President Pranab Mukherjee presents a memento to NCP chief Sharad Pawar on his 75th birthday. PTI
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 11
In a major embarrassment for the
Congress, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Agriculture Minister during the UPA regime,
has made startling claims about the working of Sonia Gandhi-led National
Advisory Council (NAC) saying it functioned like a super cabinet, undermining
the dignity of the Prime Minister’s Office.
“The National Advisory Council had
started showing dominance in decision-making process. Directions for what the
government (Congress-led UPA) should do on policy level and even about the
transfer and appointments of bureaucrats started coming from the NAC. The
authority of the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) was undermined due to this
extraordinary interference of the NAC,” Pawar revealed in his autobiography
released by PM Narendra Modi on his 75th birthday yesterday.
Pawar has said in his autobiography
that the then PM Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram didn’t agree
with many of NAC’s decisions but had to comply. He said though he played a
major role in installing Sonia as Congress chief and helped her to the post
instead of Sitaram Kesri, Sonia never trusted him.
On his split with the Congress,
Pawar says, “After elections to the 13th Lok Sabha were announced, Sonia called
an urgent meeting of the Congress Working Committee and sought responses of
members on whether her foreign origin could become an election issue. Arjun
Singh said it would not as Sonia was India’s daughter-in-law. AK Antony, Ghulam
Nabi Azad and Ambika Soni agreed to Singh. PA Sangma said it could become an
issue and Tariq Anwar also raised this matter. I said we should be ready to
face this issue. After the meeting ended I returned to Mumbai and leant that
Sonia had resigned as Congress president.” He then mentioned the CWC’s
subsequent move to suspend him, Sangma and Anwar – a move that led to the
formation of NCP under Pawar on May 25, 1999.
Sonia and
her son Rahul Gandhi had attended Pawar’s birthday celebrations at Vigyan
Bhawan yesterday.
