03-28-2005, 09:29 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->So Babu Jagjivan Ram asked members to raise both their hands and support the resolution which he read out. Interestingly, he repeated the phrase, âPradhan Mantri ke roop meinâ (âIn the capacity of the Prime Ministerâ) not once, but twice. This exercise was staged by Indira Gandhi in order to accord some sort of legitimacy to her continuance as the Prime Minister, and she got Jagjivan Babu involved in this exercise in order to preclude any claim by him for the office at that stage.
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From the tabloid section... but then it's Kushwant Singh, so here it goes.....Behind the scenes by Kushwant Singh
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I was editor of the National Herald in 1978. <b>We were not paid any salary then as the Congress was short on funds. Indira Gandhi was out of power </b>after the Emergency debacle swept the Janata Party to power.
<b>Her daughter-in-law Maneka Gandhi had started a magazine called Surya and Indira Gandhi asked me to help her out with the magazine.</b>
Earlier Amteshwar Anand, Maneka's mother who claimed to be my distant relative had personally visited me at my residence with Indira Jaising and sought my help for Maneka's magazine Surya.
One fine Sunday morning, an important day for a sardar as he has to wash his hair that day, they arrived unannounced draped in chiffon and perfume only to be greeted by me in a sardarji's kachcha (underwear) with my hair, a tangled mane, wet and streaming open.
They requested me to help Maneka with the magazine she was planning to launch Surya. I relented.
I worked with Surya as the consulting editor and would invariably end up writing or rewriting all the stories.
<b>One day when I reached the National Herald office, I saw an envelope lying on my table. I opened the envelope, had one look and recognised who was in the picture.
Suresh Ram, son of Jagjivan Ram.
If the Kamasutra has 64 poses of making love, this one certainly had 10.
By evening, an interesting development took place. An emissary arrived from Jagjivan Ram saying that if the pics were not published, Jagjivan Ram would dump Morarjee and join Indira Gandhi. I took the pictures to Indira Gandhi and showed them to her.</b>
I conveyed the message to Indira Gandhi and she said: "<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><b>First ask him to dump Morarjee and then only will I guarantee the pictures will not be published</b>". It never happened. Maneka was very keen to use the pics in her magazine Surya.</span>
And so the pics got published as a centrespread in Surya and were also published by the National Herald. We had to use tapes on strategic body organs. They were so graphic that we could be sued for obscenity. And all these pictures had been organized by Suresh Ram who had a self timed Polaroid camera placed in his room.
Suresh and his father Jagjivan were great womanisers. They often used to share their women between them.
Years later, Maneka took me to court because I wrote about her in my book. She held up the release of my book for six years on charges of invasion of privacy when she herself published the pictures!
I was walking down the Bahadurshah Zafar Marg from Indian Express office to the Times of India, when a gentleman, he was a Hindi journalist I think, came to me and showed me the pictures. I knew the party people pretty well and had the story confirmed from KC Tyagi.
Whether Charan Singh had a hand in the entire affair is not sure but well the Jat network connection was definitely there - the girl, Sushma Chaudhary was a Jat, so were the men involved in the beating up of Suresh Ram.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>But what struck me was the security aspect angle. I got the story from my sources in the police that there were some defence deals related papers lying in the car. SP Chibber, an arms dealer had given the car to Suresh Ram.
He was handling the sale-purchase of the Jaguar aircraft. Significantly then, negotiations were on for the Jaguar which was being preferred over the Mirage though the Mirage had superior features. The government did eventually sign the Jaguar deal!
A defence ministers son, in a defence dealers car, related papers in the backseat of the car and the car was used for a romantic rendezvous - was it right that the son of the defence minister should be so careless about affairs which could imperil the nations security ? That set me off !</span>
Sushma Chaudhary was the daughter of a person who arranged for the procurement of wood at Nigambodh Ghat. Beautiful but not very bright, Sushma used to work at the Payal cinema at Naraina . It was widely known that she was having an affair with the two Sikh brothers who were the then proprietors of Payal cinema.
Sushma was not of a very sound character herself. And from the very beginning was hand in glove with Jagjivan Rams opposing camp which consisted of Chaudhary Charan Singh. KC Tyagi and Om Pal Singh.
Charan Singh' s camp conspired to set a relationship going between Suresh Ram and Sushma Chaudhary. Suresh Ram did not have a happy married, which helped to support their plan.
Suresh was married to Kamaljit Kaur, older to him by around 7-8 years and a senior of his at Delhi University. By temperament, Kamaljit Kaur was extremely erratic. Very often when Suresh Ram would be sitting in a restaurant or at a public place, she would land up there and simply start abusing him !
Suresh would very often frequent Maqsood Pur, an MP putting up at Western Court. Maqsood pur was an old friend of Jagjivan Ram's family.
