Chapter 13

ZAIL SINGH: THE GREAT SURVIVOR

Giani Zail Singh (5 May 1916 to 25 December 1994; popularly called Gianiji) was, by and large, a soft-spoken and amiable individual. He came from a humble background. Belonging to a Sikh Tarkhan Ramgarhia family, he was given the title of ‘Giani’ as he was learned in the religious scriptures, especially as far as the Guru Granth Sahib (the holy book of the Sikhs) was concerned. He acquired such knowledge at the Shaheed Sikh Missionary College, Amritsar. However, he did not have a formal education.

He later became a staunch Congress loyalist and also media savvy. To achieve his objectives – mainly to gain proximity to those in power and to benefit from such closeness – he did not care for the means he used (details given later in this chapter).

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In 1949, Zail Singh was appointed revenue minister of the newly amalgamated princely states of Patiala, Jind, Nabha, Kapurthala, Faridkot, Kalsia, Nalagarh and Malerkotla, designated the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) under Chief Minister Gian Singh Rarewala, who hailed from Patiala. In the Congress-led Punjab Government formed on 23 May 1951, he became agriculture minister. From 1956 to 1962, Zail Singh served as a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was president of the Punjab Congress during 1967–72. After the Congress victory in the 1972 Assembly elections, he became chief minister of Punjab, an office he occupied till 1977. After the January 1980 general elections (which the Congress won), he was elected a member of the Lok Sabha and was inducted by Indira Gandhi into her cabinet as home minister.

Despite facing several setbacks (due to his social status and his lack of a formal education), he was able to occupy India’s highest constitutional office, that of president, on 25 July 1982. Commenting on his elevation as president, the media declared he had been chosen for being an Indira Gandhi loyalist rather than as an eminent person. ‘If my leader had said I should pick up a broom and be a sweeper, I would have done that. She chose me to be President,’ Zail Singh was reported to have once said. Sycophancy and ‘money bag culture’ (using money to try and win over people) were believed to be his favourite means of attaining his goals.

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My own interactions with Zail Singh and the episodes narrated to me by his closest confidant and conscience keeper Onkar Chand1 revealed fascinating facets of Gianiji’s personality and also gave me an insight into his style of functioning.

It was through my friend Joginder Pal Pandey, a minister in the Punjab Government and a native of my home town Ludhiana, that I had developed a good equation with Onkar Chand. After Zail Singh took over as chief minister on 17 March 1972, some senior Congress leaders used to describe Onkar Chand (who was also the chief of the Punjab Congress Bhawan Trust²) as the ‘de facto chief minister of Punjab’. (Zail Singh’s term of office lasted till 30 April 1977.)

I had two ‘close encounters’ with Zail Singh: the first when he was chief minister of Punjab and the second, in 1980, when he was Union home minister.

Zail Singh believed in using the Akali Dal’s religious platform to ‘out-Sikh’ the Akalis in the Sikh-majority Punjabi Suba. Incidentally, he was not Punjab’s first Congress chief minister to make use of religion for trying to cut into the Akalis’ Sikh support base. Before him Partap Singh Kairon (in office from 23 January 1956 to 21 June 1964) had abortively tried to make a dent in the Akalis’ Sikh vote bank by capturing the Sikh’s apex religious body, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages the cash-rich, historically important gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. He sponsored the Saadh Sangat Board under the headship of General Mohan Singh, a veteran once associated with Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA). The SSB, which had its headquarters at Ludhiana, contested the SGPC elections held in January 1960 but could secure only four seats. The Akali Dal swept the polls getting 132 of the 140 seats.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, Kairon was opposed to the Akalis’ Punjabi Suba demand as he believed that the formation of a Punjabi-speaking state would divide Punjab, thereby depriving it of its hilly areas and the areas around the national capital (New Delhi), which had the potential of becoming strong industrial hubs. These areas – such as Gurgaon, Faridabad and Sonipat— which have become highly industrialized are now a part of Haryana (formed after Punjab’s reorganization on 1 November 1966). Besides, Kairon was convinced that the undivided Hindu-majority Punjab would facilitate the Congress’s future electoral victories as Hindus and Harijans (now called Dalits) formed the main support base of the party.

