From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh (93), who handled the foreign policy issues all his life first as an IFS officer and then as a minister close to the Gandhi family, has called for the youth to come into politics. though not in a large number, to keep out the wrong persons and they should work up from the bottom.
Asked for his advice to them in an interview by Delhi-based orthopaedic doctor Dr Mayank Daral, founder of Decoding Elections, at his residence at Jorbagh here early this month, he said they should read the history of India’s independence, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and how Gandhi knew to defeat the Britishers through his non-violence.
He said he can’t identify an ideal person at the moment among the youths, but he identified Supriya Sule (52), Lok Sabha member and daughter of Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar, as an icon for them, saying she is good in politics, young and good orator in Parliament.
What about West Bengal chief minister Mamata Benerjee (67), Natwar said she also has a lot of potential, but her acceptance across whole of India is yet to be ascertained. Both Supriya and Mamata have crossed 50 years of life, but they are certainly young for the 93-year old Natwar Singh.
Hailing from a Jat royal family of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, Natwar Singh was approached for the interview in the context of his controversial autobiography “One life is not enough.” He said he is penning a small book on Mahatma Gandhi, to be out on his birth anniversary on October 2.
He left the Congress and resigned from the Manmohan Singh Government on what he describes as oil-for-food “misunderstanding,” asserting that he did nothing dishonest and he would have felt miserable if he did any dishonesty. On Congress President Sonia Gandhi suspending him from the party, he said he is answerable to himself.
After leaving the Congress, he had joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which he says was a mistake and he was in it for only six months.
