May 23: A common link binds Jayaprakash Narayan, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret Thatcher, Adnan Khashoggi, P.V. Narasimha Rao and Preity Zinta.

All were devotees of Nemi Chand Jain alias Chandraswami who died today at the age of 66. Chandraswami epresented the seamy side of spiritualism and often found himself on the wrong side of law. He was a suspect in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and an active player in one of the most controversial arms deal ever, the Iran-Contra affair.

Till the last days of her life in 2011, actress Liz Taylor remained a Chandraswami devotee. She firmly believed Chandraswami had a healing touch that had brought her breast cancer under control. Taylor used to call up Chandraswami every year on his birthday. She had reportedly met Chandraswami in US in 2001 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Chandraswami, son of a Rajasthani money lender tasted fame in 1975 when Jay prakash Narayan, who ran a crusade against Indira Gandhi's Emergency, wrote a personal letter to his friends to introduce Chandraswami.

Bhavdeep Kang, author of a recent book, Gurus: Stories of India's Leading Babas, (Westland Books) devoted an entire chapter on Chandraswami titled The Shaman-Shyster: Chandraswami, recalled how JP as Gandhian Jay prakash had met a young sadhu in white, with bushy hair, a frizzy beard and heavy gold amulet around his neck at New Delhi's Gandhi Peace Foundation.

His ashram in Delhi's Qutub Institutional Area saw Prime Ministers like Chandra Shekhar and Narasimha Rao come and go. When Chandraswami turned 46 in 1994, the entire ashram was lit up with likes of Balram Jakhar, Buta Singh, N.D. Tiwari, Imam Syed Ahmad Bukhari of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Vijayraje Scindia and T.N. Seshan. Chandraswami's fame became legendary during five years of Rao when the self-styled godman acted as the then Prime Minister's trouble-shooter, astrologer and fund manager.

In his book Walking with Lions - Tales from a Diplomatic Past, diplomat-turned-politician K. Natwar Singh recalls Thatcher asking Chandraswami about her chances of becoming British Prime Minister. "When would she become a Prime Minister? Chandraswami announced - in three or four years. He was proved right. She was PM for eleven years," wrote Natwar.