Rahul stopped Sonia from being PM: Mani Shankar Aiyar

'But Natwar Singh's version partial truth'

Former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, considered close to the Gandhi family, on Saturday said in May 2004 Rahul had asked his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to not become the prime minister (PM).

Aiyar, in an interview to Karan Thapar aired on news channel Headlines Today, didn't dispute his former ministerial colleague K Natwar Singh's claim that Rahul feared for her mother's life if she were to become the PM.

Aiyar, considered a confidant of Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980's, said there were other factors that contributed to Sonia's decision to not become the PM; Rahul's insistence was only one. He said Natwar Singh's version was only the partial truth.

Aiyar, a senior to Rajiv at The Doon School and Cambridge University, was an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who also served in the prime minister's office (PMO) when Rajiv was the PM from 1984 to 1989. Aiyar quit the service to join the Congress in 1989. Meanwhile, Natwar Singh, another Gandhi family loyalist, was also an IFS officer. He was part of the Indira Gandhi PMO in the 1970's. He quit in 1984, became a member of Parliament (MP) and a minister of state (MoS) for external affairs in Rajiv's council of ministers.

In the interview, Aiyar confirmed Natwar Singh's version of events after the assassination of Rajiv in 1991. He said the late ninth-President, Shankar Dayal Sharma was Sonia's first choice for the PM, as Natwar Singh had claimed in his autobiography, One Life Is Not Enough.

Aiyar said Sharma had told him about Sonia having indicated he be the PM but he turned it down on his ill health and old age. He also said the incident was common knowledge in Congress circles.

But Aiyar disagreed with Natwar Singh's claims Sonia was authoritarian. He said Sonia was democratic and encouraged inner-party debate on issues.

Aiyar, 71, rejected Natwar Singh's version of the Rajiv government's decision to send an Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka in 1987. Natwar had said Rajiv acted in haste and didn't consult the Cabinet. But Aiyar said Natwar, an MoS, wasn't part of the Cabinet and didn't know the full picture.

On his role during military exercise Operation Brasstacks (it is believed it could have started a war between India and Pakistan in early 1987), Aiyar said he had suggested to Rajiv he invite the then Pakistan President General Zia-ul-Haq to Delhi for lunch to diffuse the tension. Aiyar said Rajiv had told him how the then minister of state for defence, Arun Singh, and then army chief, General K Sundarji, had kept him in the dark about the exercise.

Aiyar said he had waited for Natwar Singh's autobiography to see whether it vindicated the former Congressman but now felt the book had totally "damaged him (Natwar)".