Targeting Gandhi VIPs
The lengths that Prem Rawat�s followers will go to ensure that their
master�s veneer of
legitimacy is maintained has been revealed to include arrant
duplicity.
A London Legal firm, Paul Robert�s Solicitors[],
serving as organisers for a Fundraising event claimed to be benefiting
the Gandhi Foundation[],
sought the involvement of supporters of Prem Rawat; this same firm was
behind the organisation of an event at
London�s Guildhall in May 2007. According to the London Evening
Standard[],
a Trustee of the UK Elan Vital organisation []
which promotes Prem Rawat, accountant Roland Klepzig, wrote to selected
followers of Prem Rawat regarding the Gandhi Foundation event in terms
that:
1) Attendees at the Gandhi Foundation event were, by arrangement
with the organisers, to view a DVD of Prem Rawat speaking.
2) Attendees at the event were to be given �goody bags� containing
a
DVD of Prem Rawat speaking at London�s Guildhall, an authorized
biography of Prem Rawat and a 34 page booklet promoting the Prem Rawat
Foundation as a humanitarian charity.
3) The event would be attended by diplomats, politicians, celebrities
and very influential and wealthy business people who would be exposed to
Rawat�s message for the first time.
4) The event would be a �unique networking opportunity� at which
followers could act as �discrete ambassadors� on Rawat�s behalf amongst
this �most influential group of people�.
5) Followers were encouraged to attend the event to secure it�s
�success� and to discretely provide support to Rawat�s message.
Although Rawat claims to be non sectarian, his discourses have
frequently made reference to the Baghavagita, a work that is not only
revered by fundamentalist Hindu�s who detested Gandhi but a work which
is inimical to Gandhi�s pacifist stance. Rawat�s own lifestyle of
opulence and consumption is diametrically opposed to everything that
Gandhi stood for and for Rawat�s followers to seek to subvert the
Gandhi
Foundation event to their own ends seems not only dishonest but a
grotesque insult to the memory of the �father of India�.
Responding to a journalist�s inquiries, spokesman for the UK Elan Vital,
James
Shaw said the �fact is we are not a cult and we do not behave in
cult-like ways�. The bizarre �entryist� attempt that appears to have
been encouraged by Mr Shaw�s colleague, Roland Klepzig, would seem to
suggest that in fact Prem Rawat�s followers do behave in �cult-like
ways�. In respect of the earlier Guildhall event an Elan Vital spokesman
was quoted as saying �'There is no question of it being used in any way
to raise money or recruit�[
]while in a further twist Elan Vital itself publicly quotes the
principal organiser of both the Guild Hall[]
and Gandhi Foundation events, Mr
Paul Bloomfield, in terms that appear to indicate a degree of partiality
toward Prem Rawat. []
References.
