dust (sic)....Mr Rao, your downfall is imminent and absolutely sure; it will be so miserable, humiliating and degrading that no gurus and swamis can save you."
Pathak remembers the sequence of his first meeting with Rao in New York in 1983. Rao was then minister of external affairs in Indira Gandhi's Cabinet. "We were sitting outside Chandraswami's room in Holoron House Hotel. Someone entered Chandraswami's room." Pathak was told that it was Rao. After about 45 minutes, Chandraswami and Rao came out of the room. Chandraswami, who according to Pathak had earlier taken $100,000 from him for securing a contract, introduced him to Rao. Says Pathak: "I shook hands with Rao. Then he said: 'Pathakji, swamiji ne mujhko sab kuch bata diya hai, aapka kaam ho jayega' (Swamiji has told me everything, your work will be done)."
After waiting for years, neither was any deal signed, nor did Pathak get his money back. Finally, when Rao took over as prime minister, Pathak decided to remind him of his promise. In the first of a long series of letters on January 4, 1992, he reminded Rao of their meeting in New York. He requested Rao to "force this crooked swami to refund my hard-earned money". There was no response. When Pathak came to Bombay in February 1994, he again wrote to Rao seeking an appointment to sort out a ten-year-old problem which "involves Chandraswami, myself and you". Again no response.
In yet another letter on January 20, 1995, Pathak wrote: "Under your shadow Chandraswami cheated me. You are aware of what happened. New Year sparks the jwala of agni and anger in my heart. You have become a slave of this swami...you have never attempted to dissociate yourself from this crooked man." Surprisingly, this time he received an acknowledgement from the Prime Minister's House—the only official proof of his correspondence.
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