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Copyright (C) 2001 Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KSL); Source: World Reporter (TM) - Asia Intelligence Wire
SATYA PRAKASH MALAVIYA, Former Union Minister
I WAS at Lucknow on May 21, 1991. The election from the Jaswant Nagar Assembly constituency, from which the U.P. Chief Minister Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav was contesting, had been countermanded by the Election Commission. After consultations we decided to go to New Delhi for presenting a petition to the Commission against the order of countermanding the election. Mr. Yadav, myself, Mr. R. C. Srivastava, U.P. Planning Minister and Dr. V. K. Saxena, U.P. Chief Secretary, took off in a State plane from Lucknow airport at about 10 p.m. for Delhi. After about half an hour there were disturbances in the weather while we were passing over Farrukhabad and even an aircrash was averted. The pilot, Capt. Shashank Shekhar, said it would not be safe to proceed further and therefore he was flying back to Lucknow. All of us landed at the Lucknow airport around 11 p.m. or so.
No vehicles were available at the airport and, therefore, Mr. Yadav contacted his aide Jagjeevan at his official residence on telephone. We could not follow as to what transpired during the telephonic conversation. But, for a moment Mr. Yadav was speechless; he went on repeating kya kya kya. The tragic news of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination had been passed on to him. After sometime he conveyed the sad news to us. We just could not believe it.
A ghastly crime against humanity had been committed. An innocent young man had been assassinated. I could not get a wink of sleep and throughout the night I was pondering why Rajiv was made to fall victim to a most gruesome tragedy. I had no answer. His youthful, charming, ever-smiling and innocent face was moving around me.
The first time I met Rajiv face to face was at the Parliament House sometime in May 1984 soon after I had been elected to the Rajya Sabha. We came across each other and I introduced myself to him who was then a Lok Sabha member representing Amethi. He was in his white kurta-pyjama, wearing sunglasses and looking fresh. I said, "I am Satya Prakash Malaviya; I have recently been elected to the Rajya Sabha as a nominee of Chaudhary Charan Singh's Lok Dal..." Intervening he remarked: "So you come from Allahabad." That was all and I took leave.
Till the sad demise of Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash on June 23, 1980, Rajiv had kept himself aloof from politics. On August 12, 1980, he said in an interview with the Editor of New Delhi magazine that he would consider entering politics only if he was convinced that it would "genuinely help" his mother. He was thus a reluctant entrant to politics but once he entered the arena, he fully entrenched himself in the world of politics.
Consequent on the treacherous assassination of Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards at the Prime Minister's official residence on October 31, 1984, Rajiv was inducted as the country's youngest Prime Minister at 41.
In the general elections to the Lok Sabha held under his leadership in 1984, the Congress won an overwhelming majority, breaking all earlier records by securing 401 Lok Sabha seats with 49.17 per cent of the valid votes polled. Was it the result of the sympathy wave or Rajiv Gandhi's popularity? I simply cannot answer. The fact, however, remains that all previous records including those of Jawaharlal Nehru's time were broken.
On Emergency
After taking over the office of Prime Minister for the second time, in his press conference at New Delhi on July 7, 1985, Rajiv made some references to the Emergency promulgated by his mother in 1975 and said, "I think at the time it was the right step and there were various forces working. If those conditions are repeated, it might be necessary to have an emergency." This statement generated much heat and on July 25, 1985 in the Rajya Sabha, the then Chairman, Mr. R. Venkataraman allowed Mr. Dipen Ghosh and others to make a mention and seek clarifications from the Prime Minister on his statement. In reply to the clarifications, Rajiv said something which hurt the feelings of the Opposition. He even went on to say "that Chaudhary Charan Singhji had supported the Emergency." This statement was factually incorrect and, therefore, I intervened to say that "Chaudhary Charan Singh never supported the Emergency."
In fact, the Prime Minister's reference to Chaudhary Charan Singh was inaccurately relayed by Doordarshan and the AIR and on my notice of breach of privilege moved on July 29, 1985, the Chairman in his ruling given on August 12, 1985 observed: "The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Mr. V. N. Gadgil, in his comments admitted that the AIR and Doordarshan misconstrued the Prime Minister's observations on July 25, 1985 and that Shri Charan Singh's name was inadvertently included among those who had written letters to the former Prime Minister supporting the Emergency." This was the classic example of a case in which government media had put words in the mouth of the Prime Minister which he had never said in the Rajya Sabha.
However, Rajiv was very courteous and when he learnt that his remarks had hurt the feelings of the Opposition, he made the following suo motu statement in the Rajya Sabha on August 5.
