New Delhi:
These are excerpts from the new autobiography by Congress leader Arjun Singh,
A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time. The book (Hay House Publishers, India) will be available in bookstores starting June this year for Rs 599 in India.
SUNSETIn the 2009 general elections, the Congress Party, along with its coalition partners, acquired a majority in the Lok Sabha. Dr Manmohan Singh again became prime minister on 22 May 2009, while Sonia Gandhi decided to remain Congress president as well as chairperson of the UPA. After the process for cabinet formation was over, I was taken aback when I learnt that my name was not in the list of Council of Ministers despite all that I had done for the Congress Party as a loyal member for so many decades. Moreover, I had once enjoyed the confidence of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, during whose tenures I had carried out many crucial assignments. Deeply hurt, I was unable to understand why I had not been appointed a minister. I then decided to face the reality in a stoic manner and, after deep self-introspection, came to the conclusion that the older generation had to make way for youngsters and one could not hope to hold on to office indefinitely.
OFF TO PUNJABAfter the Congress Party amassed more than 400 seats (out of 542) in the December 1984 Lok Sabha elections, Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as prime minister. In the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections that followed in February 1985, the Congress won a three-fourth majority. Rajiv Gandhi sent me a message of congratulations. The deferred Lok Sabha election for the Bhopal constituency was held towards the end of January 1985 and the Congress Party won here also. As already mentioned in Chapter 17, with this win, the Congress, for the first time since independence, bagged all the 40 Lok Sabha seats allotted to Madhya Pradesh.
On 11 March 1985, I was duly elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party and sworn in once again as chief minister. The next day, I reached New Delhi early in the morning for a meeting with Rajiv Gandhi at 10.30 a.m., in order to finalize the names of the ministers who were to be inducted into my cabinet. When I reached his residence at 1, Safdarjung Road, I was informed that he was in the main room. I went to the antechamber, which ML Fotedar, who was once a close aide of Indira Gandhi, used to occupy during her tenure and continued to do so. To my surprise, I found Arun Nehru (Rajiv's second cousin and his then confidant) also present there. I then went into Rajiv's room and found him standing by a chair. After greeting him, I was about to mention the purpose of my visit, when he took hold of my hand and said that he had a special assignment for me, which took me by surprise. Rajiv then told me that he had made a commitment to the nation to settle the Punjab issue as his first priority after taking office. When I asked him: 'Can I help in this matter?' he replied: 'Certainly. I have chosen you as the person who will help me carry out my promise and you will be taking over as governor of Punjab.' I involuntarily asked: 'When do I have to go?' He then asked me whether I would like to consult my wife before I took any decision. I replied that I did not have to because she understood the nature of my job and my priorities. He then stated: 'In that case you should take over in Punjab on 14 March. So far as Madhya Pradesh is concerned, you have the choice to nominate anyone you like as the chief minister and the Pradesh Congress Committee president.' I requested him to give at least an hour's time to make up my mind on these appointments. He also assured me that after I had completed the task in Punjab, I was welcome to take up the chief ministership of Madhya Pradesh again or I could join his cabinet. He then handed over to me a file containing documents with regard to the situation in Punjab and requested me to study them. He next asked me if I had any conditions in accepting this offer. I replied that I had only one condition: I must have direct access to him at all times to seek any guidance when necessary and I should not be made to wait by the mandarins of the Home Ministry. To this he replied: 'The day you take over, a direct secrophone will be installed in your room in your residence through which you can have direct access to me at all times.