As an aside, it would worth pointing out that when Captain Amarinder Singh headed the Congress Government (as chief minister) from 26 February 2002 to 1 March 2007, he too adopted the Akalis’ panthic (religious) agenda to win over the Sikh vote bank, which he thought would help the Congress perpetuate its rule in Punjab. But the Congress failed to make a big dent in the Akalis’ support base except in its traditional stronghold of Malwa. (Malwa is in south-eastern Punjab.) This was due to the support it got from Dera Sacha Sauda, a religious-cum-social body that has a very large following among Malwa’s downtrodden and backward classes. The captain’s adoption of the Akalis’ panthic agenda proved counterproductive for the Congress as the party suffered a big setback with regard to its traditional urban Hindu vote in the February 2007 Assembly elections. As a result, the party lost the elections and the Akali Dal was back in power (see also Chapter 29).

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In order to exploit the Sikhs’ religious sentiments by deftly using the Akalis’ religious platform, Zail Singh arranged religious gatherings for Sikhs, started public functions with a traditional Sikh prayer and named a township after Guru Gobind Singh’s son. (Gobind Singh was the tenth and last Sikh Guru who lived from 1666 to 1708.) Fearing that his ‘pro-Sikh’ moves might have an adverse impact on the Hindus of Punjab, the Congress’s main vote bank, he ordered a search for locating Sita’s rasoi (kitchen), which his advisers informed him was somewhere in Punjab. (Sita was the wife of Lord Rama.) Zail Singh also got renovated the Ram Tirath at Amritsar, the place where, it was believed, Luv and Kush, Lord Rama’s sons were brought up by Sita.

The most important among the measures to win over the deeply religious Sikh community was Gianiji’s ordering the completion of some unconstructed stretches of the Anandpur Sahib—Talwandi Sabo road, which Guru Gobind Singh had once traversed. After getting these links constructed, he named the highway Guru Gobind Singh Marg. On 10 April 1973, the marg was inaugurated by him by organizing a religious procession.

At that time, I was the National Herald’s staff correspondent based at Chandigarh. The newspaper published my piece as the lead article on its editorial page (in the second week of April 1973). The article criticized the use of the Akalis’ religious platform by Zail Singh, contending that the Congress, as a secular party, should not compete with the Akalis on the basis of their religious agenda. The article also stated that the Congress should fight the Akalis by using its political and economic plank as the latter would always outwit the former in the use of religion.

I came to know later that Zail Singh was very unhappy with my article against the Congress Government in Punjab and he complained against me to some Central Congress leaders as well as to Yashpal Kapoor, managing director of the National Herald, who was close to Indira Gandhi. None of them, however, had the courage to take up the matter with M. Chalapathi Rau (popularly known as MC), editor of the National Herald, who greatly valued the freedom of the press.

A few days later, Dr Harivansh Sharma, a Chandigarh-based Ayurved, told me that Gianiji (who was then chief minister of Punjab) wanted to see me. Dr Sharma had the amazing knack of cultivating both politicians and journalists. Prominent political leaders, including Zail Singh, Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal, when out of power, would often visit his two-room clinic-cum-residence located in Chandigarh’s Sector 22.

I reached the chief minister’s residence at 8 p.m. (I cannot recall the date but it was sometime in late April 1973.) Zail Singh took me to his bedroom where Dr Sharma was also present. He offered me an alcoholic drink. When I told him that I was a teetotaller, he asked me: ‘Then how do you write [articles and news reports]?’ I did not respond.

The objective behind his wanting to meet me became clear when he complained against my critical write-up in the ‘Congress Party’s newspaper’. He explained the main reason for his promoting religious issues in the case of the Sikhs. He pointed out that the Congress, with most of its Hindu and Dalit vote intact in Punjab, needed 10 to 15 per cent more Sikh votes in addition to the approximately 10 per cent it normally bagged, in order to counter the Akalis and to ensure that they could never capture power in Punjab.

He also cautioned me that ‘in future you should ask me before writing about the Congress and its government’. I replied that ‘it was not possible as I was just doing my duty’. I then added: ‘Whenever you have something to say on any issue your version will be published in the National Herald.’ I could clearly see signs of annoyance on his face.

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The greatest privilege a journalist could possibly have would be to work under a fiercely independent and no-nonsense editor like MC. Because of his lofty stature and reputation, even the Congress top brass would not dare to ask him for any favour with respect to professional matters or to act on their complaints against the journalists working in the National Herald.

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My second encounter with Zail Singh took place in early 1980 when he was the Union home minister.