And the opposing camp planned to place Sushma in a job with the MP so that Sushma and Suresh would be able to meet. And that is how the relationship began.
Suresh was a bright boy but perverted. He was in the habit of capturing his sexual exploits on camera. And Sushma was aware of this. Suresh had captured the intimate and uninhibited moments of the sexual dalliance between Sushma and him on camera too.
All along Sushma was aware of the events. On that fateful day, August 20, 1978, Suresh as usual went to pick up Sushma from her Nigambodh Ghat residence. But before they could leave Sushma had a request: She wanted to see the pictures of their intimate moments spent together.
Suresh tried to wave it off to a later date but Sushma insisted. Suresh was forced to go back to his residence and get the pics in his Mercedes.
This entire routine was a plot hatched by Sushma in connivance with the Charan Sngh camp. It was meant to besmirch Jagjivan Ram's name. The goal: To put an end to Jagjivan Ram's career who was widely tipped then to be the next prime minister.
The method: To smear his name by exposing his sons perversion.
As Suresh sped away with his ladylove Sushma, unknown to Suresh, around 10 - 11 young men, jats, in three taxis were on his trail. Soon they overpowered him, forced open the car and started roughing up Suresh. But this was just a cover operation. All along they knew that the porn pictures were in the car. Their motive was laying a hand on the pics.
Once they obtained the pictures, they lost no time in making thousands of copies of the same and distributing it all over the town.
The incident broke Jagjivan Ram's heart. It broke him mentally and physically and was a big factor in the downslide of his career. A year later, in 1979, Jagjivan
Once the incident had been publicised I had two choices. Either I could be shameless and go to town talking about the episode or like the down-to-earth person I am, I could have chosen to spend my days with Suresh. Since we were married and Babu Jagjivan Ram had accepted me as his bahu, I did not want to enter into dirty politics and chose to remain quiet.
I know the kind of life Maneka leadsâ¦, I have seen her closely but I have never gone to town spreading stories about her. What right did she have to interfere in somebody's personal life. It was entirely politically motivated.
I am a firm believer in God. I pray three times a day and I have full faith in my banke bihari (Lord Krishna). I believe that God watches everything and those who do bad are repaid in the same coin.
If Maneka destroyed my life, she is not a happy person today. She lost her husband and is all alone now.
For those who say that I have taken money, let them show me where the money is. None in our family ever took money from Jagjivan Ram. If I did, would my bhabhi (sister-in-law) be working in a college as a cashier.
After Suresh's death, I left Babuji's house. I was not being treated the way I would have liked and thought it best to leave.
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From the tabloid section... but then it's Kushwant Singh, so here it goes.....Behind the scenes by Kushwant Singh
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I was editor of the National Herald in 1978. <b>We were not paid any salary then as the Congress was short on funds. Indira Gandhi was out of power </b>after the Emergency debacle swept the Janata Party to power.
<b>Her daughter-in-law Maneka Gandhi had started a magazine called Surya and Indira Gandhi asked me to help her out with the magazine.</b>
Earlier Amteshwar Anand, Maneka's mother who claimed to be my distant relative had personally visited me at my residence with Indira Jaising and sought my help for Maneka's magazine Surya.
One fine Sunday morning, an important day for a sardar as he has to wash his hair that day, they arrived unannounced draped in chiffon and perfume only to be greeted by me in a sardarji's kachcha (underwear) with my hair, a tangled mane, wet and streaming open.
They requested me to help Maneka with the magazine she was planning to launch Surya. I relented.
I worked with Surya as the consulting editor and would invariably end up writing or rewriting all the stories.
<b>One day when I reached the National Herald office, I saw an envelope lying on my table. I opened the envelope, had one look and recognised who was in the picture.
Suresh Ram, son of Jagjivan Ram.
If the Kamasutra has 64 poses of making love, this one certainly had 10.
By evening, an interesting development took place. An emissary arrived from Jagjivan Ram saying that if the pics were not published, Jagjivan Ram would dump Morarjee and join Indira Gandhi. I took the pictures to Indira Gandhi and showed them to her.</b>
I conveyed the message to Indira Gandhi and she said: "<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><b>First ask him to dump Morarjee and then only will I guarantee the pictures will not be published</b>". It never happened. Maneka was very keen to use the pics in her magazine Surya.</span>
And so the pics got published as a centrespread in Surya and were also published by the National Herald. We had to use tapes on strategic body organs. They were so graphic that we could be sued for obscenity. And all these pictures had been organized by Suresh Ram who had a self timed Polaroid camera placed in his room.
Suresh and his father Jagjivan were great womanisers. They often used to share their women between them.
