I really think that the major motivation for most of this is to try to salvage Rawat's image from what the ex-premies have exposed about him.  I think, actually, the cult is obsessed by the ex-premies.  So much so, that Elan Vital devotes a huge percentage of its websites around the world to try to attack Rawat's former followers, and to explain away, and spin, what ex-premies have exposed.

I really think that were it not for ex-premies, Rawat would still be laying low, doing a few programs and some half-hearted pretending at propagation.  He wouldn't be doing all this fake humanitarian stuff.  As long as he was mostly ignored by the rest of the world, he was satisfied, just holding onto his lavish lifestyle and being worshipped by a few thousand premies.

But ex-premies and the internet actually threaten all that, so he is attempting to "defend" himself, although I actually think it makes matters much worse for him.

Unfortunately, the existence of the picture below for example, published by the same organization, Elan Vital, that claims Rawat never claimed to be God,  is a terrible problem for Mr. Rawat and his PR campaign.