Complete story - Natwar Singh and his hatred for Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: Natwar Singh has created ripples in Indian politics with his sensational revelations about Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her husband late Rajiv Gandhi and their children Rahul and Priyanka. Natwar Singh, a former union minister, in his book “One Life is not Enough: An Autobiography” has made startling disclosures about the sequence of events that made Sonia Gandhi backtrack on her PM candidature that resulted in Dr Manmohan Singh emerging as the dark horse who went on to become India's Prime Minister in 2004. If Natwar Singh is to be believed then it was Rahul Gandhi who forced Sonia Gandhi to withdraw her candidature as he feared for her life in case she became Prime Minister. Rahul was worried that Sonia may also get assassinated like his father and grandmother. This piece of disclosure shatters all talks of Sonia Gandhi's “inner voice” preventing her from occupying 7 Racecourse Road. It demolished all pretentions of Sonia Gandhi sacrificing the PM post in the larger interest of the party and the nation.Natwar Singh has made many more startling disclosures in his book that is hugely embarrassing for Sonia Gandhi and her family. He has alleged that Rajiv Gandhi sent IPKF to Sri Lanka without approval of the cabinet. He has also mentioned that Rajiv blindly trusted LTTE chief Prabhakaran who double crossed him that finally led to Rajiv's assassination.So who is Natwar Singh and how did he get access to such confidential information? And what is the reason behind his immense hatred for Sonia Gandhi? Kunwar Natwar Singh was Singh was born on 16 May 1931 into an aristocratic Jat family of Bharatpur in Rajasthan. He went to some of the best educational institutions including Scindia School, Gwalior, Mayo College and St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He also studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University and was a visiting scholar for sometime at Peking University, China.Natwar Singh is married to Heminder Kaur, sister of Amarinder Singh, former Chief Minister of Punjab and titular Maharaja of Patiala.Natwar Singh started off his career as a diplomat as he joined Indian Foreign Service in 1953. He served as diplomat for more than three decades and served in different positions in different countries including China and USA. He also worked with the UNICEF.His relationship with Gandhi family started in 1966 when he was posted in PM secretariat under Indira Gandhi. He succeeded in creating a place of herself in the inner circle of Indira Gandhi. He was awarded ‘Padma Bhushan' in 1984 and he resigned from IFS the same year. His last posting was as secretary in the foreign ministry. He joined Indian National Congress in 1984 and was elected to the 8th Lok Sabha from Bharatpur constituency in Rajasthan. In 1985, he was sworn in as MoS for steel, coal and mines, and agriculture. In 1986, he was appointed MoS for external affairs. As MoS in MEA, he was elected President of the UN Conference on Disarmament and Development held in New York in 1987, and also led the Indian delegation to the 42nd Session of the UN General Assembly. He continued in Rajiv Gandhi cabinet as MoS in foreign ministrty till 1989 when Rajiv Gandhi led government lost general elections. In his book, Natwar Singh has given a very interesting account of the Operation Brasstacks carried out by the Indian army in 1986 and 1987 on the Indo-Pak border. If Natwar Singh is to be believed then this operation was carried out by Minister of state for defence Arun Singh and Chief of Army Staff Gen Krishnaswamy Sundarji without the knowledge of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.When Rajiv came to know of this, he discussed it with N D Tiwari and Natwar Singh and asked them what to do with his MoS Arun Singh. Natwar singh advised him to sack Arun Singh but Rajiv said,” "Arun Singh is a friend." But a firm Natwar Singh replied, "Sir, you are not the President of the Old Boys' Association of Doon School. You are the Prime Minister of India. Prime Ministers have no friends."In 1989, Congress under Rajiv Gandhi lost general elections and Natwar Singh was defeated from Mathura LS seat in Uttar Pradesh. In 1991, when P V Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister, Natwar Singh fel out with him and he along with Arjun Singh and N D Tiwari left Congress and formed a separate party named All India Indira Congress (Tiwari). He returned to Congress once again in 1998 after Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of party in her own hands.Sonia Gandhi rewarded Natwar Singh with a party ticket from Bharatpur . Natwar returned to 12th Lok Sabha in 1998. Since the Congress was out of power, natwar had to sit in opposition and he lost 1999 Lok Sabha elections. In 2002, he was sent to Rajya Sabha by the party.Once the Congress party returned to power in 2004, Natwar Singh was made Minister for External Affairs in Manmohan Singh government. The year 2005 proved to be disastrous for Natwar Singh. It was in this very year that his name cropped up in Volcker committee report on corruption in “oil for food” programme.Paul Volcker led committee alleged that Congress party and Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh were non-contractual beneficiaries of the “Oil for food” programme. It was also alleged that Sonia Gandhi led Congress party used the illegal money to contest 2004 general elections.An embarrassed Congress party decided to wash its hands off the entire controversy and the entire blame was put on Natwar Singh. Natwar Singh was first expelled from the cabinet and was suspended from the party later on. Natwar Singh who was finding it difficult to cope with the humiliation heaped on him by none other than the family that he served for 45 years left him completely crestfallen. In 2008, he finally resigned from the Congress.It was the insult heaped on him by the Congress party under Sonia Gandhi's leadership that made him so bitter against Gandhi fanily especially the Congress president.In one of his interviews after the excerpts of his forthcoming book was made public, Natwar went to the extent of saying that some part of Sonia Gandhi is not Indian because no Indian would have treated him so shabbily as Sonia Gandhi did. “Neither Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi nor Rajiv – nor any other Indian - would have behaved like that (with me). That is a part of Sonia that is ruthless,” said Natwar Singh.When asked if Sonia's behavior was because of her Italian origins, Natwar Singh said, “What else can it be? Some part of her is not Indian”.Natwar Singh tried his luck with BSP after resigning from Congress but the experiment failed miserably as Behenji suspended both Natwar and his son very soon for indulging in anti-party activities.Natwar's son, Jagat Singh, joined BJP and is presently an MLA in Rajasthan. If Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh is to be believed then Natwar Singh is trying to use his book to create a platform for his son jagat Singh.Whatever may be the reason, Natwar Singh's scathing attack on Sonia Gandhi and her family through his book can't be ignored factually as it's an account of a person who was privy to whatever was happening in the family and governments. But what can't be overlooked is the fact that Natwar Singh has made all these revelations only after he was made to quit from the party under embarrassing circumstances. It could very well be the uttering of a man who was considered a family sycophant and who could not tolerate his insult by his masters.