PHOOLAN DEVIWhen I first saw the 'dreaded' Phoolan Devi, I was shocked. She was a diminutive character, hardly 5 feet in height, with an automatic rifle swung over her shoulder. She walked up to the dais, where I was standing, touched my feet and laid down her arms on the ground. I was sympathetic towards her because she had been forced into taking the law into her own hands as a result of a series of brutal acts against her. But all violence and counterviolence, terror and the brutality that she had unleashed came to an end that day. I specially thanked Rajendra Chaturvedi and Kalyan Mukherjee, who had gone beyond the call of duty, for all their efforts and told Phoolan Devi that all the assurances given by the two of them would be honoured. After that, she was escorted by the police to a van and driven to the Gwalior jail. She was to serve out nearly eight years of her prison term in Madhya Pradesh. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh did not pressurize me too much to hand her over to the police of his state. More than seven years later, in December 1990, while I was admitted to the Escorts Heart Institute in New Delhi for a heart bypass surgery, I received a small note from her conveying the message that she was in prison and could hardly do anything to help me, but wished that I should be 'graced' by the remaining period of her life. I was touched by this gesture from a once-feared outlaw. should be 'graced' by the remaining period of her life. I was touched by this gesture from a once-feared outlaw. But imagine the irony of life. Once she was immensely feared by one and all. Later, after her release from prison, she was elected by the people to represent them in Parliament in 1996. Subsequently, she was killed in her own house in Delhi on 25 July 2001 by some of the descendants of those whom she had eliminated at Behmai. It has been well said that those who live by the sword, shall perish by the sword.
THE BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDYIn the midst of these discussions, one of the officials remarked that Warren Anderson, the 63-year-old chairman and CEO of Union Carbide (a US citizen), was expected to visit Bhopal in a few days' time. I kept this news to myself but my mind kept on working on various scenarios that could result when Anderson arrived here. Ultimately, I reached a firm decision that I would arrest him for I felt that he was primarily responsible for the colossal tragedy in Bhopal.
In the evening, while campaigning with Rajiv in the interior, I received a message from the authorities in Bhopal that Warren Anderson was coming the next (7 December) morning to Bhopal to visit the factory, the source of immense anguish and agony to thousands of people. AS soon as I heard this news, my sense of outrage greatly increased. I sought permission from Rajiv to return to Bhopal.
As soon as I reached the state capital, I broached this subject to Brahma Swaroop, the chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh. His preliminary advice was that we should not allow Anderson to come to Bhopal at all. But, by then, it was too late to prevent him from coming.
I next asked Bhopal's district magistrate, Moti Singh, and the superintendent of police, Swaraj Puri, to meet me immediately. When they arrived at my residence, I handed over a piece of paper to Puri in which I had written out clear instructions to arrest Anderson, Keshub Mahindra (the non-executive director of Union Carbide, India) and Vijay Gokhale (the managing director of Union Carbide, India). (Normally, the chief minister does not give written instructions, but, given the gravity of this case, I felt I had to put everything in black and white because I knew the tremendous pressure that the SP and the DM would be subjected to while carrying out their duty.)
Anderson may have been under the impression that Puri and his men had come to receive him on behalf of the government. After Anderson had been escorted out of the airport and had occupied his place on the back seat of the car provided for him, Puri, who was sitting in the front, informed him that 'he is being put under arrest as being responsible for this great tragedy as the owner of the factory'. He was very surprised when he was told this. He kept on asking: 'Why is the chief minister not here to receive me?' The SP initially did not say anything, but as Anderson began pestering him, he replied: 'Well that is not a question which I can answer; you better ask it when you meet the chief minister yourself.' Anderson then asked him: 'Are you taking me to jail?' Puri replied: 'No Sir, I am not taking you to jail but to your own rest house where you will be confined under police custody.'
I then left Bhopal to join Rajiv in the next leg of the election campaign. As soon as I met him, I informed him about all the developments that had taken place in the morning, including the arrest of Anderson. I emphasized the point that I had to order the arrest of Anderson to retain the confidence that the people had reposed in me. Rajiv heard me out quietly but made no comment. A little later, while we were touring, I received a wireless message from Brahma Swaroop, informing me that a top official from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had rung him up repeatedly from New Delhi advising us to make sure that bail was granted to Anderson. After that, we were instructed to send him to New Delhi in 'a state plane'. I told the chief secretary that he should 'do what is required', but I insisted that he first make sure that Anderson's arrest was duly recorded. I would like to make it clear that at no point of time did Rajiv talk to me about this matter or intercede on Anderson's behalf. I came to know later that the Union home secretary, RD Pradhan, upon the instructions of the Union home minister, PV Narasimha Rao, had telephoned Brahma Swaroop to ensure Anderson's release.