As mentioned in Chapter 12, my eldest daughter’s (Anita) marriage was to take place in March 1980. I had yet to receive arrears of about Rs 10,800 (a fairly big amount those days) from the National Herald. (I had resigned from the National Herald to join the Indian Express.) Towards the end of February 1980, my fellow-journalist, Prem Kumar (then the Statesman’s special correspondent at Chandigarh), spoke to his friend Dr Charanjit Chanana, the Union minister of state for industries about my dues. On 2 March 1980, Dr Chanana rang me up to inform that Zail Singh would be visiting Chandigarh the next day and that I should meet him at Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s residence.

On 3 March morning, when Gianiji came to Bhajan Lal’s house direct from the airport, he saw me standing behind the row of ministers and MLAs waiting to welcome him. Ignoring all of them, he came to me, threw his arms around me and whispered in my ears that he would come to my house that night. I felt highly embarrassed by his gesture of hugging me as I had always avoided publicly giving an impression of my closeness to ruling politicians with whom I otherwise had good personal equations.

The National Herald’s liaison man who had accompanied Yashpal Kapoor to Bhajan Lal’s residence later took me to the antechamber and handed over Rs 5700. He told me that Kapoor had brought the money to pay my dues. I signed the voucher he had brought along. When I asked him about the rest of the arrears, he replied that he had no clue about them.

After waiting for Zail Singh, who had promised to visit to my house, up to around 11.30 p.m., my wife and I went to bed. At 11.45 p.m., there was a knock at the front door. I thought Gianiji had come. But when I opened the door, I instead found his political secretary, Sant Ram Singla, standing outside. After I took him to the drawing room, he said that Gianiji could not come as he had been held up at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (commonly known as the PGI). Singla gave me an envelope containing Rs 5100. I then informed Singla that Kapoor had already given me Rs 5700 in the morning as part payment of my dues. I then asked him if the amount he had given me was my remainder dues and requested him to wait so that I could give him a receipt. But Singla replied that he did not know if the amount represented my National Herald dues. He said that it was Gianiji who had sent the money as shagun (a kind of gift) for my daughter’s marriage and insisted I should accept it. In response, I asked him to convey my thanks to Gianiji and to also tell him that, as per our family tradition, we accepted only Rs 51 as shagun.

I, however, decided not to keep even that small amount and returned the envelope to Singla, who appeared to be embarrassed. Later, my wife reprimanded me for not keeping Rs 51 as it was against the social norms to refuse the shagun.

The next day morning, I tried to contact Gianiji over the phone to inform him about Singla’s visit to my house. But I could not get in touch with him as I was told that he was busy in a meeting with the governor.

I next rang up Prabhash Joshi, then resident editor of the Indian Express, Chandigarh, and informed him about Singla’s visit. He came over to my house, from where he called up the private secretary of the Indian Express proprietor Ramnath Goenka. He asked her to find out if Zail Singh had received the envelope containing the money, which was returned by me to Singla. I did not bother to get her feedback.

Later that morning, I also rang up Dr Charanjit Chanana and informed him about what had happened the previous night. His view was that I should have accepted the money as the issue relating to the payment of my dues had been taken up at the highest level and, only after that, had the amount been sent. I respectfully pointed out to him that, in that case, the money should have come from the National Herald and not from any other source. In response, he said that the newspaper had no white money to pay any dues. However, he felt that Gianiji himself should have met me.

I was not particularly surprised by Zail Singh’s sending me the envelope containing currency notes as I knew about his modus operandi to ‘cultivate’ media persons, thanks to Onkar Chand’s ‘revelations’. He himself was, however, surprised at Gianiji’s indiscretion of offering me the money under the pretext of shagun for my daughter’s marriage.

Onkar’s surprise was not surprising! He had earlier told me that he and Zail Singh had time and again taken up the issue of how to ‘cultivate’ journalists. In this context, he disclosed: ‘Gianiji was angry with you. He often discussed with me how he should manage you. I had told Gianiji that Chum had a Leftist background and it was a mistake on his part to “purchase” him. I also advised him not to try to handle you through [your] friend Joginder Pal Pandey.’

Some days later, Pandey told me that when the list of journalists to whom ‘envelopes’, television sets and transistors were proposed to be sent was being finalized, Gianiji asked him and Omkar Chand to delete my name, with the following comment (in Punjabi): ‘Chum taan kutte di poonchh hai, baaran saal dabban ton baad kaddo tan tedhi di tedhi nikle gi.’ (Chum is like a dog’s tail, which, dug out after remaining buried for 12 years, would remain bent.)

