When Angry Sonia Gandhi Phoned Manmohan Singh
LoP Rahul Gandhi leads funeral procession of late PM Manmohan Singh. Image credit INC
Manmohan Singh Assured Sonia Gandhi to Decide on Key Cabinet Proposal
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, December 28: Late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh maintained stoic silence to criticism of his weak leadership while a parallel power centre held grounds in National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by then Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The NAC consisted of the members drawn from civil society as well as retired economists.
After a Cabinet meeting, a close confidante of Sonia Gandhi lost his patience. There was a Cabinet proposal that was regularly been taken up for discussions but a decision was put off. which used to come in every cabinet meeting. It used to come in the meetings for months but no decision was taken on it.
“The decision was postponed because the other ministers used to say that there will be a lot of expenditure in implementing this scheme. The financial burden on the government will increase,” recalled a senior official.
The proposal was presented again in another meeting. “There was a debate on it for some time and the cabinet secretary said that we will discuss further on this proposal in the next meeting. So, seeing this pattern, that minister was very sad and he felt that perhaps the Council of Ministers is not interested in passing this proposal,” added the official.
The Congress was very interested in the proposal which was borne out of the deliberations in the NAC. “When that minister came to his office disappointed from that cabinet meeting, he went straight to 10 Janpath with all the files. The 10 Janpath is the residence of Sonia Gandhi. He reached 10 Janpath with all the papers and told the whole story to Sonia Gandhi,” added the official.
The minister became very emotional. He started crying. “Seeing him crying, Sonia Gandhi felt very sorry. She was anly unhappy. She picked up the phone and called up the 7, Race Course Road residence of the prime minister,” recalled the official.
The minister was K V Thomas, a Congress MP from Kerala. He was considered very close to Sonia Gandhi. He was a Union Minister for State with Independent Charge for Ministry of Food and Public Distribution.
The proposal that he piloted was National Food Security Act (FSA), which was brone out of the deliberations in the NAC headed by Sonia Gandhi. The plan involved giving highly subsidised foodgrains to two-third population of the country.
Singh is said to have assured Sonia Gandhi that the Cabinet proposal will be taken up in the next Cabinet meeting and a positive decision will be taken no matter how long the discussion is held.
Union Ministers in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet such as Sharad Pawar, P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee are said to have been sceptical about the proposal that would have covered substantive population under the food programme. The Congress hoped that the scheme will help the party win the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
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