Is it becoming a fad or is it plain business sense that the Gandhis have become the focal point of all ‘tell all’ tales being published in the country? Right from former media advisor Sanjaya Baru to one of the closest aides of the Gandhi family, Natwar Singh have targeted the Congress’ first family in their respective books.
Despite the differences between the Gandhis and Natwar Singh, one never imagined that the schism would run so deep that the former diplomat would write about the inner functioning of the Congress president. What this book ‘One life is not enough’ does is that it throws light on the best covered secrets of the Grand Old Party. The enigma and novelty value of the Gandhis has been dented by the allegations made in Natwar Singh’s autobiography.
“It is all heresay. It is too late to make such allegations,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha. “These people were themselves advisors, then they said nothing,” he added.
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But these allegations have not just given ammunition to the BJP, but have also given their allies an axe to grind them with. One of the Congress party’s oldest allies, the NCP, has surprisingly taken Natwar Singh’s side on the issue. “Natwar Singh Ji is right when he says that power lies solely with 10 Janpath (Sonia Gandhi’s residence),” a senior NCP leader told reporters in parliament.
“People refuting Natwar Singh Ji should realise that he has been a diplomat with impeccable credentials,” he went on to add. Though the Congress has kept mum on the allegations, it has rather focused on the intent of Natwar Singh. The former External Affairs Minister claims that it was Rahul Gandhi who forced Sonia not to become Prime Minister in 2004 and that all important government files were shown to Congress president contrary to popular perception.
But there is more to the allegations than just the book, Natwar Singh’s son and his political future.
It was because of the alleged involvement of his son Jagat Singh and his friend Andaleeb Sehgal that Natwar had to resign from the Union cabinet. But he felt slighted at the way he was treated in the aftermath of the Volcker scam when the party refused to back him. Since then he has been used by various political parties to bad mouth the Congress at different public platforms.
The famous comment on the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not being an elected member of the Lower House (Lok Sabha) while hobnobbing with Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh in 2006 ensured that there was no way back for Natwar Singh into the Congress party. He went on to join Mayawati’s BSP for a brief period after which he was expelled for anti party activities.
“His son is in the BJP and is a sitting MLA from Rajasthan” said Digvijaya Singh, senior leader and general secretary of the Congress Party. “This book is being used as a platform to push his son into BJP politics. Whatever he is today is because of the Nehru Gandhi family, need I say more,” he added.
Despite all criticism, Sonia Gandhi has largely accommodated all senior leaders during the UPA regime from 2004-2014. Right from the likes of Margaret Alva who had been shunted for anti-party remarks in public after her son was denied an assembly ticket in 2008 Karnataka elections to to former Governor HR Bhardwaj whose name figured in the alleged cover up of the Bofors scam when he was denied a ministerial berth in UPA-II. Both leaders were appointed governors by UPA-II as part of their rehabilitation scheme. Same applied to Shivraj Patil who had to resign as Union Home Minister after the dreaded 26/11 attack in Mumbai that happened in 2008, he was subsequently made Governor of Punjab in 2010. “We are not privy to what transpired between him and Congress President, it is his version in the book” said former Union Minister Anand Sharma. “We have to take this version not with a pinch but a fist full of salt,” he added.
The repeated attacks on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have rattled the party so much so that the normally reticent Manmohan Singh came to the rescue when he rubbished claims of files being sent from Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to Sonia for her approval. Even Sonia looked different from her normal stone cold self when she said. "I saw my mother-in-law riddled with bullets, saw my husband assassinated. Why should I feel hurt?" Perhaps this was too personal an attack on her as she mocked Natwar Singh "I am far from getting hurt by these allegations," she said.
While former close aides of the Congress party and UPA government continue to wash their linen in public, the threat of writing a book seems the perfect defence to keep such agents of negative publicity at bay.
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