The Rediff Special /Giani Zail Singh

I told Rajiv I had no love for office or power

The daily reports filed by the Intelligence Bureau with the government area always sent to the President for his information. These reports were being forwarded to me. The government also receives coded messages from our embassies abroad, which, after decoding, are regularly put up to the prime minister and the President. These reports were being sent up to me also. But suddenly these stopped coming to me, which caused me great surprise. I did not know the reason or the intentions of the government. Once, when the prime minister happened to see me, I asked him the reason behind this negative approach. I wondered if it was an indication of the President having lost the confidence of the government or was it due to some other reason? If it was the loss of trust, them the President could be impeached. And even if the prime minister would take me into confidence, I would be ready to give up my office. The prime minister denied this and said that there was no question of the government not having the fullest confidence in me, and the question of my quitting did not arise. I also mentioned to the prime minister that there were several invitations from the heads of state of other countries for my visits abroad, and it was mystifying that the government had not cleared the visits. I told the prime minister that I was receiving proposals for appointments of ambassadors, judges and governors from the government and I was clearing them with great dispatch, but the government was taking inordinate time in deciding matters relating to me. I asked the PM to be frank. I had no love for office and power, I told him, and I could walk out any time, when I realised that my stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan was not to the liking of the prime minister. I was like a sojourner in an inn, and I would have no regret checking out any time. But the way the government was dealing with me, it was not too appropriate or dignified. I wanted the prime minister to open his heart and express his real feelings.

Regarding invitations from the foreign states, the prime minister took pains to elaborate that the capital had been rocked by transistor bomb explosions, and the government was of the view that the President's presence would be necessary here. And that is why the government had refrained from making plans for my visits abroad. But now when the situation had been brought under control, a foreign tour of the President was on the cards. The prime minister suggested that I should not entertain any idea of the government being indifferent to me or my dignity being ignored. Rajiv Gandhi went further and recalled the days when he was not the prime minister and I was not the President, when he used to show more respect to me than any other leader. Of course, as President, I was entitled to all respect and consideration from him and the government, he said. Without mincing words, I told Rajiv Gandhi that I found it difficult to share his feeling as my impression was different. He reiterated that there should be no cause for my misgivings. As regards the Intelligence Bureau reports, the prime minister said that he would ask the home ministry to cooperate with me. He pointed out that as a result of the activities of a spy ring, which was responsible for passing on sensitive information to outsiders, the government had become more wary. Photostat copies of one or two papers were supplied by a stenographer in Rashtrapati Bhavan to a spy gang.

It was the same espionage scandal in which most papers involved were smuggled out of the prime minister's secretariat, for which constructive responsibility was owned by P C Alexander, principal secretary to the prime minister, and he ultimately resigned from the post. The stenographer involved in the President's secretariat was arrested by the police.

Though the Prime Minister promised to resume the supply of the daily Intelligence Bureau reports, it was not put into practice. I felt unhappy, but did not put it on record, as I did not want this inconsistency on the part of the government to become a part of history. It was always my attempt to settle matters between the President and the prime minister in a spirit of mutual understanding and sincerity. One reason for my exercising the utmost patience and perseverance on this particular subject was to keep the problems between the President and the prime minister beyond the pail of public controversy.

After a little while, I received a proposal from the government for appointment of P C Alexander as India's high commissioner to the United Kingdom. I had nothing against Alexander, so I approved his appointment. But after some time there was occasion for me to ask the government, how it was that a man who had owned constructive responsibility for the espionage scandal, had been rewarded with a prize post. On the other hand, hardly one or two papers had been leaked out by a junior employee in the President's secretariat, which had been magnified to a such a great extent, and was being quoted as the reason for withholding important reports from the President.

Obviously, the government was obliged to give a second thought to the matter and the supply of the reports from Indian missions abroad was restored. But the government could be choosy and withhold such information as they wanted to. A senior official of the ministry of external affairs came and showed me the notings precluding the President from receiving reports from the ministry emanating from the heads of diplomatic missions. The flow of Intelligence Bureau reports, though resumed, was quite irregular. Instead of daily reports, they would send me weekly summaries after a lapse of time. Whenever I mentioned these things to the prime minister, he never said the reports would not be sent. He always wanted a little more time to ponder over the matter. Very often I wondered if it was the right way for the government to treat the head of state, but I never wanted their indiscretions to become a matter of public controversy. I did not cherish the idea of entering into a confrontation. They seemed to be bent upon trying my patience, and I was determined to keep my poise. I wondered if the government would treat the next President in the same manner, as they were trying to treat me.

As whispers started making the rounds about my visit to some foreign countries, my secretariat made inquiries from the ministry of external affairs, if there was any concrete proposal in this regard. They were told that the programme was being finalised. After some days they were asked to earmark certain days in the following month for the President foreign visit. Again, the ministry of external affairs conveyed that the proposal had been put up to the prime minister and the file was being awaited from him. When I was apprised of the position, I told my officers not to make any inquiry. If the government were not interested in their President's visits to other countries, which necessarily afforded them an opportunity to strengthen their bonds with those nations and to derive advantage, then it was entirely their own outlook. Some heads of state like the king of Bhutan, and the presidents of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, who had visited India had been repeatedly extending invitations to me to pay return visits to their lands. During the prime minister's visit to Calcutta, a journalist inquiring of him about the President-prime minister's relations, asked why the President's foreign tours were not being cleared, to which PM said he was not aware of any hitch and the President could go whenever he liked.

After appearance of this report in the press, there was a word from the external affairs ministry that a programme for my foreign visit was being given final touches. It was for Nepal.

My visit to Nepal in July 1986, was very useful. The king had free and frank talks with me without any aides on either side. The only other persons present at this meeting were Aishwarya Devi, who was accompanying me. On my return to New Delhi, the prime minister was leading a group of ministers at the airport to receive me. When Rajiv Gandhi asked me about the trip, I told him that there were a number of important things for me to apprise him of. Apart from my impressions of the Nepal visit, there were some other matters needing urgent attention. Rajiv said, he would call on me very soon. I waited by he never came. It was not the first time he had made such an illusory promise. Whenever he made a commitment like this, he did not keep it. After a little while I sent him a resume of my impressions of my visit to Nepal and suggested once again that he should find time for a meeting to enable me to give him a detailed picture of the Indo-Nepalese relations as perceived by the king and other leaders of Nepal, especially of what transpired between me and the Nepalese monarch during our discussion without any aides being present. All I got in return from Rajiv Gandhi was a one-line acknowledgement of my letter.

One day I had to tell him that, perhaps, he had become forgetful in spite of his youth. Some significant matters had been left to ligner on only to die their natural death, because he had not foudn the time to discuss them. He denied forgetfulness, whereupon I had to express my misgiving for the third time that in that case possibly he had no faith in me. Such tension was detrimental to the interests of the country. Rajiv Gandhi then in that case possibly he had no faith in me. Such tension was detrimental to the interests of the country. Rajiv Gandhi then said that he would make it a point to call on me at least once a fortnight. It would end the controversy in the public mind about he Prime Minister nor briefing the President on important matters of state. But Rajiv Gandhi did not translate these promises into practice. When a newsman asked him at a press conference as to why he had not been observing the convention of meeting the President, he replied that he had broken hundreds of conventions.

Excerpted with permission from Memoirs of Giani Zail Singh: The Seventh President of India, Har-Anand Publications Pvt Ltd, Rs 295.