V.K. Narasimhan – confidences to Robert Priddy

V.K. Narasimhan was one of Sai Baba’s very closest confidants from 1980 until his death in 2000,  outstanding journalist and ex-Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express group of newspapers. A series of blogs on V.K. Narasimhan and my relationship with him will detail the burdensome legacy of facts and inside information about Sathya Sai Baba, his institutions and prominent followers he left me. The unspoken facts were often most disturbing to me at the time, not least since these were given in private as confidences. Nothing I relate here is anything but the truth to the very best of my understanding and recollection, which is based on copious notes made at the time (links will be given to the appropriate scans of those notes, which come from a series of notebooks here.

I eventually came to learn some devastating facts, the worst of which was how, on the direct initiative of Sai Baba’s younger brother, Janaki Ramiah, and other officials of the ashram and Central Trust, the police were blackmailed into executing in cold blood in Sai Baba’s own rooms, four intruders who had killed two of his attendants. These intruders could easily have been captured without murdering them as they had no other weapons than knives and had been trapped inside the apartment of Sai Baba by him locking the door of his bedroom from the outside when he fled the scene.  He was nearby throughout the hours that all this went on, and (a virtual dictator within his ashram) did not lift a finger to stop what he himself has stated in a discourse that he knew to be taking place, and was even aware of what would occur in advance!

The account VKN gave me in confidence (and a lowered voice) I cannot possibly doubt as I knew him so long and so well. It is backed up fully by my extensive investigations of the entire matter. VKN informed me of a discussion to which he was witness between Janaki Ramiah and the Home Minister of India – S.B. Chavan  – (a Sai Baba devotee who visitied his guru frequently during the period when investigations were taking place). S.B. Chavan congratulated the younger brother on his action in the matter whereupon they laughed together over the words ‘Dead men tell no tales.’ I declare that I am reporting all this as it was told me, based on my comprehensive notes made at the time. See scan with comments here.