Don't take away my title, says a former Maharaja to Congress

A former Maharaja, who was a minister in Indira Gandhi's cabinet, has dubbed the Congress move asking partymen to shed all feudal titles as one aimed at diverting the attention from a political dynasty.

80-year-old Bhanu Prakash Singh, erstwhile Maharaja of Narsinggarh in the present day Madhya Pradesh, feels that the Congress has "usurped" the power of Parliament and Government by resorting to the move and wonders what authority the party has to do it.

"It is the work of a petty politician... to divert the attention from a political dynasty," says Singh, who is not new to controversies. Singh is visibly unhappy over the development and unable to find the rationale behind the move.

Singh is proud of his lineage and feels that the party was taking away "our identity" by the move. He asks whether Sonia Gandhi would have been so powerful a leader had she not married Rajiv Gandhi and become part of the first family of the Congress.

A former governor of Goa, Singh has always been a Congressman and was expelled by Indira Gandhi from the party in the wake of his opposition to the abolition of privy purses. He was, however, taken back into the party fold by her in 1974.

Udayan Raje, direct descent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and currently the NCP MP from Satara, has also said that the move takes away the identity of erstwhile royals.