Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh skipped a function to release the book of late journalist and Padma Bhushan awardee Kuldip Nayar’s last book.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh skipped a function to release the book of late journalist and Padma Bhushan awardee Kuldip Nayar’s last book.
On Leaders and Icons: From Jinnah to Modi, on Friday after finding a reference in one of the chapters that government files went to 10, Janpath during his tenure as head of the government.
Maintaining that this was “not true”, Singh stated in a letter to Nayar’s wife, Bharti, that it would have been “embarrassing” for him to attend the event in that backdrop.
Rajiv Nayar, the late journalist’s son, said, “My father liked to stir controversies, and he sparked controversy because originally Dr Manmohan Singh had accepted to speak. But after reading the book, he declined.”
Rajiv then read out the former PM’s letter, written on February 1: “Ongoing through a chapter of the book dealing with me, I found a reference on page 172 that during my Prime Ministership, government files would go to Sonia Gandhi’s house. This statement is not true. And Kuldip never checked with me about its truth. In this background, I would find it embarrassing to attend the book-release function on February 8.”
Rajiv then read the lines concerned from the book: “Another irony is that the fact that Manmohan Singh had no popular base actually helped him in his political career. Congress president Sonia Gandhi selected him for the office…because he had no power base and would depend on her…. For nearly ten years he remained as Prime Minister because he was a convenient front man for Sonia…. Government files would go to Sonia Gandhi’s house at 10, Janpath…”
In a discussion that followed, moderated by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Congress Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister Kapil Sibal said, “I could only set the record straight that while I was in office for 10 years, neither the PMO nor 10 Janpath ever called me for any file.
Sometimes, you may get information that may not be accurate. We should appreciate and learn from his (Nayar’s) point of view but not be taken in by it as accurate.” Sibal added, “Nayar was a secular democrat and believed in plurality. He represented a brand of journalism that doesn’t exist any more.”
Union minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who was scheduled to release the book officially, addressed the event in a live video-conferencing from New York, where he is recuperating, and called Nayar the most iconic political journalist India has seen in the last 60-70 years – “a powerful commentator and the best reporter who didn’t have inhibitions.
” He said, “Many of us and several out there who, whether they agree with him or disagree with him, have had an emotional code with his writing…. I don’t think I can recollect anybody else in modern Indian history, who’s had an experience of this kind.”
On Leaders and Icons: From Jinnah to Modi, on Friday after finding a reference in one of the chapters that government files went to 10, Janpath during his tenure as head of the government.
Maintaining that this was “not true”, Singh stated in a letter to Nayar’s wife, Bharti, that it would have been “embarrassing” for him to attend the event in that backdrop.
Rajiv Nayar, the late journalist’s son, said, “My father liked to stir controversies, and he sparked controversy because originally Dr Manmohan Singh had accepted to speak. But after reading the book, he declined.”
Rajiv then read out the former PM’s letter, written on February 1: “Ongoing through a chapter of the book dealing with me, I found a reference on page 172 that during my Prime Ministership, government files would go to Sonia Gandhi’s house. This statement is not true. And Kuldip never checked with me about its truth. In this background, I would find it embarrassing to attend the book-release function on February 8.”
Rajiv then read the lines concerned from the book: “Another irony is that the fact that Manmohan Singh had no popular base actually helped him in his political career. Congress president Sonia Gandhi selected him for the office…because he had no power base and would depend on her…. For nearly ten years he remained as Prime Minister because he was a convenient front man for Sonia…. Government files would go to Sonia Gandhi’s house at 10, Janpath…”
In a discussion that followed, moderated by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Congress Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister Kapil Sibal said, “I could only set the record straight that while I was in office for 10 years, neither the PMO nor 10 Janpath ever called me for any file.
Sometimes, you may get information that may not be accurate. We should appreciate and learn from his (Nayar’s) point of view but not be taken in by it as accurate.” Sibal added, “Nayar was a secular democrat and believed in plurality. He represented a brand of journalism that doesn’t exist any more.”
Union minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who was scheduled to release the book officially, addressed the event in a live video-conferencing from New York, where he is recuperating, and called Nayar the most iconic political journalist India has seen in the last 60-70 years – “a powerful commentator and the best reporter who didn’t have inhibitions.
” He said, “Many of us and several out there who, whether they agree with him or disagree with him, have had an emotional code with his writing…. I don’t think I can recollect anybody else in modern Indian history, who’s had an experience of this kind.”