| |
days I had to pass through six jails, all over America.
In Oklahoma my suspicion became a certainty, because I landed in the middle of the night at a silent airport, and the U.S. Marshal himself was there to take charge of me. He himself was driving the car, I was sitting behind him. The man who was giving the charge to him whispered in his ear -- which I could hear without any effort, I was just behind him. He said, "This guy is world-famous and all the world news media is focused on him, so don't do anything directly. Be very careful."
I started thinking, What is their intention? What do they want to do indirectly? And as I reached the jail their intention became very clear to me.
The U.S. Marshal asked me not to fill in the form with my own name. I should write instead, "David Washington" as my name. I said, "According to what law or constitution are you asking me to do such a stupid thing? I simply refuse, because I am not David Washington."
He insisted, and he said, "If you don't sign the name `Washington' you will have to sit in this cold night on this hard steel bench."
I asked him, "You are a reasonable man, well educated; can't you see that it is a stupid thing you are asking me to do?"
He said, "I cannot answer anything. I'm simply fulfilling the orders from above." And `above' certainly means Washington, the White House, Ronald Reagan. Seeing the situation -- I was tired -- I told him, "Let us compromise. You fill in the form, you write whatever name you want to write. I will sign it."
He filled in the form. David Washington was my name, and I signed my own signature in Hindi. He asked me, "What have you signed?"
I said, "It must be David Washington." I said, "This will be a reminder to you that anything that you want to do -- directly or indirectly -- you will be caught. It is with your handwriting that you have written David Washington and it is my signature, which is world-famous and can be recognized without any difficulty. Your whole conspiracy has failed. I can see it clearly in your eyes, in your nervousness, in your trembling hands."
The idea was that if I write David Washington and
|
|
|