Natwar Singh backs Sanjaya Baru over PMO files

New Delhi: Former Cabinet minister during the UPA-I regime Natwar Singh in his book that is due to be released in the next few days writes that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka met him on May 7 at his residence.

He has decided to disclose facts as they were and tell the “truth”, Mr Singh said during an interview to a TV channel.

Mr Singh endorsed the claim of ex-PM Manmohan Singh’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru that key government files were taken to Sonia Gandhi, saying any question of protest over this did not arise as she was the “foremost” leader.

Reacting to this, Congress leader Ajay Maken, “It is ridiculous. These days it has become fashionable to sensationalise the content of a book with the sole aim of ensuring better sales and free publicity.”

Mr Singh claimed that after Rajiv Gandhi was killed, then vice-president Shankar Dayal Sharma was Sonia’s first choice for the PM post, but Mr Sharma, declined the offer.

It was then that she chose P.V. Narasimha Rao, whom she never knew very well and with whom she never had warm relations, he said.