Arjun Singh framed me, says Chandraswami

NEW DELHI, August 4: The CBI has accused me of helping Rajiv Gandhi in the St Kitts case. Isn't it ironical that the Jain Commission ha...

NEW DELHI, August 4: “The CBI has accused me of helping Rajiv Gandhi in the St Kitts case. Isn’t it ironical that the Jain Commission has now accused me of plotting the murder of the same person whom people believe I had helped!” says Chandraswami.

Reclining in a chair in the plush drawing room of his ashram in the Qutb Institutional Area, with three mobiles and four other phones within his reach, the swami doesn’t seem rattled by the accusations hurled at him in the Jain Commission report and subsequently in the Action Taken Report (ATR) tabled by the BJP Government in Parliament. He claims Rajiv Gandhi was a good friend and often used to call him to the Prime Minister’s residence for consultations. Welcoming the setting up of a Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency announced by the Government, he feels the truth should come out at any cost. He blames the LTTE for Rajiv’s assassination in 1991.

For his own predicament, he blames Arjun Singh, former Human Resource Development Minister and now a closeaide of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. “Arjun Singh got me framed through the Jain report. People like Jile Singh Chauhan who named me before the Jain Commission are all Arjun’s men,” he alleges. Why should Arjun Singh be after him? “Because he wanted to settle scores with the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao since I happened to be very close to Rao,” claims the godman, who has been prohibited from leaving the country.

Though Chnadraswami tries hard to maintain his cool, his eyes flash with anger when faced with uncomfortable questions. He claims to know the “true history” of Mahant Seva Das and Ramesh Dalal, who accused him of conspiring to murder Rajiv. But he would not reveal it at the moment because he doesn’t want to give undue publicity to “such creatures”.

Despite being stiff like wood due to acute spondilytis, Chandraswami performs his daily puja and havan regularly though with the help of his disciples. Barred from going abroad, he keeps in touch with his “foreign” discipleson telephone. “Some of them do visit me at my ashram as well,” he claims.

Have his powerful friends deserted him at this critical juncture? “Whom do you call my friends?” Chandraswami asks angrily before saying: “Chandra Shekhar and Subramanian Swamy visit me almost daily while Mulayam Singh Yadav calls on me every second or third day.”

But what about Narasimha Rao? “We do still meet whenever we feel the need. Till recently we used to meet at Vigyan Bhawan anyway,” he says. Denying that he wielded any influence over the Government during Narasimha Rao’s tenure, Chandraswami asks: “Does my name figure in any of the numerous scams and scandals that surfaced during Rao’s time?”

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He observes that almost all political parties are using the Rajiv murder probe to serve their political interests. “See even Congress leaders have not spared their leader after his death,” he observes, adding that the BJP had named him and Subramaniam Swami in the ATR to create differences in the Opposition.

But howcome a holy man has befriended so many politicians? “Didn’t you find even legendary saints like Vashishtha and Vishwamitra having personal relations with so many kings? If they could have it, why can’t I?” is his parting comment.