Sparking a new controversy, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar said on Tuesday that days before 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao believed BJP's Vijaya Raje Scindia over the mosque against the advice of his ministers.
"There was a group of ministers, I was one of the members. It was suggested that the prime minister should call senior leaders irrespective of parties to a meeting. And in that meeting, Vijaya Raje Scindia suggested that nothing will happen to the Babri Masjid. (She said) we will take all precautions and PM should not take extreme steps," NCP chief, who was the defence minister in the Rao government, said at the launch of senior journalist Neerja Chowdhury's book 'How Prime Ministers Decide' on Tuesday.
Pawar said that while he, the home minister and home secretary felt anything could happen, Rao chose to believe the then BJP leader.
Meanwhile, Chowdhury recalled a conversation that then PM had with some journalists in the aftermath of the demolition where he was asked what he was doing when the demolition happened.
She claimed that Rao had said that he allowed it to happen because he felt the BJP would lose its main political card.
{{/usCountry}}She claimed that Rao had said that he allowed it to happen because he felt the BJP would lose its main political card.
{{/usCountry}}The book was launched by Sharad Pawar, along with Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, former railway minister and BJP leader Dinesh Trivedi, and Maharashtra's former CM Prithviraj Chavan.
Chowdhury's book analyses the operating styles of the country's prime ministers through the prism of six decisions of historic significance.
Ex-PM Indira Gandhi's return to power in 1980 after her humiliating defeat post the Emergency in 1977, Rajiv Gandhi's decision to undo the Supreme Court's judgment in the Shah Bano case, V P Singh's implementation of the Mandal Commission Report, P V Narasimha Rao's role as prime minister during the Babri Masjid incident, and the governments under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh are among the topics discussed in the book.
(With inputs from PTI)