In a sensational disclosure, former Foreign Minister Natwar Singh has claimed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was prevented by her son Rahul Gandhi and not by her “inner voice” from becoming Prime Minister in 2004. Natwar has claimed that Rahul was afraid that if Sonia became PM, she might be killed like Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi.
In an exclusive interview to Karan Thapar for Headlines Today, Natwar Singh said Rahul Gandhi gave his mother a 24-hour deadline to decline the PM’s post. He cited Suman Dubey and Manmohan Singh and Priyanka Gandhi as witnesses to this meeting.
“Rahul was totally against his mother becoming Prime Minister. He said she would be killed like his father and grandmother and as a son he would not allow her to become the PM. He was very adamant,” Singh said, recalling a May 18, 2004 meeting where Manmohan Singh, Gandhi family friend Suman Dubey, Priyanka and he were present. Rahul’s opposition was conveyed to them by Priyanka, he said.
Singh (83), an estranged Gandhi family friend who quit the Congress in 2008 after he had to resign from the UPA-I Government in 2005 in the wake of the Iraqi food-for-oil scam, said that on May 7, Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka called on him at his house to plead that this story (about why she did not become the PM) be kept out of his upcoming autobiography: One life is Not Enough.
At this meeting, Natwar Singh claimed, Sonia Gandhi embraced him, apologised for the way he had been treated and said he was her closest friend to whom she had confided things she has never told either Rahul or Priyanka.
“She said I did not know (about treatment meted out to him). I said nobody would buy it because nothing happens in the Congress without your knowledge, without your approval. The same is the case with the Government. She said I am sorry,” he said.
Natwar also claimed former President Shankar Dayal Sharma was the first choice of Sonia Gandhi to become Prime Minister when the Congress came to power in 1991. He said as Sharma refused due to poor health PV Narasimha Rao emerged as the second choice. Natwar Singh claimed he and Aruna Asaf Ali were sent as emissaries to sound out Sharma, the Vice-President then.
Only after Sharma refused did she think of Rao, said Singh. On both 0occasions, she took the advice of PN Haksar, Natwar said.Natwar Singh also confirmed that Sonia Gandhi used to receive Government files when the UPA was in power. The files, he claimed, were taken to her by Pulok Chatterjee.This claim confirmed the suggestion first made by Manmohan Singh’s former Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru in his book: The Accidental Prime Minister. Natwar Singh said many other Ministers knew about this practice.
Natwar Singh also claimed that the UPA ally and RJD chief lalu Prasad was angry when he came to know Manmohan Singh and not Sonia Gandhi was to become the Prime Minister. lJP chief Ramvilas Paswan too was upset and it took a lot of effort to bring both men on board, he said.Natwar Singh also spoke about clandestine meetings at Mohammed Yunus’s home when Narasimha Rao, then the PM, appeared without security to seek his help in improving relations with Sonia Gandhi.To a question whether left to herself Sonia would have accepted the PM’s post after the Congress-led UPA came to power defeating BJP-led NDA in 2004, Natwar Singh said, “It is difficult to answer.”
He also rated Sonia higher than Rajiv as a politician, saying she is tougher than him. “He was very large-hearted. You cannot take liberties with her,” he said.