About four months before he passed away, he used to visit Central Hall at least twice a week whether Parliament was in session or not. He would spend about a couple of hours there, talk to his friends, over cups of tea and biscuits, recalled old days and how he was associated with important decisions. That included appointment and removal of Congress Chief Ministers, Union Ministers, important bureaucrats.

I would often visit him, (he would readily give me appointment) when he was Mrs Gandhi’s political secretary but never gave news or disclose a secret even though he knew everything. Top Congress leaders, Chief Ministers, party leaders from the states and bureaucrats would visit him. He would take down what they said, prepare brief note and pass it on to PM. In lighter vein he was called post office of Mrs. Gandhi. The is one of the ways she used to keep herself abreast of what was happening in the party and knew everything.

Fotedar would sit in one small room in 1, Akbar Road, occupied by late Sanjay Gandhi. The room was so small that one can have one-on-one talk with the people one met. Fotedar was at that time a chain smoker and he would puff one cigarette after another. He would hold a cigarette in his fingers, as if one is smoking a “Hukka”, that the cigarette would not touch his lip. Cups of tea would follow as if he survives on tea. Later, he completely stopped smoking possibly on medical advice.

Apart from my personal reminisces, I quote some of instances from his recently published book—The Chinar leaves- A political Memoir—to bring home the point how close Fotedar was to PM and how much she trusted him.

Fotedar writes: “In early August 1980, Indiraji called my attention to important senior leaders in the party like Pranab Mukherjee and P V Narasimha Rao. She asked me to make an assessment as to who amongst them, in case of need or exigency, could have acceptability or relevance in the country. Basically she was asking me, who after me? “How long will you take to do this? I said about a month. She said, ‘Can’t you do it in the next 10-15 days?’ I said I would try.

“I used to meet people from different parts of the country, including senior officers. Indirectly, I could discuss with them too their perception of leaders and their image. I examined all relevant aspects. After about two weeks I was ready with my assessment”.

I said to Indiraji, ‘you had mentioned two names, but without your brief, I examined a third person also.’ She asked, ‘who?’ I said ‘R. Venkataraman. All these three are efficient ministers. Pranab is competent, and also loyal. You have kept him as number two in the cabinet. He belongs to West Bengal, but in his home state he has no relevance. He cannot get votes for the party. He cannot be projected before the people. As far Narasimha Rao, he is an ideologue, a literary figure, a very competent scholar and linguist, but he too has no support base worth the name in his home state or any other state. He spoke well in Parliament and functioned as a good minister, but he will not be able to muster strength amongst the people as he is not charismatic.”

‘As to the third person—R. Venkataraman—he is there with support of M G Ramachandran. MGR gave him total support and through him he can carry the state. But MGR is not the only leader there. M. Karunanidhi is equally important. RV is dependent on one faction of leadership, and cannot muster enough strength to even be a chief minister there. He can serve in Parliament, be a good minister, is a good orator, but he cannot fill the position of prime minister.’

‘Indiraji looked at me and asked, ‘Then what?’ I said to her she would have to persuade Rajiv Gandhi to give up his pilotship in the Air Lines, and pilot the political ship of the country instead. Indiraji was undecided on this: She asked “will he agree?”. I said, “It is for you to tell him and make him agree. He is not experienced, but he has inherited a charismatic personality and qualities of the family.’ This is the backdrop of Rajiv entering politics. The rest is history and well known.

When Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister and the Congress President, he wanted to manage the party in his own way. Fotedar, had become outdated and was not fitting in Rajiv’s scheme of things. At the same time, Rajiv could not remove a loyal leader like Fotedar. He, therefore, included him in his ministry as a cabinet minister and allocated him the Health Portfolio. Though Fotedar did not want to give up his key position but he had no option; he became a cabinet minister. He did good work as Health Minister. One of his contributions was to open a full-fledged dispensary, almost a modern hospital, in Parliament Annexe with all modern medical facility and services of specialists available. Apart from MPs and ex MPs, journalists, holding parliament card and staff were entitled to these facilities. MPs and journalists are to this day grateful to him.

Fotedar virtually hated Narasimha Rao and whenever former Prime Minister’s name figured in conversation, he would flare up and say “don’t talk of that man”. However, Fotedar helped PV to become PM by supporting his candidature all through. Even he told Sonia Gandhi that PV is the fittest person to head the government. But Rao betrayed him.

PV promised that he would give up the post of the Congress President after becoming PM. Writes Fotedar “Rao did not stay true to his word and decided to distance from me. The first indication came when he initiated the process of ministry formation without consulting me on who should be part of his cabinet. In the run-up to his election as CPP leader, Rao used to consult me on all crucial matters and keep me informed of important developments. Perhaps, he had another blueprint for himself. From the very beginning he had plan to give me short shrift. This became evident when he appointed me the Union minister for health and family welfare’.

“On numerous occasions I reminded Rao of his solemn promise to give up the post of Congress President and adhere to the party’s one-man, one-post principle. He would not disagree with me on this, but he always used one pretext or another to postpone a decision on the matter. I could gauge that he had no intention to resign as congress President and was in fact trying to gain time to consolidate his position within the party and the Government”.

Fotedar, as cabinet member, urged Rao to save Babri Masjid in many cabinet meetings. But PM did not listen. When the disputed structure was demolished, Fotedar had a tiff with Rao in the cabinet following which he resigned vowing that “I would ceaselessly work for Rao’s removal as prime minister and party president”. After that the Congress split and Tiwari Congress was born. Many senior leaders besides, Fotedar, N D Tiwari and Arjun Singh, quit the Congress and joined the new party. (IPA Service)