Column

Meanwhile in Delhi

Delhi’s power circles are still stunned by the speed with which Natwar Singh fell from grace. Suddenly, he was out, a man who was so close to the Gandhi family that he was one of the two witnesses who signed Rajiv’s and Sonia’s marriage certificate. (The other was the late Mohd Younus.)

The grapevine traces his slide back to a power party thrown two days after Diwali by retired secretary to the government, N K Singh, who makes a fetish of inviting the Capital’s who’s who to his birthday bashes. Natwar was one week into the Volcker storm and apparently out of control. The word from the party is that he was giving everyone a blow-by-blow account of his confrontation with the Prime Minister, boasting about telling the PM that he would be happy to face an inquiry but the government should be warned that any inquiry would lead straight to the top.

Was Natwar pointing a finger at Sonia Gandhi? The news traveled back to 10 Janpath faster than a bushfire spreads. The next day, the tide turned and Natwar’s many enemies in the Congress got clear hints that Sonia had withdrawn her pleasure. Nobody, but nobody, can threaten a Gandhi and get away with it.

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Once Natwar realized that Sonia had decided to cut him loose, his desperation soared. Mark his foot-in-the-mouth disease, when he came out with foreign policy howlers on television for two days running last weekend.

After using the carrot-and-stick method to ease him out of the foreign ministry, Sonia’s cold shoulder went on public display at last Monday’s state banquet for visiting Czech President Vaclav Klaus.

As a minister without portfolio, Natwar was announced at Rashtrapati Bhavan simply as ``cabinet minister’’. Sonia didn’t greet him and taking their cue from her, other ministers also ignored him. The only one who acknowledged his presence was Pranab Mukherjee. He was probably forced to do so because Natwar sidled up to him and stuck like glue through the evening.

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Now that Natwar has been sidelined as a minister without portfolio, Congress circles are buzzing with speculation about the fate of another old loyalist, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh. Arjun’s Rajya Sabha term ends next March and word is that he will not get another stint. At his 75th birthday celebrations last year, Sonia had dropped clear hints about it being time for Arjun to hang up his boots. Sonia’s aides have been trying to persuade him to fade into the sunset with a gubernatorial assignment but he’s been resisting.

The talk in the Congress is that Sonia no longer wants the two loyal Singhs around. She feels that she’s rewarded them enough by making them ministers when the Congress came to power last year. Now it’s time for them to retire and make way for younger loyalists. Congress circles are guessing that early next year, Arjun as well as Natwar could be out of the Cabinet and posted as governors. If this happens, it would be a major victory for the Prime Minister who’s been having a torrid time with these two old guard dogs of 10 Janpath.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net