The veteran Congress leader and former CM of UP and Uttarakhand, N D Tewari, on Monday acknowledged Rohit Shekhar as his son after a long-drawn legal battle.
After Tewari’s acceptance, Rohit claimed, “One of the first things that he told me when I met him on Sunday at his guesthouse was that he was tired of fighting me -- we would have won the case.”
The mother, Dr Ujjwala Sharma, who was part of the family reunion, that took place after Tewari underwent a check-up in AIIMS, said, “It is a good that realisation has come to N D Tewari.” Ujjwala added that she’s relieved that “the thing could be taken to its logical conclusion”.
A few days ago, Tewari had called for an out-of-court settlement with Sharma and Rohit which the court refused. Now Rohit plans to inform the court that he has got what he wanted - “a son’s recognition from the man” and “not really property inheritance”. He claimed Tewari was there at his childhood birthday parties and used to even play with him.
Once a player of high stakes in Congress politics, Tewari was in the race for the Prime Minister’s chair but was pipped to the post by Narasimha Rao in 1991 and by Manmohan Singh in 2004. In recent years, Tewari has been known more for the controversies surrounding him.
It was in the midst of a sex scandal that he had to bow out of his gubernatorial position in Andhra Pradesh in December 2009 citing “health” reasons and then it was the paternity suit that kept him in news.
As for Rohit, he claimed that all the drama—legal and televised—was done for the larger good.
“Now that I’m with him, let’s see how it works out—whether he wants me to join politics, he added.”