Syed Ali Mujtaba
The conduct of Andhra Pradesh Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari on a video grab seen on a bed with young women has shocked the Indian nation. The footages aired by a TV channel if true, has disgraced this veteran Congress leader who is on the twilight years of his life has indulged in such an immoral and unethical act.
The video grab shows three women aged between 17 and 25 and an elderly man - which ABN Andhra Jyothi, the Telugu TV channel that aired the story claimed to be was Tiwari who is without pajamas and the his ladies accomplices without a shred of clothing - engaging in sexual acts.
The tape also shows the old man doing all kind of nasty things right from massages to ‘BJ’s and there was no hint of awkwardness and it seems the man was clearly enjoying himself on a king size bed.
With the editor of ABN Andhra Jyothi claiming that there is little truth in the allegation of pictures being doctored as they were taken from spy camera and are genuine leaves little for imagination.
The expose brought the Andhra Governor on dock who under pressure from political parties and women’s organizations resigned from his post bringing to an end to his 26-month long gubernatorial tenure. A press communiqué issued by the Raj Bhavan said, ‘Mr. Tiwari submitted his resignation to President Pratibha Patil citing health reasons’.
After submitting his resignation Tiwari apologized to the nation but maintained have done no wrong. He called it a political conspiracy and said have been framed. ‘It is baseless, fake... Anyone can make an allegation. It is 100 percent wrong allegation… 'I am not disturbed. I have participated in the freedom struggle and will fight it out,' he said.
He linked the allegations against him to the ongoing campaign for a separate Telangana state. 'The Telangana fight is going on ... The president was to come there… I have been framed because of the Telangana issue,' he said.
Earlier a press release from Raj Bhavan asserted that the “alleged story against the Governor of Andhra Ptadesh is nothing but a tissue of lies. Mr. Tiwari is 86-years-old and in the evening of his life. The office of Governor is constantly under public scrutiny and entirely above board. It’s sad and unfortunate that constitutional functionaries are dragged into needless controversy with utter disregard to propriety. ”
The statement leaves one guessing as there are few basic postulates that remain unanswered in this story. First the timing of the sting operation when Telenhana and united Andhra agitation are on peak and second if we view this in relation to similar allegation made against Sankracharya of Kamkotti Sri Sri Gayanender Swarsati, that later turned out to be untrue an iota of doubt emerges accepting the peddled story.
In Sankracharya case too a video tape had emerged from somewhere and a woman appeared alleging that the revered Swamy had sexual liaison with her. At that point of time I had interviewed the counsel of the Sankracharya who was seething with anger and said much malicious charge is more serious than that of Shankeraman murder case.
He explained that at certain age man’s reproductive organ becomes defunct and serves only urinary purposes, this totally rubbishes the story and without going into such veracity the allegation is being lapped up tarnishing the image of his client.
This hypothesis could even be applied on Narayan Dutt Tiwari who has held high profile political posts in his long and illustrations career. Born in 1925 in Nanital, Tiwari has taken activity part in the freedom struggle. He got elected as M.L.A. in 1952. Later he went on to become thrice the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He has held the position of Minister several times in the union cabinet. Tiwari was the main contender for the post of Prime Minister with Narasimha Rao. He became the Chief Minister of e Uttarakhand in 2002. He expressed desire to retire from politics but Congress party in 2007 assigned him the post of Governorship of Andhra Pradesh.
When allegation of such nature against a politician of such caliber is made it’s hard to believe and some analysis can be attempted to present the other side of this story. This could be done only in the background of the rift between Telegana and Andra regions that seems to be on boil over the issue of creation of separate state and both sides are in no mood to reconcile.
The united Andhra supporters were unhappy when the ruling Congress party announced its decision to create Telengana state caring out from the Andhra Pradesh. This evoked widespread agitation in the entire Andhra region against this decision.
This compelled the Congress party to flip flop on the issue and tried to put its decision to create a separate state on hold for some time. It took refuge on the pretext that a resolution to this effect should be passed in the state assembly first, knowing fully well that the supporters of Telengana are in a minority and no such resolution can ever be passed.
The Congress leadership also absolved its responsibility of using its residual powers that it had used earlier to create six new states in the north eastern region of India and the state of Goa in the west.
This attitude of the Congress party triggered a wide spread agitation in Telegana region that assumed the proportion of civil unrest and seemingly unstoppable.
The union government again did a flip flop and announced that it’s not going back on its promise to create the separate state of Telangana.
This had made the supporters of united Andhra to eat a humble pie and they seem to evolve a new tactics to divert the attention from the Telengana agitation.
The sting operation against N.D Tiwari by ABN Andhra Jyothi, if seen in this backdrop make some sense it has the potential to divert the attention from the widespread agitation for separate Telanga agitation and tarnish the image of the Congress party.
However, these arguments fall flat if we see the video grab of the old man indulging in such an immoral and indecent act. If that’s Mr. Tiwari then it’s really a shameful act. The man in the sleaze tape is definitely indulging in unethical and immoral act and seems enjoying itself.
To put an end to the controversy of such nature it would be prudent to constitute an impartial inquiry to establish the veracity of such allegation and place the facts before the public.
If found guilty, Mr. Tiwari be given exemplary punishment for brining disrepute to the office of the Governor. The punishment should set an example that none can dare to repeat.
What ever is the fact some one must answer. We talk about security. Where was the Security when the whole drama was taking place in the private chambers of the Raj Bhavan? If the girls were smuggled in through some contacts, where was the security? Also the sting operation would have involved some planning and all in the High Security Zone of the Governor's residence? Where was the security? All this could be walk in the park if we replace the sting operators with militants and if that had happened then the rant of Lasker –e- Taiba and Jaish-e- Mohammad may have been making rounds and not the story of an old man and his sleaze tape.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is working journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com
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