R Krishna Das
Though Congress President Sonia Gandhi may have a frosty relationship with former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, it was he who played crucial role in making Rajiv Gandhi Prime Minister.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, there was haste for her successor and a fraction of Congress leaders were of the view that Rajiv Gandhi should be straightaway installed as the new Prime Minister. The then President, Giani Zail Singh was out of the country and their relations with Mrs Gandhi had soured.
Arun Nehru suggested that Vice President R Venkataraman should immediately administer the oath to Rajiv Gandhi. However, Rajiv Gandhi decided that the oath would be administered by the President as it was the right practice. Giani Zail Singh reached New Delhi from North Yemen around 5 pm (October 31, 1984).
But the real farce was the Congress Parliamentary Board (CPB) stamp on Rajiv’s appointment. Before he took oath of office, the CPB had to pass a resolution electing Rajiv as the leader.
In his book The Dynasty, S S Gill said there were four vacancies in the nine-member CPB. With Mrs Gandhi no more, Kamalapati Tripathi and M Chandrashekhar out of station, the Prime Minister of world’s largest democracy was formally elected by two members P V Narasimha Rao and Pranab Mukherjee.
The book said the decision was endorsed by Congress Working Committee (CWC) on November 3 and Congress Parliamentary Party on November 5.
Interestingly, Narasimha Rao had to face humiliation and ignored when Sonia Gandhi was back at helm of affairs in Congress. She is also castigated for allegedly not allowing former Prime Minister’s funeral to take place in New Delhi.
