capt-ditched-natwar-for-sonia-she-later-ditched-him

It was a classic case of washing dirty linen in public. And those wishing it were not ordinary people. 

 

One was a former Punjab Chief Minister and a scion of the Patiala royal family and another a former External Affairs Minister and the son-in-law of the same family. What was more intriguing was that the two were closely related to each other as brothers-in-law and had enjoyed a warm and cordial relationship till then.

 

The reason for the ugly spat between two highly refined, cultured and dignified royals was one's sense of betrayal with Sonia Gandhi and another’s sense of loyalty towards her. It was a royal clash fought in an ugly manner. 

 

Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and his late brother-in-law and former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh had so much in common. Erudite scholarship and strong opinions were just a few common traits. Natwar was older than Amarinder by about 13 years.

 

Amarinder treated him with all the respect one brother-in-law accords to the other, more so as he happened to be the son-in-law of the family.

 

Otherwise, also, Amarinder is known as a man of gracious attitude who treats everyone, irrespective of his position or stature, with due grace and dignity. Natwar, in strong contrast, was too egoistic bordering on arrogance. 

 

Ironically, both Natwar and Amarinder felt badly let down by Ms Sonia Gandhi. Natwar in 2005 after the Volcker Report became public and Amarinder in 2021. Natwar was removed in the most ungraceful way as the External Affairs Minister in the aftermath of the Volcker Commission Report in December 2005. 

Amarinder met the same fate in September 2021, when Sonia caved into the pressure from her children, Rahul and Priyanka to replace him (Amarinder) at the behest of Navjot Singh Sidhu.

 

When Natwar was shown an ungraceful exit in a most ungrateful manner, he remarked famously that had Sonia Gandhi been an Indian she would not have let him down and treated him like that. He had a long association with four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family starting from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s time right till 2005 to Sonia and Rahul.

 

Even while Sonia Gandhi had been completely sidelined during PV Narasimha Rao’s time and tenure, Natwar stood by her. He along with Arjun Singh, ND Tiwari, ML Fotedar and Sheila Dixit rebelled against Rao and formed Congress-Tiwari, which eventually paved Sonia’s way back to the Congress as its president. Rest is history.

 

Natwar nourished a deep grudge against Sonia for being so badly let down. When his autobiography, “One Life is Not Enough: An Autobiography”, came out it rattled Sonia as Natwar was very critical of her. The autobiography carried some personal references, which Sonia took offence to. The autobiography was published in 2014 after the fall of the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh. 

 

Amarinder at that time was looking forward to a political comeback after defeating Arun Jaitley from Amritsar in the 2014 General Elections. He had reluctantly fought against Jaitley at the behest of Sonia only. It was a very tough and challenging proposition.

 

Amarinder was well aware of Sonia’s preferences and prejudices. Knowing that she did not like Natwar anymore, Amarinder maintained a distance from him and wanted it to be seen that he had kept his brother-in-law at arm’s length.

 

It was an innocuous remark of Natwar that unduly and disproportionately angered Amarinder, apparently more out of an apprehension that it might offend or antagonise Sonia than anything else. Natwar made a passing reference in an interview with a news magazine that he was having lunch with his brother-in-law (Amarinder) in Hotel Oberoi, Delhi.

Amarinder not only denied it firmly but claimed that he had not spoken with him (Natwar) for seven years. Having lunch with someone who had personally attacked Sonia at that time would simply be fatal for anyone in Congress. Amarinder knew it too well. 

 

Then started the proverbial “washing of dirty linen in public”.

Natwar felt offended that Amarinder had accused him of lying. Not to be cowed down, Natwar in a signed article in the India Today magazine went ballistic accusing him of being “semi-literate” and lacking manners. He even made references to his relationship with a Pakistani journalist.

Natwar wrote, “Amarinder is not only semi-literate, he lacks good manners. The semi-literates have a very limited vocabulary, which is laced with abuse and vulgarity. He has called me senile, frustrated and a liar. I am neither senile nor frustrated. My autobiography has sold 70,000 copies in two months. His book is gathering dust in shops. Let’s now take up lying and betraying. Amarinder has betrayed his wife, cheated on her, deceived her and abandoned her for a Pakistani vamp, who calls herself the Maharani of Patiala. The real Maharani is the dignified and faithful Preneet Kaur”.  

 

Amarinder, not known to take things lying down either even if it is his elder brother-in-law, retorted back, writing, “Natwar is a liar, a cheat and a thief”.

 

Amarinder wrote, “Natwar refutes descriptions as a senile and a frustrated liar. I am sorry I missed out on ‘thief’…and you know why I think he’s a liar, a cheat and a thief? He took my mother’s jewellery and lied about it. When I confronted him later after my father’s death, he denied taking anything.

When I persisted, he returned a few small trinkets. I have often wondered how my sister, who is a perfectly sensible person, chose him out of half a billion Indian men”.

 

This entire “dirty linen was washed in public” just because Amarinder wanted to distance himself from his brother-in-law Natwar, who had just released his autobiography, One Life is Not Enough, in which he had made some personal attacks on Sonia Gandhi. 

 

It is an irony that the same Sonia Gandhi disowned Amarinder in 2021 in the same way she had disowned Natwar in 2005. Amarinder was the Chief Minister of Punjab. A rebellion was engineered against him. Given the warm and cordial relationship Amarinder enjoyed with Sonia, he expected her to stand by him.

 

He felt stabbed in the back when the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting was convened by the party general secretary in charge, without his (Amarinder’s) knowledge despite him being the CLP leader. Amarinder had no idea of the CLP meeting and learnt of it in the morning when one of the party MPs called him from Delhi. Amarinder got the signal and he resigned as the Chief Minister, with a deep sense of betrayal, like Natwar Singh. 

 

In yet another irony related to the same plot, the same Natwar Singh, with whom Amarinder had such an ugly spar over Sonia Gandhi came to his defence and lashed out at Gandhi, (Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka) for their treatment of one of the senior-most Chief Ministers in India. 

 

Life came full circle for both as both met the same fate. Amarinder and Natwar put everything behind them and enjoyed a cordial relationship later. Amarinder was present at his funeral in Delhi on Monday.