NEW DELHI, NOV 17: ``Pratah Smaarniya, Sandhya Vandaniya, sant purush ki charan vandana karta hoon (I touch the feet of the holy man who ought to be remembered every morning and evening).''The words uttered by UP Minister Satish Sharma, were addressed to the godman Chandraswami, who is still facing charges of FERA violation, besides the famous Lakhubhai Pathak case. The occasion was the celebration of the controversial godman's 51st birthday.Sharma was not the only politician to pay his respects to the godman. His "disciples" belonged to almost all political parties. The impressive guest list had a number of politicians, including former prime minister Chandrashekhar, Union Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav, BJP MP Kirti Azad, Telugu Desam MP M Rajaiah and senior BJP leaders Ashwani Kumar and Prof Ramji Singh.A number of senior UP leaders like Jantantrik BSP Minister Sardar Singh and sacked BJP minister from UP, Devendra Singh alias Bhole, too were sitting in the front row. The Congress was alsorepresented by its former Andhra Pradesh unit chief P Narsa Reddy. Interestingly, both Rajaiah and Reddy addressed the gathering in chaste Hindi.Others visiting his ashram in Qutub Institutional Area were film producer Boney Kapoor, cine star Suresh Oberoi, poet Surendra Sharma, cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, besides a large number of businessmen and industrialists from various parts of the country.The swami, who used to call shots during the P V Narasimha Rao government, has been out of limelight for the past five years. The function was apparently aimed to bring him back in the political mainstream, besides granting him social acceptability.The swami, himself, was seated on a decorated platform, accompanied by some Muslim clergies, Jain munis and of course, a host of saffron-robed sadhus, including Shankaracharya of Jyotishpeeth. The entire ashram had been lit up and large banners placed to announce the "occasion".Every prominent guest's identity was announced over the microphone and warmlywelcomed by the Swami's aide. Each of the guests offered bouquets and gifts after touching his feet. The announcer then invited the guest to "say a few words in honour of Swamiji" and almost all of them sang paeans for him.The microphones were handed over to the religious leaders assembled there for chanting mantras and shlokas and they also detailed their association with the godman, before wishing him a long life.A team of the swami's assistants was busy tracking important persons and their scheduled time of arrival. ``Chandrashekharji is expected in ten minutes,'' said the swami's aide, Vikram Singh, before asking his colleague to ring up Hotel Intercontinental to check whether another set of celebrities (cine star Anil Kapoor and his friends) had started for the ashram.His assistants also took pains to tell you who else was expected to arrive and when. `Deve Gowdaji can't come because his blood sugar level has suddenly gone up. He spoke to Swamiji on the phone. Subramaniam Swamy is stuck inKochi. He too wished Swamiji,'' the assistants claimed.At least half an hour before Chandrashekhar's arrival, the entire ashram was taken over by the SPG guards. But even they could not have anticipated what happened. Hardly two minutes before the former PM's arrival, a young boy snatched the rifle of a security guard posted at the ashram gate and fired in the air, apparently to celebrate the occasion. A mad scramble followed. SPG men rushed to nab the culprit, but the boy was lost in the crowd. The guard was told to unload his weapon and ensure that such incident was not repeated.
