NEW DELHI: The late RK Dhawan, former union minister and confidant of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, received the honour in his death that was not accorded to former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao.
After Congress chief Rahul Gandhi paid tributes to Dhawan, who passed away on Monday, at his Golf Links residence, the mortal remains were brought to the AICC headquarters at 24, Akbar Road, where former party chief Sonia Gandhi, along with several other leaders and workers, paid her last respect to the former union minister.
Dhawan worked as personal secretary to Indira Gandhi from 1962 to 1984 and was part of her coterie during the Emergency, but got shunted out by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi over suspicion that he had a role in Indira's assassination. However, by 1989 Dhawan was back in the power game and went on to become a Rajya Sabha member, a Union minister, party general secretary and a member of the Congress Working Committee.
Party veterans said Sonia, who was Congress chief from 1998 to 2017, had high regard for Dhawan and walked down from her 10 Janpath residence to offer floral tributes to the Gandhi family loyalist.
In contrast, former prime minister Rao, who was always viewed with suspicion by the Congress high command, did not get the same honour in 2004 and his mortal remains were not allowed inside the AICC compound.
The main reason was the demolition in 1992 of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, which occurred when Rao was PM. That single incident, many of Rao's contemporaries believe, took away the Congress' traditional Muslim votes in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, pushing the grand old party to the margins. Besides, Sonia was not satisfied with the progress in cases related to the killing of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi when Rao was PM.
Rao remained a sort of pariah during the UPA rule from 2004-14 and got a memorial in Delhi only when Modi became PM.