Congress leader and former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar alleged that former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao was "communal" and described him as the "the first BJP PM" of the country.
The former diplomat, whose autobiography "Memoirs of a Maverick - The First Fifty Years (1941-1991)" hit the stands last week, also batted for resumption of dialogue with Pakistan, saying that when it comes to that country, "we have the courage to carry out surgical strikes against them, but we don't have the guts to sit across the table and talk to a Pakistani".
The book, published by Juggernaut Books, traces Aiyar's journey from Welham preparatory school to Doon school and then on to St Stephen's College and Cambridge University, and from being a top diplomat handling sensitive assignments to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's key aide who was dubbed his 'Mani Friday'. Aiyar was part of Rajiv Gandhi's PMO from 1985-1989.
In a free-wheeling conversation, Aiyar talked about a host of issues - from his relationship with former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to his stint as consul general in Karachi from December 1978 to January 1982. Sonia Gandhi was present among the audience.
During the question and answer session when asked about his criticism of Rajiv Gandhi in handling the Babri Masjid issue, Aiyar said, "It shows that I am even-handed. I think the Shilanyas was wrong."
"I think the biggest mistake that Rajiv Gandhi made was to bring in awful R K Dhawan into the PMO which immediately politicised an office that was otherwise, for the previous four years, a purely technical office and was giving the right advice without getting into politics," the 82-year-old leader said.
In his remarks at the book launch, Aiyar said he discovered "how communal and how Hindu-oriented" P V Narasimha Rao was. Aiyar went on to narrate a conversation he had with Rao at a time when he was carrying out 'Ram-Rahim' yatra.
"Narasimha Rao told me that he had no objection to my yatra, but he disagreed with my definition of secularism. I said what is wrong with my definition of secularism. He said Mani you don't seem to understand that this is a Hindu country. I sat up in my chair and said that is exactly what the BJP says," Aiyar recounted.
The first BJP prime minister was not Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the "first BJP PM" was Rao, he said.