Renowned Indian Editor VKN. Diary and Letter Scans Reveal
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 3, 2007
Robert Priddy, former head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Sweden, and retired academic in Philosophy and Social Sciences at the University of Oslo, Norway, has just released scans of material relating to his close friendship with the famous Indian newspaper Editor, V.K.Narasimhan, who knew him closely for several years.
VKN as Narasimhan was affectionately known, with rare courage, stood up to Mrs Indira Gandhi and the Emergency rule she imposed on India, 1975-77. He succeeded Professor P.N. Kasturi as Editor of Sanathana Sarathi, Sai Baba’s official organ, which is distributed worldwide. VKN was well known among those close to Sai Baba as being an almost lone case of one who would regularly and forcefully stand up to him.
The committing of this material - a) scanned from the extensive Priddy diaries and notebooks relating specifically and often daily to the time, and b) including exchange of letters between the two men - is valuable.
First, it honors an intellectual and moral engagement between two men who have stood up for truth and justice in difficult times.
Second, it affirms and documents with primary material the mutual high respect of these two men and the warmth and frankness of their friendship.
Third - and significant to the attempt of pro Sai Baba forces to obliterate elements of the past unwelcome to them in a way somewhat analogous to that tendency memorably depicted by George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and others - it gives researchers and other investigators documentary proof of the status of the Narasimhan-Priddy relationship. It is a history such as this which Sai Baba, his hagiographers, spin doctors and many devotees at large are fully bent on denying.
Robert Priddy writes:
That I knew Narasimhan very well and that he confided in me is shown by a new set of postings I have begun (see on Priddy’s notes/diary). He eventually told me in private pivotal secret facts about the 1993 murders in Sai Baba’s bedroom which, at the time, I would rather not have had to had to take on board (see V.K. Narasimhan’s faith-shaking revelations). I have scanned in excerpts from the many letters I received from VKN and also scans of some of the hundreds of pages of my diaries and notebooks from 9 visits to India with reports on my conversations with VKN and others, which are linked here. Scans of other notebook entries reporting on what V.K. Narasimhan told me will be added later. Many of the facts he told me I have included in my tribute to him, his life and his relationship to Sathya Sai Baba (see here).
Source:
V.K Narasimhan and facts about Sathya Sai Baba, December 2, 2007
