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Veteran Congress leader R K Dhawan dies at 81
Rajinder Kumar Dhawan was a Rajya Sabha member and a private secretary to Indira Gandhi for a long time.
Veteran Congress leader and a close confidant of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, RK Dhawan, died in Delhi on Monday.
He was 81.
Ailing for some time, he was dropped from the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, last month.
Dhawan had joined Indira Gandhi’s office in 1962 and remained with her till her assassination on October 31, 1984. In fact, Dhawan accompanied Indira Gandhi on her way to give an interview to British playwright and actor Peter Ustinov when two of her bodyguards pumped bullets into her body.
The one-man commission of retired Supreme Court judge MP Thakkar appointed to investigate Indira Gandhi’s assassination had in its report indicted Dhawan for his role in posting back Beant Singh and Satwant Singh after they were removed from her security.
Dhawan was then special assistant to Indira Gandhi. However, the Congress rejected the charges and he went on to hold key positions both in the government and the organisation.
Dhawan had once described the four years of the Thakkar commission probe as the “darkest period” of his life and wished that he died with Indira Gandhi.
He remained a part of Indira Gandhi’s close circle in the Emergency period and was jailed in 1977 during the Janata Party government for his refusal to depose against the then Prime Minister. Dhawan’s bio-data says he was lodged in Tihar jail along with Indira Gandhi by a resolution of the Lok Sabha on the report of privileges committee of Parliament in 1978.
Dhawan also served as a minister of state (independent charge) for urban development in the PV Narasimha Rao government from September 1995 to February 1996.
A two-term Rajya Sabha member, he also held the post of Congress general secretary from 1996 to 1999 and then in 2003-04.
“His tireless spirit, immeasurable commitment and untiring dedication to the Congress ideals will always be remembered,” party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said on twitter.
