Chavan denies attacking Rao in television interview

Former Union home minister Shankarrao Chavan has denied a television interview where he is said to have accused former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao of having 'played tricks with him.'

Chavan is reported to have told Rubaru, an interview-based show to be telecast on Sunday on the El TV network, that he could not save the Babri Masjid in December 1992 because Rao would not allow him to dismiss the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh four days before the demolition.

Chavan also told the interviewer, Rediff On The NeT columnist Rajiv Shukla, that Rao would not allow him to send the army to Avodhya. He claimed he was ready with a contingency plan and would have dismissed the Bharatiya Janata Party government well in advance.

He said he could not be held responsible for the demolition. "I was ready with 95 companies of paramilitary forces to send to Faizabad and was waiting for the green signal from the prime minister. In fact, Kalyan Singh complained about me to the prime minister over the movement of paramilitary forces. The situation was such that I was not the ultimate decision making authority," Chavan said.

"Even if we had imposed President's Rule in Uttar Pradesh on December 2, we would have prevented this incident," the former home minister said. "I spoke to the prime minister, but he maintained a silence and neither said yes or no to my proposal. Now you can make your interpretation of it."

Asked why the Cabinet had not been summoned immediately after the demolition commenced, Chavan said ''I told the prime minister that a Cabinet meeting should be called immediately and action taken, but he kept watching television throughout the day. If the prime minister had given me any direction, I would have taken some action by sending police forces by helicopter."

The former home minister disclosed that after the pandemonium in Parliament when Rao's resignation was being sought by the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, then minister for parliamentary affairs, "came to me and advised that I should tender my resignation as a scapegoat so the prime minister could be saved. I told Azad that I would not resign on his advice and let the prime minister himself ask me to do so."

During the interview Chavan expressed his anguish against Rao. "The perception is that I was very close to Rao," he said, "but the fact is altogether different. He has been playing tricks with me. This is the reason that today he has not even one trustworthy person with him. I have also left him and have joined hands with Kesri. In fact, I suffered a lot because of Rao. He used me wherever he wanted to use me. In spite of that I remained loyal to him. He deliberately sent Rajesh Pilot and P Chidambaram to my ministry and used them against me. When he sent Chidambaram to look after the Rajiv assassination probe, I told Rao that if you have no confidence in me then remove from the home ministry."

The former home minister -- who refused to meet Rediff On The NeT correspondent Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay on Saturday -- told United News of India that he was ''surprised'' to see the report on the Babri Masjid issue and the dismissal of the UP government. Chavan said he was being unnecessarily dragged into the controversy

His revelations on Rubaru are not limited to the events in Ayodhya on that winter day. Chavan also claimed that important and sensitive documents related to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination were not shown to him by the director of the Intelligence Bureau. The documents, he claimed, were directly seen by then prime minister Rao.

Chavan said the documents include a sensitive message in Tamil which was intercepted 15 days before the assassination. This message was not given to the Jain Commission "because it was never shown to me by the Intelligence Bureau and it had been directly given to the then prime minister," the former home minister said..

These revelations are bound to create a storm within the Congress party. Last fortnight, Congress president Sitaram Kesri alleged in a letter to the prime minister that Rao had made no attempt to get to the truth of who killed Rajiv Gandhi.

Chavan also revealed the reasons for his long feud with Sharad Pawar. "He has always been working against me," he said, "and I have got enough material against him which I can hand over to the media though I do not like this kind of politics."

Rajiv Shukla has denied Chavan's allegation that the interview was incorrect. "We have recorded Chavan's statements where he criticised Rao," he said. "Why should we denigrate Chavan? It is not fair of Mr Chavan to go back on his word when everything is on record.”