NEW DELHI: Former sleuths writing their tales — behind-the-scene stories about politicians and operations — is no longer a novelty. But former IB chief T V Rajeswar, who also served as Governor of many States, got old Indira Gandhi aide R K Dhawan in a flap, ever since he disclosed salacious secrets about the late PM.
Out with his Harper Collins published book ‘India: The Crucial Years’, Rajeswar first hinted that Indira was the reason why one chapter — provocatively titled She — had disappeared from the manuscript of M O Mathai’s memoirs ‘Reminiscences of Nehru Age’. And that Rajeswar was the one who had handed over the missing chapter to Indira via MGR, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, without reading. This is in view of Indira’s rumored ‘relationship’ with Mathai, Nehru’s personal assistant.
What has got Dhawan more worked up is what Rajeswar has written about the Emergency days — about Indira being fully aware of the excesses committed by her son Sanjay Gandhi during that period and that the then RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras had offered to support her Emergency. “How can he say this? There’s no basis to his claims,’’ Dhawan told Express. “There’s no way, he would have known about it. Besides, Jan Sangh had different role then,’’ he added.
Asserting that there was no way he would have not known if Deoras had tried to contact the Prime Minister’s Office or the Prime minister in those days, he, however, added that many people, including the RSS and many Jan Sangh leaders, had either tried or got in touch to avoid incarceration. “It was not as if Indira Gandhi was unaware of what was happening. She got regular feedback from the IB, also from several people whom she met every day… A nominated Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, considered a progressive economist, told her that during his morning walks in his village, he had heard about a conspiracy on the part of Indira Gandhi to get all the menfolk castrated so as to neutralise any opposition to her and the Congress,’’ Rajeswar writes in the chapter titled ‘The Emergency’. Dhawan disputes this, asserting that Indira was not aware of the human right violations that had taken place.