WSN Service

NEW DELHI: Mrs Sonia Gandhi had bitterly opposed the proposal to appoint Mr Rajiv Gandhi Prime Minister of India soon after the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi on October 311984 P.C. Alexander the then Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister reveals in his book “My Years with Indira Gandhi”.

Describing the scene at All India Institute of Medical Sciences where Mrs Gandhi’s body had been kept on the afternoon of that fateful day P.C. Alexander says: “The scene I witnessed as I moved close to Rajiv was an extremely poignant one. Rajiv was clasping Sonia by both hands in a comer of that room and talking to her very animatedly Sonia was holding him tightly and with tears rolling down her cheeks was ardently pleading with him not to agree to be Prime Minister. Rajiv was kissing her forehead and trying to convince her that he had to accept the office as it was his duty to do so in that hour of grave crisis. Rajiv saw me standing immediately behind him and knew that I was impatient to talk to him Time was ticking away and a hundred things had to be attended to after getting Rajiv’s decision. I whispered to him that I had to talk to him immediately and that the matter was so urgent that I could not wait any longer. He then turned round and came away from Sonia with a gesture indicating to her that he was assuming that she had agreed”.

The officer in the account also mentioned Arun Nehru’s suggestion that the Vice President (now President of India) should swear in Rajiv Gandhi rather than waiting for the President to arrive from a foreign tour that afternoon. Besides Nehru was apprehensive about Giani Zail Singh who the former thought might not agree to make Rajiv Gandhi Prime Minister. The author says he opposed the Rajiv’s consent to the proposal so that Giani Zail Singh should swear-in Gandhi.

P.C. Alexander also records that the President immediately on arrival at Delhi airport expressed his readiness and pleasure to swear-in Rajiv without going through an interim arrangement That quickly set at rest all doubts on that score In fact the President personally informed Rajiv about his decision when he met him at the Institute where he went straight from the airport rather than going to Rashtrapati Bhavan first.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 7, 1991