Former Rajiv Gandhi aide Wajahat Habibullah’s book suggests Arun Nehru acted sans the then PM’s nod.
Was Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi oblivious to the decision of opening the lock of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple at the erstwhile Babri Masjid site? Retired bureaucrat and Nehru-Gandhi family confidant, Wajahat Habibullah has quoted a conversation with Rajiv Gandhi in September 1986 in his forthcoming memoir, My Years with Rajiv Gandhi: Triumph and Tragedy, to suggest that the then PM felt that his cousin Arun Nehru (internal security minister in 1986) and political advisor M.L. Fotedar had taken the decision, which he was unaware of. The book is expected to be in the market by October. A preview of the book has been accessed by Sonia Gandhi’s biographer, journalist Rasheed Kidwai, in which Habibullah quotes Rajiv Gandhi as saying, “I knew nothing of this development till I was told of it after the orders had been passed and executed”. Habibullah suggests that the decision to remove Arun Nehru from the Union Cabinet emanated from this chasm.
A 1968 batch IAS officer of Jammu & Kashmir cadre, Habibullah was a schoolmate of Rajiv Gandhi. He was a Director in the Prime Minister’s Office in the Rajiv era. Later he held several crucial appointments both in Jammu and Kashmir and at the Centre. He was CEO of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and was appointed India’s first Chief Information Commissioner in 2004. His proximity to the Nehru-Gandhi family notwithstanding, those in the know say Habibullah was not a key player in the Rajiv regime to have had access to all decision making.
The sequence of events leading to the opening of lock is well chronicled. The lock was put in 1949. A prolonged litigation ensued. In 1986, before giving his order for opening the lock, the District Judge of Faizabad summoned both the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of Faizabad to ascertain if opening the lock posed a law and order problem. On their answering in the negative, the judge pronounced his order on 1 February 1986. The lock was cut open (as keys were untraceable) within an hour of the judgement. Anticipating the crucial court order, Union Internal Security Minister Arun Nehru and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Vir Bahadur Singh were present in Faizabad that day and they oversaw the lock opening in the presence of Doordarshan cameras (there were no other news channels in 1986) and the event was covered on national TV. If Habibullah’s apprehension is correct, then the first head to roll should have been that of V.N. Gadgil, the I&B Minister, who had allowed the national telecast. The Rajiv regime had started the telecast of Ramayan and Mahabharat on Doordarshan.TV content was closely monitored.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who had quit the Rajiv Cabinet in protest against the decision to reverse the progressive Supreme Court order in the Shah Bano case through legislation had said in an interview a year back that unlocking Babri was a “balancing act” to assuage the feelings of the Hindus after the Rajiv regime succumbed to the demands of hardliner Muslims on Shah Bano. The decision to reverse Shah Bano was announced on 15 January 1986 and a fortnight later, on 1 February the lock was prized open. “The removal of the lock practically accepted the disputed structure as a temple”, Arif Mohammed Khan observed. (Arif Mohammed Khan and Arun Nehru quit Congress after leaving the Rajiv Cabinet and joined hands with another Rajiv team renegade, V.P. Singh, to launch Jan Morcha, which acted as the fulcrum of the 1989 defeat of the Congress.)
Arun Nehru’s great grandfather and Rajiv Gandhi’s great grandfather, Motilal Nehru, were brothers. He was born in April 1944 and was four months older than Rajiv Gandhi. A successful corporate honcho, who worked with Jenson & Nicholson, Arun Nehru was handpicked by Indira Gandhi to contest the Rae Bareli seat, which she vacated in 1980 as she had also been elected from Medak. He was selected as he was one of the very few members of the Nehru clan who had maintained cordial relations with Indira Gandhi. (Her acrimony with Nehru’s sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit and other members of the Nehru clan was well known. She had cordiality with the family of Kamala Nehru: she made her Mami, Shiela Kaul, minister.) After he won Rae Bareli as the “family nominee”, Arun Nehru was given an office in 12 Wellington Crescent (now Mother Teresa Crescent), the house to which the Nehru-Gandhi family had moved while they were not entitled to live in 1, Safdarjung Road, the Prime Minister’s House as Congress had lost power. He occupied the room once occupied by Sanjay Gandhi in that house—perhaps a symbolic gesture by Indira Gandhi.
After Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Arun Nehru was widely believed to have been the patron of those who engineered violence and the consequential riots. In the Rajiv regime he was made minister of state in the Home Ministry and charged with Internal Security. He was unceremoniously dropped in November 1986 and Habibullah’s narrative suggests that the decision on unlocking in Ayodhya was responsible for his downfall. In October, he had suffered a heart attack and had gone to Kashmir to recuperate. On his return he was ousted.
Those in the know of the happenings in the inner circle of those days say that Arun Nehru’s views on Ayodhya and even on removal of Article 370 were no secret. Vijay Dhar, who was Rajiv Gandhi’s first political aide in 1981, recalls a conversation between the Rajiv Gandhi and Arun Nehru in August 1985 where Dhar was present. Arun Nehru had pleaded for the removal of Article 370 and given his assessment that it will not create a law and order problem in J&K. (He was perhaps prophetic, when eventually 370 went, 34 Augusts later, his assessment was valid.) Rajiv Gandhi was astounded and later had confided to Dhar that he was not sure if opening the lock and removing 370 would be peaceful exercise.
While Arun Nehru was pushed out of the Rajiv regime, Arun Singh, the Doon classmate whom Rajiv Gandhi had commandeered from the corporate world (he was a Reckitt & Coleman top honcho) for his core team also quit his ministership in the wake of Bofors. Amitabh Bachchan, another buddy, quit his Lok Sabha seat (the bypoll, which ensued in 1988, catapulted V.P. Singh as the national alternative, who ousted the Rajiv regime in 1989). Insiders say Arun Nehru’s spouse, Subhadra, and Arun Singh’s spouse, Nina, had developed differences with Sonia Gandhi, which ultimately reflected in chasm between friends.
A factor which is often overlooked is that post Sanjay Gandhi, when Rajiv Gandhi became the heir apparent, the name of Italian business executive Ottavio Quattrochhi started figuring in controversies. The first one was in 1980 itself when the Thal Vaishet fertiliser technology deal was inked. This was raised by K.P. Unnikrishnan in the Lok Sabha, who cited government files. A CBI probe was ordered on the “leakage” (it is still gathering dust). The Estimates Committee of the 7th Lok Sabha had wryly stated that “superior extra-technical considerations” had influenced Thal Vaishet decision. Quattrochi’s name had figured in Bofors as well.
Rasheed Kidwai has mentioned in his books that there were Sunday brunches hosted in the lawns of PM House in which Quattrochhi was a regular invitee. Arun Nehru’s caution to his cousin on this score was not appreciated. Observers say that the differences which cropped up between President Giani Zail Singh and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were accentuated by a light banter by Giani which was carried as a tale. Commenting on Quattrochhi’s visits to PM House, which had fortified security cover post Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Giani is said to have commented, “Andar Italian, bahar battalion”.
In his tome, Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli has observed that while the ruler (“Prince”) sits atop a hill and has a 360-degree view from the highlands, his subjects and advisors can only give inputs from their limited vision from below. Wajahat Habibullah has given an honest interpretation from his vision level. Old Nehru-Gandhi family observers say that from Indira Gandhi days the family has functioned in “compartments”—knowledge and insights being shared on a “need to know” basis and work assigned on fulfilment criterion.