Scandal Forces Andhra Governor Tiwari to Quit

By DN Verma

Andhra Pradesh is already in the throes of a political turmoil with the pro-and-anti Telangana demand but now a sex scandal, true or made-up, has forced the 86-year-old Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari to resign. Tiwari has been Chief Minister and also Minister in the Central government.

Tiwari, was caught on a hidden camera in his Raj Bhawan bed with three women and the images shown on a local Telugu TV.

Within an hour Raj Bhavan succeeded in getting a High Court restraining order and the TV channel withdrew it. Raj Bhavan also denied any sex scandal but the damage was already done. Demand for Tiwari’s resignation was voiced widely and that forced the outcome. The Congress veteran’s pleas to the top Congress leaders to wait till he clears his name -– as he pled ‘not guilty’ - did not find favor with them. After all, the party is more important than the man, more so when he is under a deep cloud of sexual misconduct. 

There have been reports of young girls making trips to Raj Bhavan which some MPs and MLAs also were reported to be frequenting.

Besides, a few years back, a 29-year-old man had claimed Tiwari as his father and asked the Delhi High Court to order a paternity test. Ironically, Tiwari’s lawyers did not challenge the main point but made a plea that the suit was time-barred as the man should have filed it before he turned 18. The High Court then declined to order the test and with that the matter, probably, ended.

However, the scandal did not leave Tiwari. A sting operation caught him in the wrong bed with wrong women and at the wrong age - the twilight years. The situation made the old Congressman to resign as the damning TV clips and wider demand for his ouster. made the Congress  leadership really panicky. Tiwari chose to resign citing ‘health’ as the reason.

The scandal did not give any time to Tiwari, the developments were quick. Tiwari quit just a day after Telugu television channel 'ABN Andhra Jyothi' aired clips captured in a sting operation with him in bed with three women; he had only his shirt on.

As soon as the footage was shown Raj Bhavan got into damage control mode, first denying the report as “malicious” and then rushing to the High Court to get a restraining order against the Channel that complied with it and stopped showing the clips.

However, the damning report and thousands having seen the footage of their Governor in compromising position with women provoked widespread condemnation and demand for his ouster. Almost all the political parties such as TDP, CPM, CPI and BJP joined in demanding his resignation.

Some women's organizations also joined the fray and held demonstrations denouncing the Governor and demanding his immediate resignation or dismissal.

The Congress party, initially, was skeptical and some leaders made comments about the clips being fake or doctored, but the party has now welcomed the resignation. The Congress said Tiwari took the appropriate decision.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President, and a former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu has demanded a full probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the sex scandal involving Tiwari. He said since there were reports that some MPs were also involved in the scandal, the Central government should order a CBI inquiry.

This is the first time in the country that a state Governor had to resign in a sex scandal.

Women's groups also demanded that Tiwari be booked in a criminal case. The All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) demanded that Tiwari be arrested and tried.

Earlier, Ravi Shankar, Tiwari's lawyer had told CNN-IBN news channel that the allegations were “a tissue of lies” and that they had sent a legal notice against the TV channel that telecast clips alleging the Governor in bed with three young women. [The channel stood by its report.]

The Raj Bhavan, soon after the telecast, had issued a statement saying “There is absolutely no truth in the alleged news story which is nothing but sensation mongering and in poor taste. It is nothing but a tissue of lies.

“The Governor Shri Narayan Datt Tiwariji is 86 years old and in the evening of his life. The office of the Governor is constantly under public scrutiny and entirely above board.

“It is sad and unfortunate that constitutional functionaries are dragged into needless controversy with utter disregard to propriety as well as deference to be shown to the age which is part of our culture and tradition,” the statement said.

But ultimately, Tiwari, who knew better, decided to quit rather than fight the allegations. Probably he thought discretion was better part of valor and the scandal would die with his resignation.