Years later, Maneka took me to court because I wrote about her in my book. She held up the release of my book for six years on charges of invasion of privacy when she herself published the pictures!
I was walking down the Bahadurshah Zafar Marg from Indian Express office to the Times of India, when a gentleman, he was a Hindi journalist I think, came to me and showed me the pictures. I knew the party people pretty well and had the story confirmed from KC Tyagi.
Whether Charan Singh had a hand in the entire affair is not sure but well the Jat network connection was definitely there - the girl, Sushma Chaudhary was a Jat, so were the men involved in the beating up of Suresh Ram.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>But what struck me was the security aspect angle. I got the story from my sources in the police that there were some defence deals related papers lying in the car. SP Chibber, an arms dealer had given the car to Suresh Ram.
He was handling the sale-purchase of the Jaguar aircraft. Significantly then, negotiations were on for the Jaguar which was being preferred over the Mirage though the Mirage had superior features. The government did eventually sign the Jaguar deal!
A defence ministers son, in a defence dealers car, related papers in the backseat of the car and the car was used for a romantic rendezvous - was it right that the son of the defence minister should be so careless about affairs which could imperil the nations security ? That set me off !</span>
Sushma Chaudhary was the daughter of a person who arranged for the procurement of wood at Nigambodh Ghat. Beautiful but not very bright, Sushma used to work at the Payal cinema at Naraina . It was widely known that she was having an affair with the two Sikh brothers who were the then proprietors of Payal cinema.
Sushma was not of a very sound character herself. And from the very beginning was hand in glove with Jagjivan Rams opposing camp which consisted of Chaudhary Charan Singh. KC Tyagi and Om Pal Singh.
Charan Singh' s camp conspired to set a relationship going between Suresh Ram and Sushma Chaudhary. Suresh Ram did not have a happy married, which helped to support their plan.
Suresh was married to Kamaljit Kaur, older to him by around 7-8 years and a senior of his at Delhi University. By temperament, Kamaljit Kaur was extremely erratic. Very often when Suresh Ram would be sitting in a restaurant or at a public place, she would land up there and simply start abusing him !
Suresh would very often frequent Maqsood Pur, an MP putting up at Western Court. Maqsood pur was an old friend of Jagjivan Ram's family.
And the opposing camp planned to place Sushma in a job with the MP so that Sushma and Suresh would be able to meet. And that is how the relationship began.
Suresh was a bright boy but perverted. He was in the habit of capturing his sexual exploits on camera. And Sushma was aware of this. Suresh had captured the intimate and uninhibited moments of the sexual dalliance between Sushma and him on camera too.
All along Sushma was aware of the events. On that fateful day, August 20, 1978, Suresh as usual went to pick up Sushma from her Nigambodh Ghat residence. But before they could leave Sushma had a request: She wanted to see the pictures of their intimate moments spent together.
Suresh tried to wave it off to a later date but Sushma insisted. Suresh was forced to go back to his residence and get the pics in his Mercedes.
This entire routine was a plot hatched by Sushma in connivance with the Charan Sngh camp. It was meant to besmirch Jagjivan Ram's name. The goal: To put an end to Jagjivan Ram's career who was widely tipped then to be the next prime minister.
The method: To smear his name by exposing his sons perversion.
As Suresh sped away with his ladylove Sushma, unknown to Suresh, around 10 - 11 young men, jats, in three taxis were on his trail. Soon they overpowered him, forced open the car and started roughing up Suresh. But this was just a cover operation. All along they knew that the porn pictures were in the car. Their motive was laying a hand on the pics.
Once they obtained the pictures, they lost no time in making thousands of copies of the same and distributing it all over the town.
The incident broke Jagjivan Ram's heart. It broke him mentally and physically and was a big factor in the downslide of his career. A year later, in 1979, Jagjivan
Once the incident had been publicised I had two choices. Either I could be shameless and go to town talking about the episode or like the down-to-earth person I am, I could have chosen to spend my days with Suresh. Since we were married and Babu Jagjivan Ram had accepted me as his bahu, I did not want to enter into dirty politics and chose to remain quiet.
I know the kind of life Maneka leadsâ¦, I have seen her closely but I have never gone to town spreading stories about her. What right did she have to interfere in somebody's personal life. It was entirely politically motivated.
I am a firm believer in God. I pray three times a day and I have full faith in my banke bihari (Lord Krishna). I believe that God watches everything and those who do bad are repaid in the same coin.
If Maneka destroyed my life, she is not a happy person today. She lost her husband and is all alone now.
For those who say that I have taken money, let them show me where the money is. None in our family ever took money from Jagjivan Ram. If I did, would my bhabhi (sister-in-law) be working in a college as a cashier.
After Suresh's death, I left Babuji's house. I was not being treated the way I would have liked and thought it best to leave.
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