NEW DELHI: Former Food Minister Kalpnath Raj has claimed that PV ‘Narasimha Rao’s son Prabhakar Rao and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) were responsible for the sugar ‘scam which cost the nation Rs 650 crore, He, however, had to bear the responsibility for the scandal and lost his job in the Union Council of Ministers in its wake.

Kalpnath Rai says that pressure was brought upon him not to raise the involvement of Prabhakar Rao in the sugar scandal at that time. “I kept quiet, because I was under tremendous pressure that if I divulged the name of the Prime Minister’s son then the party and the government would breakup,” Rai said in an interview in response to written questions sent to him at Tihar Central Jail, where he is currently lodged as an under trial, Kalpnath Rai has stated categorically, that the Prime Minister’s son phoned him directly to influence sugar import policy decisions. Although Prabhakar Rao’s “involvement” in the sugar scam had been doing the rounds of the tumor mills in the Capital, this is the first time that the then minister concerned has confirmed it.

According to Kalpnath Rai, it was under the influence of Prabhakar Rao and the PMO that without consulting the Food Minister, the officials of the Ministry placed orders with some foreign firms for importing billions of rupees worth of sugar. “Even Cabinet Secretary Zafar Saifullah was influenced by them (Prabhakar Rao and the PMO),” Rai claims.

Prabhakar Rao, apparently, wanted Kalpnath Rai to rescind his order cancelling sugar imports through the FCI. ‘When his telephonic intervention with the Food Minister did not work, the Prime Minister’s son sought a one to ‘one meeting with him. Kalpnath Rai says that the meeting took place at Delhi’s exclusive Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Rai now claims that he had smelt a rat and was convinced that “these people are going to loot enormous wealth” by favoring selected companies abroad with the sugar import orders,

The former Food Minister denied that he had been forced to resign because of the Gain Prakash Report on the sugar scandal. Instead, he claims that he merely sent in a resignation at the behest of the PM “to protect the prestige of Narasimha Rao.” While seeking his resignation letter, the Prime Minister had apparently made it Clear to Kalpnath Rai that this was only a subterfuge for public consumption and that he would in fact continue to keep him in his Council of Ministers, “Salman Khurshid is a witness to this,” he said.

According to Rai, Narasimha Rao told him that a resignation letter was being sought from him under pressure from Arjun Singh and that he would not make it operational, “But he stabbed me in the back,” Rai now feels.

Even after accepting his resignation letter, according to Rai, Rao kept promising him “directly and through his emissaries R.K, Dhawan and Bhajan Lal” that he intended to rehabilitate him by promoting Kim from his previous rank of a Minister of State to that of a Cabinet Minister, Kalpnath, subsequently, realized that this was an attempt to buy his silence.

Now, in a tone of deep bitterness, Rai says that Narasimha Rao is “a liar, manipulator, intriguer and a back biter.” An embittered Rai recalls that even Indira Gandhi had advised him not to trust Narasimha Rao. And as for Rajiv Gandhi’s attitude towards ‘Rao, he “did not even consider him fit for a Congress ticket in 1991,” Rai Says that “Rajiv Gandhi had once told me that PV articulate nothing.”

But despite these forewarnings, Kalpnath Rai feels that he was loyal to Narasimha Rao, And thus he says, “When I think of my present plight I am reminded of Julius Caesar saying “Thou too Brutus.”

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 10, 1996