As terrorism in Punjab began to escalate in the 1980s, Pandey was shot dead by extremists in Ludhiana on 19 January 1987.

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As mentioned earlier in this chapter, Onkar Chand narrated to me several incidents of how Zail Singh tactfully dealt with tricky political situations. The narratives exposed different facets of Zail Singh’s personality. Being Gianiji’s acknowledged closest confidant and political operative, I had no reason to disbelieve what Onkar Chand had divulged about Zail Singh’s ways of functioning, particularly in dealing with his detractors.

One of the incidents related to how Zail Singh was once extremely demoralized due to Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi’s negative attitude towards him. He even thought of resigning as chief minister. (The details are given later in this chapter.)

Being a go-getter not particularly bothered about how he ascended the ladder of power, Zail Singh not only succeeded in averting the numerous crises that he faced during his eventful political career but also skilfully overcame the hurdles on his way to first become chief minister of Punjab, then Union home minister and ultimately president of India.

The tapping of telephones – whether of politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists or journalists – has always triggered controversies, both ethical and legal. The recent case (which is sub judice) of the ‘Radia tapes’ is among the instances of such surveillance. (The tapes relate to purported telephonic conversations between Niira Radia, a political lobbyist, with several journalists, politicians and business magnates in 2008-09.)

Besides tapping telephones of leaders belonging to the opposition, adversaries of politicians within their own parties also often become targets of phone tapping. But sometimes such tapping leads to crisis situations for those in power. For instance, as happened when Zail Singh was chief minister of Punjab.

In the mid-1970s, according to Onkar Chand, Zail Singh wanted the telephones of the Punjab Congress Committee (PCC) president, Niranjan Singh Talib, and Talib’s friend, General Mohan Singh (of INA fame), to be tapped. Apparently, they were not getting on well with him.

The incident had its origin in the latter half of 1976 when Zail Singh invited Indira Gandhi to Malerkotla for inaugurating the 100 per cent rural electrification programme in Punjab. On her way back, Zail Singh wanted to board the helicopter in which the PM was to fly first from Malerkotla to Halwara (near Ludhiana) and from there to Delhi by an aircraft. However, she asked the chief minister to stay back and interact with the huge crowd still present at the function site. She instead chose Talib to accompany her in the helicopter for the 55-minute flight.

Zail Singh later came to know from Punjab’s deputy superintendent of police (who was then posted in Delhi) and also from other sources that she had returned unhappy from Punjab. But he could not find out the reason for her unhappiness. This suspense evidently was too much for him. Consequently, he ordered the tapping of the telephones of Talib, General Mohan Singh and some others.

In one of their telephonic conversations (on 9 August 1976), Talib was reportedly heard telling Mohan Singh that ‘we committed a mistake by not organizing a revolt against Gianiji. The PM is very angry with him. The iron is now hot and we should not miss the opportunity and strike’. General Mohan Singh wanted to know the details but Talib was cautious and said that they should meet in the evening when he would tell him the nitty-gritty of his proposed plan. When Zail Singh was informed about the conversation between his two detractors, he and Onkar Chand were planning to go to Delhi, obviously to find ways of combating them. Zail Singh then asked Talib (over the telephone) to meet him in the evening. Talib replied that he was unwell and hence it was not possible for him to do so. Later that day, Talib rang up Mohan Singh and told him that he had refused to meet Zail Singh (in the evening) and that Gianiji might want to see him the next morning.

Onkar Chand revealed to me later that around midnight, a Delhi-based Punjabi journalist had read in the latest issue of a popular English weekly (published from Bombay) a story about Talib’s visit to Canada, his stay with Hari Om Dilawari of the Canadian Hunger Foundation and payments allegedly made by Dilawari for his treatment. (The journalist had shown this story to Talib.) According to Onkar Chand, Zail Singh had procured the details about Talib’s trip after his return from Canada. There were numerous theories floating around as to who provided the information to the Bombay weekly about the payment for Talib’s treatment in Canada.

Early next morning (10 August 1976), Zail Singh received a call from Talib’s son-in-law informing him that his father-in-law had died of heart failure. Talib’s body was taken to the PCC office in Chandigarh where Zail Singh and others paid tributes to him.

