Read the biography of Rasputin by Joseph T. Fuhrmann.
Rasputin was an uneducated but cunning charlatan and rascal from Siberia who, posing as a holy monk, ingratiated himself with Nicholas the Second, the last Czar of Russia ( who abdicated in 1917 ) and his wife Czarina Alexandra. by ostensibly claiming the power to heal the Czarevitch Alexis, their young son who suffered from hemophilia. As a result he became so powerful that by using his influence, particularly on the Czarina, he could even get Ministers and Generals appointed in Russia.
In India we have not one but dozens of Rasputins. Perhaps every top politician in India, and even those lower down, have their Rasputins, their 'Godmen' or astrologer from whom they seek 'spiritual' ( and worldly ) guidance.
I have often described India as a ' baba bound ' society. There are all kinds of 'babas' in India, so called 'holy' men who deceive our credulous and gullible countrymen---there is a baba who prescribes samosas and pakodas for people having matrimonial disputes, there is a computer baba, a baba who is a rockstar, one who had a sizeable quantity of weapons in his 'ashram', and one who is in jail. Most of them have large followings.,
Hari Om !
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