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This is an archive article published on May 27, 1999

Pawar was Rao’s link with RSS — Arjun Singh

NEW DELHI, MAY 26: Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh on Wednesday accused rebel party leader Sharad Pawar of being in league with commun...

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NEW DELHI, MAY 26: Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh on Wednesday accused rebel party leader Sharad Pawar of being in league with communal forces, saying that Pawar had been former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao’s “liaison man” with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) during the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya.

“Pawar has been in league with communal forces for pretty long time. He thought they could also be used for fulfilling his ambitions. He was the liaison between (P V Narasimha) Rao and the RSS headquarters at Nagpur during the Babri Masjid demolition phase. This was told to us during the discussion in the cabinet committee for political affairs,” Singh told Eenadu television in an interview.

“Many times the discussion was halted as Rao would go out to get feedback from Pawar, who was not a member of the cabinet then, and tell us what message he had got,” said Singh, who was then a member of Rao’s cabinet.Stating that rebel Congress leader Sharad Pawar would go to any extent and“make any stratagem so long as it helps his ambitions,” Singh added that the Maratha leader’s “trail of treachery” in last four decades would be an issue in the elections. He charged Pawar with “ditching” his mentors including Y B Chavan, Vasantdada Patil, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Sonia Gandhi during his political career.

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Singh stressed that there was no need for amending the Constitution to bar foreign-born citizens from occupying high offices including that of the prime minister since people always had a right to accept or reject such candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.

“The Constitution-makers did not find place of birth of a person as any issue. To raise this issue now, when it was debated and rejected by the Constitution-makers, is possible only if there is an animus against an individual,” he said.

He claimed that the latest crisis in the party would not damage its prospects, however, admitting the likelihood of a marginal effect on the poll results in Maharashtra.

Onwhether Gandhi’s Italian origin would affect the poll prospects of Congress, he said, “Once they (people) have voted we will know…Let the people decide”.

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Denying that lack of an internal cohesive mechanism in Congress had resulted in half a dozen vertical splits in past five decades, Singh said the split following his expulsion from the party in 1995 was not due to any accusation against party leadership but the issue of the “cover-up operation” in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

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