Zail Singh next sought a meeting with the prime minister. He got a jolt when his request did not evoke any response from Indira Gandhi. He was dismayed and told Onkar he wanted to submit his resignation. But Onkar suggested that he should first try to find out the reason why Mrs Gandhi was annoyed with him. Onkar suggested that he should go to Delhi and stand in the morning ‘darbar’ that Indira Gandhi used to hold at her residence. Heeding Onkar’s suggestion, Zail Singh went and stood in the queue of those waiting to see the PM. Mrs Gandhi came to the ‘darbar’ but walked past him without even acknowledging his presence.

After some time, according to Onkar Chand, Zail Singh again sought an appointment with Indira Gandhi, but there was no response from her for three months. During this period, he was on his tenterhooks and again thought of resigning. After midnight consultations with his advisers, it was decided to send a letter (drafted with the help of a Punjab University psychologist) to the prime minister. When the draft was shown to Gianiji at 6 a.m., he summoned S. P. Bagla, Punjab’s finance secretary and a senior Indian IAS officer, for consultations. After making a few changes, the letter was sent through a special messenger to New Delhi.

In the letter, Zail Singh recalled his loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family, virtually declaring that he was a ‘servant’ of the household. Within five days, the PMH accepted his request for a meeting with Indira Gandhi.

‘Why did Mrs Gandhi not meet Zail Singh earlier?’ I later asked Onkar. His reply was that Niranjan Singh Talib had denigrated Gianiji when he was with Mrs Gandhi in the helicopter (during the flight from Malerkotla to Halwara, near Ludhiana). But that could not be the only reason for Indira Gandhi’s annoyance with Zail Singh. There was perhaps another reason.

While addressing Congress workers at Gulabgarh in Punjab’s Bathinda district on 6 December 1975, Sanjay Gandhi lashed out at the ‘aged old guard’ politicians (implying Giani Zail Singh) virtually throughout his speech and wanted them to be thrown out of power and replaced by young blood. The reason for his anger was that instead of reaching the venue at 8 p.m., the time announced for the meeting, Giani Zail Singh arrived there at 8.15 p.m. as he was told that Sanjay would be arriving only at 8.30 p.m. But Sanjay had arrived at 8.05 p.m. and, when told that Gianiji had not yet come, he flared up and lauched his tirade against the old-timers. However, through his unmatched sycophancy and money power, Zail Singh again gained proximity to the Gandhis after this incident.

After the March 1977 Lok Sabha elections, leading to the Janata Party coming to power at the Centre, Zail Singh, like many other Congress leaders, went into political oblivion, but resurfaced in early 1980, when Indira Gandhi was back at the helm as prime minister.

Long after Zail Singh was appointed as Union home minister (in January 1980), Onkar Chand recounted how he came to occupy this crucial post: ‘After winning the Lok Sabha elections in [January] 1980, Zail Singh went to Sanjay Gandhi with a briefcase containing a huge amount of money, which he said had been saved out of the money he had collected for his election campaign. On the other hand, Buta Singh [another well-known Sikh politician close to the Gandhis] who was expected to be inducted into the cabinet as home minister had asked for money from the high command for his election campaign. Sanjay must have thought if a person like Zail Singh could collect a huge amount and give the unspent amount to the party, others must have also raised large amounts for their campaigns.’ According to Onkar Chand: ‘This act of his catapulted Zail Singh to the high office.’

His appointment as Union home minister prompted Onkar Chand to tell Zail Singh that ‘you have now reached the pinnacle of your political career.’ But Zail Singh countered him by asking: ‘Why can I not become president?’ Eventually, on 25 July 1982, he succeeded in fulfilling his ambition.

Onkar Chand later informed me that when the question of nominating a presidential candidate was being debated in mid-1982, deputations from minority communities and telegrams from all over India requested Mrs Gandhi to select a person from a minority community, preferably Giani Zail Singh.

A few months after Gianiji had taken over as president, Onkar Chand told me (on 24 February 1983): ‘I can bet that one day Zail Singh will take over the country. He is very ambitious. He is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.’ However, that did not happen.

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1 Onkar Chand was the general secretary of the Punjab Congress Committee. In 1977, he quit this post after the Akali Dal Government came to power in Punjab and initiated cases against him for his alleged acts of omission and commission during the chief ministership of Zail Singh. A few years later, he died.

² This trust managed the Punjab Congress Bhawan, the headquarters of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee at Chandigarh.