NEW DELHI: “I never got a chance to discuss the Emergency with her (former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi), but I did get the impression that she regretted it deeply,” Najma Heptulla says in her newly released book In Pursuit of Democracy: Beyond Party Lines.
Heptulla was a former Union minister and former deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, who first became a Rajya Sabha member in 1980 with the Congress. In 2004, she joined the BJP and was sent to the Upper House by the saffron party the same year.
Describing Indira Gandhi’s early days as the prime minister, Heptulla quotes this sentence from her autobiography: “I was Prime Minister, but I did not know the nuances of running a country.”
“Bit by bit, she told me how people she had faith in—from her trusted bureaucrats and advisors to a Bengal politician and friend—tried to control her. When she began to break free from their shackles, and take her own decisions, they wanted to teach her a lesson. Their politics of patronage tipped her towards her downfall,” writes Heptulla in the chapter ‘In Indira’s India’.
“She came back, of course, but I always marvelled at how she had changed. This time around, she was tough, shrewd, ruthless and skilled in the use of power,” says the book about Indira’s return to power.
About Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Heptulla writes under the subhead ‘Working with Narendra Modi’ that she had “a very friendly relationship” with him.
About the 2002 Godhra riots, Heptulla writes that “Modi was being criticised by journalists for maintaining a studied silence through the first week of violence”.
“I narrated to journalists how Modi had helped the Bohra Muslim community during the communal riots. The Bohras constituted a peaceful business community among Muslims. I had very good relations with them because my husband belonged to that community. The chief of the community had rung me up and told me that there was a large community of Bohras in Gujarat and they never participated in any rioting activity. He asked for help. I rang up Modi and told him about the Bohras: ‘Please protect them.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry. I will.’ And he did. In the 2002 election, the Bohra community supported the BJP and, in particular, Narendra Modi,” writes Heptulla.
About former Congress president Sonia Gandhi with whom Heptulla had strained relations, she writes that Sonia “trusted very few people” and that “she did not trust me”.
“We were dealing with more than just deep mistrust. We were cut off from Sonia Gandhi and could not communicate with her. This was a sharp and serious departure from the earlier Congress culture,” she writes.
“Indira Gandhi used to keep an open house. She was accessible to the rank-and-file members,” Heptulla writes.
Heptulla says former prime minister Manmohan Singh was “not given his due by the Congress”. “I did not work with Manmohan Singh when he was Prime Minister, but I always felt that like Narasimha Rao, he was not given his due by the Congress. A very quiet and decent man, he used to sit next to me as Leader of Opposition between 1998 and 2004,” writes Heptulla.
“When Sonia decided to take over the leadership of the party from Kesri, there was significant apprehension within the party. Concerns were raised about her readiness and suitability for the position due to her lack of experience, her Italian heritage, and her limited fluency in Hindi. Ghulam Nabi Azad and I worked tirelessly to convince the party leadership and cadre that she was indeed ready and capable of being an effective leader,” writes Heptulla.
About her departure from the Congress, and induction into the BJP, Heptulla writes: “So disenchanted was I with the Congress leadership that I started to drift away. Atalji was always very friendly and sympathetic. One day, when I was feeling particularly sad about something, he said, ‘Aa jao. Come and join our party.’”
About the BJP, Heptulla writes that “while Hindutva is a prominent aspect of the BJP’s message, it is not the only one that defines the party”. “The party’s contributions extend beyond this single narrative. Elections are not won solely on messaging; factors like development, job creation, and infrastructure investment are crucial,” she writes about the party she joined in 2004.
Agencies