Sitaram Kesri spurned PM Gowda's bid to lure him with Rashtrapati's Post, says Tariq Anwar

New Delhi: Even as the Gandhis-controlled Congress leadership acknowledged the legacy of the dethroned party president Sitaram Kesri last week, senior party leader Tariq Anwar, who was the all-powerful political secretary of the then party chief Kesri during 1996-98, has revealed in an interview to ET that the then prime minister of the United Front government HD Deve Gowda had offered to make Kesri the President of India in 1997. This was part of Gowda's peace-deal to try and cement Congress' support to his tottering regime. However, the septuagenarian Kesri spurned it, treating it as a "bait" and a "plot to divide Congress". He went ahead on the path that eventually led to the Congress president ousting the Gowda government by forcing the UF leadership to foist IK Gujral as the prime minister to extend (briefly) its ill-fated reign.

Anwar, now a CWC member and MP, also revealed that PM Gowda offered "50% of ministerial berths" in his ministry to Congress and Kesri refused to fall for that too even though some senior Congress members were open to it.

"When differences started cropping up between the UF government and Congress (which had extended outside support to the government), prime minister HD Deve Gowdaji made some efforts to buy peace with Congress president Sitaram Kesriji. The PM proposed that Kesriji could be made the Rastrapati (President of India) as the term of the then President Shankar Dayal Sharma was coming to an end in 1997. The PM also offered Congress 50% of the ministerial posts. The then minister CM Ibrahim (a Gowda confidant) brought the proposals to Kesriji on behalf of the then PM. After it was conveyed to him, Kesriji told me about it. He also discussed it with some other senior Congress leaders," Anwar told ET.

Anwar said: "Kesriji was of the firm view that the proposals were a political bait to ensure the survival of the Gowda government. Kesriji also felt the proposals were a conspiracy to divide Congress. Kesriji firmly rejected the proposals. He believed that the Congress would regain its strength and would lead its own government after the UF government's fall. Some senior Congress leaders were in favour of joining the Gowda government, but Kesriji (who was also leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party) firmly put his foot down."

Incidentally, Sharad Pawar was the then Congress floor leader in the Lok Sabha. Within months of the ouster of the Gowda government, KR Narayanan became the President of India in 1997 as the joint candidate of UF-Congress-Left.

Anwar also said that, among other things, the then government's "blackmailing tactics" led to Kesri finally rallying the Congress leadership in pulling the plug on the Deve Gowda government.

"When it became evident that Kesriji, who was a freedom fighter and had an impeccable public life, including 17 long years as AICC treasurer, without any taint of corruption, can't be lured with power deals, there was an attempt by the then PMO to blackmail him, through a CBI inquiry into a manufactured case (the Tanwar murder case). A section of disgruntled Congress leaders was also behind it. But Kesri ji refused to be cowed down. He took it as an attempt to bulldoze him and Congress. That, among other issues, led to the Congress withdrawing support to Gowda, resulting in his government's downfall," Anwar added.

Incidentally, the Kesri-led Congress also pulled down the Gujral regime in 1998 over the Jain Commission report finding.