Tall leaders make great nations

During the years of Nehru as Prime Minister, we had many brilliant, intellectual and honest persons in his cabinet, in national institutions and in public sector units. They came from across all religions and regions. The words Socialist and Secular were not in the Preamble of our Constitution. Yet, it was a Socialist and Secular ideology that universal man Nehru practiced.

Unfortunately for India, the decline from those Nehruvian ideals began following Indira Gandhi’s rule as Prime Minister. It is ironic that it was Indira Gandhi who interpolated the two additional words, Socialist and Secular, to the Preamble of our Constitution. If Socialism encouraged corruption, Secularism encouraged vote-bank politics. This trend in governance continued unabated till 2014 when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. 

True, Modi has not totally succeeded in reviving the early Nehruvian era model, but he is striving towards ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ policy.

I recall old times because of K. Natwar Singh, IFS, a diplomat of unusual talent and a public relations man of great success, former Foreign Minister, comes from a Royal family, was very close to Indira Gandhi and later to Sonia Gandhi, but soon parted her company with bitterness. He passed away on 10, August 2024 at the age of 95. He is my favourite author, diplomat and politician.

Natwar Singh was a great admirer of our own R.K. Narayan, the renowned English novelist. Once Natwar Singh had come to Mysuru despite his busy schedule, looking for R.K. Narayan unannounced and had to return disappointed.

He was always humble, too gentle and condescending. Above all, he was a writer and raconteur par-excellence. Easily readable. I had written about him when his book ‘Walking With Lions: Tales From A Diplomatic Past’ was published. It was not about the book but about his encounter with the then PM Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain. Let me reproduce excerpts from that Abracadabra under the title ‘A Godman & Margaret Thatcher’:

When iron melts, you get molten. When Iron Lady dies, you get either ash if cremated or dust, if buried — “dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.”

Now that the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, known as the Iron Lady of Great Britain, has died, we know that being a Christian she will be given a burial and the ‘iron’ in this case will become ‘dust.’

Death is a great leveller, no doubt. It is only in life we are different. But yet, on some personal matters, all humans, high and low, behave the same. For example, like it happened with Margaret Thatcher, as revealed by former Indian diplomat and Minister K. Natwar Singh in his new book ‘Walking With Lions: Tales From A Diplomatic Past.’

Chandraswami is India’s notorious VIP Godman, patronised by many rich and famous personalities like actor Elizabeth Taylor and former Prime Minister of India P.V. Narasimha Rao. He was considered a Siddhi, Tantric and astrologer. He was arrested in 1996 on charges of financial irregularities and was allegedly involved in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. He was, in short, a disgraced Godman at the end. Nobody talks about him now.

According to Natwar Singh, when he was serving in London as the Deputy High Commissioner in 1975, Chandraswami telephoned and invited him to meet him at his place in London. Singh declined and asked Chandraswami to meet him at his office in ‘India House’ if he wanted. Chandraswami yielded. He was young, in his twenties then. Did not speak a word of English. It seems, he does now. He was a great name dropper too. A few days later, he goes to see Natwar Singh and invites him and his wife for dinner with him. After dinner, Chandraswami was at his game, so to say. I am sure many of our readers may have experienced this game which looks like mumbo-jumbo but cannot be dismissed as hoax because you are right there to experience it. I have experienced it too, but about it later.

Chandraswami gave three strips of paper to Natwar Singh’s wife and asked her to write a question on each strip, make a ball and place each one on a square on the chess board. She wrote the question in English. “He closed his eyes and went into a trance.” He asked Natwar Singh’s wife to pick up any of the paper balls and open it. Chandraswami then told her what the question was. He was correct. He got the other two questions also right. Natwar Singh and his wife were amazed.

Natwar Singh, a good raconteur, does not tell us either about the questions or about the answers Chandraswami must have given to her. Of course, it is understandable because the questions and answers were very private. But Natwar Singh could have quenched the curiosity of his readers by saying at least what were the questions posed by his wife or if his predictions had come true. Let it be. What is interesting is what comes next.

Chandraswami, having demonstrated his tantric powers to Natwar Singh and winning his confidence, wanted the latter to introduce him to Lord Mountbatten or Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, who was then the Leader of the Conservative Party. She was not yet the Iron Lady, Natwar Singh reminds us! Reading it, I was left wondering at the temerity and impertinence of a twenty-plus old Chandraswami; his audacity.

Now to cut a long story short, Natwar Singh was all too willing to oblige the tantric. He rang up Lord Mountbatten who stuck to his priority of a holiday rather than meeting an unknown “friend” of Natwar Singh. That was it. As for Margaret Thatcher, Natwar Singh goes to her office personally and tells her the purpose of his visit. Her response was: “If you think I should meet him, I shall. What does he want to see me for?”

“That he will tell you himself,” said Natwar Singh.

“Only ten minutes, Deputy High Commissioner,” she told him rather firmly.

At the meeting, Chandraswami repeated the same drill with Mrs. Margaret Thatcher as he did with Singh’s wife but now instead of three questions it was five. Here too we are told neither about the questions nor about the answers. However, the fact that Margaret Thatcher was overwhelmed by the response of Chandraswami was clear. She sought another appointment with him which was fixed at Natwar Singh’s house. Here she asked many questions but the most important one related to her chances of becoming Prime Minister.

Chandraswami predicted that she would be Prime Minister for nine, eleven or thirteen years.

Mrs. Thatcher put one final question: When would she become Prime Minister?

Chandraswami: In three or four years.

He was proved right. She was Prime Minister for eleven years. Chandraswami did not do any miracle to make Mrs. Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister. He simply saw her future. Like Nostradamus. That future, of course, was predetermined. Which was why he could make the prophesy. Right? Which is why people believe in astrology and also in destiny. Even if Chandraswami did not predict her future, she would have become what she was destined to become. Only she must have felt more confident and reassured of herself of her future position after hearing Chandraswami. She must have felt happy too, like all of us do, on hearing a beneficial prediction. All the same, there is something intriguing, something mysterious about a Godman or tantric or astrologer or a Siddipurush who can peek into your future.

Here in this case, Chandraswami must have already studied her horoscope or almanac and wanted to share with her the knowledge. For the same reason, probably, he wanted to see Lord Mountbatten who was headed to Northern Ireland and could not meet Chandraswami. Who knows, if Lord Mountbatten had met Chandraswami, he would have seen his future (as he did of Margaret Thatcher) and asked Lord Mountbatten not to go to Ireland during 1979 or thereabout. And who knows, he could have saved himself from the assassination ! However, it is a matter of conjecture whether Lord Mountbatten would have taken Chandraswami’s prediction seriously and acted upon it.

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