by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
One of the worst ill-effects of a prolonged dynastic
administration is that it creates an army of useless rent-seekers. Delhi is too full of
them. Their sole mission in life is to convince others that they are
'consulted' almost on a daily basis by members of the dynasty. Such perception
of access gradually becomes their reason for existence. Any cessation from such
proximity makes them wild. Kanwar Natwar Singh, the 84-year-old former courtier
of the Gandhis, seems going through such 'withdrawal symptom'. That alone
explains the gall in which he dipped his pen before writing his autobiography,
One Life Is Not Enough.
Sycophancy has always been Natwar's forte. Son of a minor
functionary in the Rajasthan ex-principality of Bharatpur, he qualified for the
IFS in 1953 but, rather than making any meaningful contribution to India's foreign
policy, he spent time rubbing shoulders with the Nehru-Gandhis. Finally, with
Indira Gandhi's assassination and the consequent 'sympathy wave' making the
1984 election a dream run for Congress candidates, Natwar jumped on the
bandwagon, quitting the service that gave him the global exposure that it is
doubtful if he deserved. Since then he became an integral part of the 'dynastic
court', first of Rajiv Gandhi and then Sonia's. It is this closeness alone that
put him in the power corridors of the Congress -- be it the committees or the
council of ministers or the dynasty trusts. But now he is spewing bile at
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, describing her as an autocrat and saying that,
contrary to public perception, she was keen to grab power in 2004 but gave up
on son Rahun Gandhi's strong prodding to stay away from prime ministership due
to security risks.
It is widely known that, when P V Narasimha Rao was prime
minister (1991-96), Natwar was a prominent member of the cabal in his Cabinet
that worked against him and poisoned Sonia Gandhi against the PM. They caused a
split in the party. But, in his book, Natwar, emboldened, perhaps, by the fact
and Rao is no more, has used his words to present himself as Rao's confidante
who'd confided in him about the lady's so-called diabolical ways. A large chunk
of the book is devoted to the sole task of tarnishing Sonia Gandhi's image as a
leader and a person. For those who have observed her leadership style, it is
clear that she is secretive by nature and is not one who would let the world
know why would rather have someone else be the PM in 2004. At any rate, it is
almost impossible for Natwar Singh, or any other lackey, to be privy to it. He
is fudging history. But why?
It is the fallout of an unpleasant decision the Congress
president had to take in 2005, that of expelling Natwar from government and
party. This was after it transpired that Natwar, and his son Jagat Singh, had
dipped their finger in the cookie jar of the UN's food-for-oil scheme to bail
out the late Saddam Hussein of Iraq
from sanctions. An investigation by former US Federal Reserve chief Paul
Volcker named the father-and-son duo as among "non-contractual
beneficiaries" of the scheme that had enabled Iraq to raise money to feed its
poor by selling a part of the oil from its wells. The non-contractual
beneficiaries got themselves enlisted to trade in Iraqi oil by bribing Saddam's
functionaries, and made money by transferring the ridiculously discounted oil
to actual users.
Earlier, when Atal Behari Vajpayee was in power, Sonia
Gandhi used her clout with the government to salvage Natwar from a piquant
situation. When his estranged daughter-in-law was found murdered in a South Delhi hotel, pressure from "above" got
inquiries hushed up, despite three bullets being found in her body, ruling out
the suicide. But his involvement in the food-for-oil scam, if condoned, could
recoil on the government. He should have considered himself fortunate that
though a commission found him guilty investigation was folded up before
pressing charges. Ingratitude is so ingrained in him that he immediately began
opening a parallel line with BJP. Jagat Singh is now a BJP MLA and wants to be
Cabinet minister in Vasundhara government. Natwar Singh is himself a BJP
aspirant for Rajya Sabha. In his book he has sheepishly claimed being the
author of the plan of Prime Minister Narandra Modi to invite all SAARC chiefs
on the day of his swearing in. He is getting delusional.
It was former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh's media
advisor Sanjay Baru who wrote the first kiss-and-tell book of the UPA years,
The Accidental Prime Minister. Its focus is Dr Singh, not the Congress
president, though Baru has indirectly blamed the latter for keeping the prime
minister under her thumb, and using Pulouk Chatterjee, a bureaucrat beholden to
her, as her informer and agent in the PMO. The fact that the Congress, as a
party, has ignored Baru's book has two reasons. First, he is not a party man
and his so-called expose is therefore of little political consequence. Besides,
Manmohan's stock in the Congress party is so low that no one would lament that
he was not given a fee hand. Sonia Gandhi is even criticized for whatever
little independence Manmohan enjoyed. However, Accidental Prime Minister has
created some accidental damage by given Natwar material to spin his yarn on
Sonia Gandhi and her “dictatorial” style. In reality, though, Natwar had only
limited occasion to observe Sonia as the prime mover of the UPA government, his
tenure in office having ended in 2005. The rest is his imagination.
The worst thing about the book is the liberty Natwar has
taken with the patience and polite restraint that mark Sonia’s character. Knowing that it is not her nature
to challenge her critics in public, Natwar has created a fictional situation in
which he claims that Sonia, accompanied by daughter Priyanka, actually visited
his house to plead that the book be written much to her liking. The facts are
somewhat different. Apparently, Priyanka visited his house as her mother’s
emissary to see his ailing wife, who is sister of Captain Amarinder Singh,
deputy leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha. And Sonia never visited
his house. Natwar Singh’s book is a humbug to tell the few people who still
remember him that he is indeed a man of consequence.
(The Author is
National Editor of
Lokmat Group)