The TV channel in its footage and narrative by a reporter had quoted Radhika, a woman from Uttarakhand, as saying that she sent the young women to Raj Bhavan on Tiwari's request through his aide. The woman said she was exposing the Governor as he failed to provide her an iron ore mining license in Andhra Pradesh.

ND Tiwari had a very long innings as a top Congressman. He was Chief Minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh and also of the new carved out state of Uttarakhand. Before that, he was a Minister in the Central cabinet.

Sex scandals are not new to Indian politics. The stories, often concealed, are too many. Narayan Dutt Tiwari, is a new entry in the list of people involved in these scandals.

Sex scandals happen more frequently in other countries. In the United States, Governors, Senators and other politicians have frequently been caught in sexual scandals. The then President Bill Clinton’s affairs - and scandal with The White House intern, Monica Lewinsky - are legendary. He was even impeached by the House of Representatives (though the Senate did not concur, and he was let off).

Earlier, President John Kennedy and his younger brothers Bobby and Ted were also notorious for their sexual escapades. Things happened in The White House, and also elsewhere. The French and the Italian leaders too, are frequently the subject of sex scandals.

IANS adds the following report on some of India’s sex scandals:

“Barely a week back, a General Secretary of the Congress party in Kerala, Rajmohan Unnithan, 57, was granted bail after he was held on charges of immoral trafficking for being found in the company of a woman under suspicious circumstances.

Sleaze raised its ugly head during the April-May Lok Sabha elections when film star-turned-politician Jaya Prada alleged that rival leader Azam Khan was distributing nude pictures of her to ensure her defeat in the polls.

She alleged Khan “distributed, doctored and morphed” pictures and posters of her that appeared as though she had posed in the nude.

The Kashmir Valley was rocked in May 2006 after police unearthed a scam allegedly involving high profile politicians and bureaucrats. The case drags on in a court. The bitter memories of the scam returned this summer afresh after allegations that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah figured in the list of the accused, forcing him to resign.

However, he withdrew his resignation after the Central Bureau of Investigation said his name had not cropped up.

Scams have also hit the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In December 2005, a sting operation forced the party's General Secretary and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) insider Sanjay Joshi to quit his party after a video CD allegedly showed him romping with an unidentified woman.

Amarmani Tripathi, a Congress politician and erstwhile Cabinet Minister in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested in September 2003 in connection with the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla, with whom he allegedly had an affair, and who was brutally murdered.

After investigations revealed that she was carrying a foetus that matched the DNA of Tripathi, the Supreme Court rejected his bail plea; he is currently in jail.

Former Utarakhand Revenue Minister Harak Singh Rawat had to resign in 2003 amid allegations of his links with an unwed mother. Opposition members had raised the issue of his alleged affair with the Assamese woman who later gave birth to a child.

In 2001, news portal Tehelka in its “Operation West End,” sought to expose corruption underlying India's defense contracts.

Transcript of video footage showed a treasurer of the Samata Party offering to arrange call girls to undercover journalists.

Even some army officers came under the scanner when they were filmed demanding sex with prostitutes from Tehelka journalists in return for defense contracts.

In October 1997, one of the prominent leaders in Kerala, PK Kunjalikutty was accused of being a kingpin of what came to be notoriously known as the “ice-cream parlor scandal.”
 
An ice-cream parlor in Kozhikode was allegedly used as a front for a sex trade and lured girls into it. The sexual exploitation of minors also came up. Kunjalikutty was the state's former Minister from the Muslim League. Some comrades of the Communist Party of India-Marxist were also named.

In 1978, then Defense Minister Jagjivan Ram's son Suresh was shown with a woman in a photograph that was published in monthly magazine Surya. Now BJP MP Maneka Gandhi, daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, was then the editor of the magazine. The scandal involving the Minister's son rocked the nation and put an end to Jagjivan Ram's political career, who before that had been a strong contender for the Prime Minister's post.”

Tiwari’s experience is not the last one to result in the fall of a veteran politician. Many others must be awaiting their turn.