"Mr. Chairman Sir, there seems to be some concern about my observations in this House on the 25th of July, 1985 in connection with my press conference. I had no intention of hurting the feelings of the leaders of the Opposition parties. I had only mentioned this because an attempt was made to drag in a certain Member of our own party. My observations on the role and attitude of the Opposition leaders towards the Emergency may be treated as withdrawn."
The Chairman, Mr. R. Venkataraman, described it as "a very generous gesture" and really it was so on the part of the young and energetic Prime Minister. Rajiv had, thus, upheld parliamentary etiquette.
Frank admission
Rajiv was never vindictive. He was frank, forthright and had a clear vision. I cannot refrain myself from quoting his presidential address at the centenary celebrations of the Congress in Bombay in 1985:
"Our economy owes much to the enterprise of our industrialists. But there are some reputed business and industrial establishments which shelter battalions of law-breakers and tax-evaders. The trade unions have glorious heritage of nationalism and of socially relevant radicalism. Today, they are a mere shadow of their past... Teachers seldom teach and students seldom learn. Strikes, mass copying, agitations are more attractive alternatives...
"What had become of our great organisation? Instead of a party that fired the imagination of the masses throughout the length and breadth of India, we have shrunk losing touch with the toiling millions... Millions of ordinary Congress workers... are handicapped, for on their backs ride the brokers of power and influence, who dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy. They are self-perpetuating cliques who thrive by invoking the slogans of caste and religion and by enmeshing the living body of the Congress in their net of avarice."
Indeed a frank admission!
It was unfortunate that the good intentioned Prime Minister failed to keep the brokers of power at a distance. Rajiv was inducted as Prime Minister on October 31, 1984 and by then he had already earned the distinction of Mr. Clean. However, in less than a span of three years, he had to make a brief intervention on the Bofors issue in the Lok Sabha on August 6, 1987. He said: "During the course of discussions on the Bofors case, both inside and outside the House, many allegations have been made. Rumour and unfounded suspicion have been used to tarnish the image of the country and its leadership... I categorically declare, in this highest forum of India's democracy, that neither I nor any member of my family have received any consideration in these transactions. That is the truth." Never in India's history any Prime Minister had to rise in Parliament to make a statement defending himself against charges of corruption.
Horoscopes
In the second week of April 1990, I called on him at his Janpath residence and gave him photocopies of the horoscopes of Motilal Nehru, Swarup Rani Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kamala Nehru, Krishna Hutthee Singh and Indira Gandhi. He was very happy to receive them and also enquired the source from which I got them. I informed him that Jawaharlal Nehru's Sanskrit and Hindi tutor (the late Mahabir Prasad Malaviya), brother of my maternal grandfather, late Mool Chand Malaviya, used to maintain them and that about this tutor Nehru had made a reference in his autobiography. I could guess that he was very happy to go through the horoscopes of his ancestors and also thanked me for making them available to him.
In my capacity as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the Chandra Shekhar Government, I met him several times and found that he wished that the Chandra Shekhar Government should not face embarrassments or feel handicapped in facing Lok Sabha on the strength of only 54 members. Once he enquired from me as to how I was solely handling the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry because as Prime Minister he used to have four Ministers attached to the Ministry. He had also told me that Prof. P. J. Kurien and Mr. Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, both later Ministers in the Narasimha Rao Government, would be in touch with me for the day- to-day functioning in Parliament and in the event of any difficulty, I must not hesitate to contact him directly.
The Prime Minister, Mr. Chandra Shekhar, deputed me to represent the Union Government and to accompany the special train from Delhi carrying the urn (containing ashes) of Rajiv for immersion in the holy Sangam at Allahabad on May 28, 1991. I was also in the motor boat which carried the urn. The ashes were being immersed in the holy Sangam and I, a native of Allahabad, was morosely engrossed in the thought: "Those whom God love die young. These are the ashes of a lovable and charming young personality who was assassinated probably because of political decisions that he took as Prime Minister and considered appropriate for the country."
Rajiv tasted both a landslide victory (in 1984) and a humiliating defeat (in 1989) - one made him Prime Minister in his own right and the other made him Leader of the Opposition. He was the country's only Prime Minister to have also become the Leader of the Opposition. According to my assessment, Rajiv performed in the Lok Sabha better as Leader of the Opposition than as Prime Minister.
In case somebody asked me which Rajiv Gandhi I like the most: Rajiv Gandhi the politician or Rajiv Gandhi the Leader of the Opposition or Rajiv Gandhi the Prime Minister, my answer would be Rajiv Gandhi the human being. He had miles to go but alas destiny willed it otherwise and he was fated to become a martyr at a very young age.
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