New Delhi: On a winter morning in 2014, then chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh, invited a correspondent of The Indian Express to his Lutyens’ Delhi residence for an interview over breakfast. The interview was going well when the CM suddenly burst out: “Who sent you to Shimla to do that story? I know who but you tell me.”
A couple of weeks before, the correspondent had done a story titled “Virbhadra’s apples worth crores went by scooters and oil tanker, finds I-T”.
The Income Tax department was investigating Singh’s claims of agricultural income worth Rs 6.56 crore in three years and the registration numbers of vehicles that were purportedly used to transport those apples were found to be of scooters and an oil tanker.
“I was on vacation in Shimla when I stumbled on that story. How can you attribute motives to a pure journalistic work?” the correspondent sought to reason.
“Don’t lie. It must be Anurag (BJP’s Anurag Thakur),” said the then CM, his tone getting sharper and shriller.
“You can’t question my integrity. If you see a conspiracy, it’s your problem. There is no point discussing it,” said the correspondent, rising to leave.
“Yes, you can leave but don’t use a word of mine for the interview. I haven’t given you any interview,” Singh said, almost shaking with rage.
That was my last one-on-one interaction with Virbhadra Singh, who passed away Thursday morning because of post-Covid complications. He was 87.
That meeting might have gone horribly wrong but that wasn’t quite the Virbhadra Singh that the people in Himachal Pradesh knew of. A gentleman to the core, he was known for his mass connect and it reflected in his profile — a six-term chief minister, nine-term MLA and five-term MP.
After that meeting, the then CM would rue to some journalists in Shimla — “He wrote against me even though I had gone to bless him when he was getting married here.”
That was something I had heard from former Rajasthan chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, too, when I had reported in the Hindustan Times how the then vice-presidential nominee had been “weighed in blood” (in a blood donation camp).
Politicians of Singh’s and Shekhawat’s generation really valued personal relations, which might not work with journalists in the line of duty, but which really clicked with the people. That’s what made them mass leaders. And that’s what perturbed the Congress high command about Virbhadra Singh.
He was someone who wouldn’t “bow down before Delhi throne”, as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said in a different context a couple of years back.
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The run-ins with Congress high command
In 1993, then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao wanted to make Sukh Ram the CM and sent then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh as a Central observer to Shimla to talk to elected Congress MLAs.
After the late-night meeting, Beant Singh said the decision on the CM would be announced in Delhi later. “Sardar ji, faisala yahin kar ke jao (take the decision here). High command will not decide,” Virbhadra Singh told Beant Singh. The Congress high command had to yield.
Virbhadra Singh, scion of the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr in Himachal, was the tallest Congress leader in the state. But he would always have to fight it out with the Congress high command to secure the CM’s chair.
In 2003, Vidya Stokes, an Indira Gandhi look-alike, sought to use Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s liking for her to become the CM. But when she went to Delhi to secure Gandhi’s support for her chief ministerial bid, she could manage just four MLAs to accompany her. The Congress high command had to yield again.
Having learnt his lessons, Virbhadra Singh demanded to be appointed HP Congress president and declared the party’s chief ministerial candidate ahead of assembly elections in 2012. Sonia Gandhi looked determined to have her way — and go with a new face. Singh looked vulnerable then.
In June that year, he had to resign from the Union Cabinet after he had been charged in a corruption case. Virbhadra Singh wouldn’t bow down before the Delhi throne, though. Soon the word spread that tents were being put up at NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence to welcome Singh into his party.
The Congress high command quickly relented, sending an emissary to him. He was soon appointed state Congress chief and he led the party to victory in the election a few months later.
Despite his run-ins with the Congress high command, Virbhadra Singh always stayed loyal to the party. “I was born in the Congress and will die in the Congress,” he would often say.
People in Himachal Pradesh often talk about his contributions to infrastructure development in the hill state — roads, hospitals, schools, electricity in every village, et al. But what they will remember the most about their ‘Raja Sahib’ is his ‘personal touch’, say late Singh’s party colleagues.
(Edited by Priyanjali Mitra)
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