New Delhi: Speaking at the launch of the last volume of his autobiographical trilogy last week, veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar indicated that he was unceremoniously removed from his cabinet position as the petroleum and natural gas minister at the behest of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, and then was similarly shifted out of the youth and sports affairs ministry after a dispute with Suresh Kalmadi, the president of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) who was in-charge of organising the Commonwealth Games 2010.
While in conversation with senior editor Vir Sanghvi at the India International Centre, New Delhi to launch his memoir A Maverick in Politics: 1991-2014, Aiyar said that in spite of being recognised for taking multiple initiatives to make India an important player in oil diplomacy as the petroleum and natural gas minister, he was replaced by Murli Deora, who “Mukesh found as a more companionable minister”.
Aiyar said that while he was the minister of panchayati raj, he was asked by Congress leader Ahmad Patel to take up the additional responsibility of the petroleum and natural gas ministry temporarily. “I knew absolutely nothing about petroleum. All I had heard is the petroleum minister’s job is to dole out petrol pumps and in exchange collect money which would then be handed over to the exchequer.”
He recalled how on the first day in office, the Saudi Arabian ambassador met him and informed that the crude oil prices have shot up from $10 a barrel to $30 a barrel. “I immediately realised that I was being put into the ministry as a scapegoat because my job would then be to raise the prices of petroleum products right across the spectrum and then I would then have to pay the political price for this,” he said.
He went on to note that he met Ambani during the first few days as the petroleum and natural gas minister. “I was already sitting with one of the minor workers of my constituency… So I asked him to wait,” Aiyar said, adding that he may have waited for “may five, maybe ten minutes” in the conference room as there was no waiting hall in Shastri Bhawan where the ministry was located.
“Then someone went in and pulled the poor man out. I have never called a billionaire a poor man before,” Aiyar said, triggering a round of laughter among the audience.
“I think that [making Ambani wait] may have had a deleterious consequence on my own career,” he said.
Aiyar said that Ambani made a presentation in the meeting which he thought was “undoubtedly the best presentation on petroleum that I had received from anybody at that stage.”
“So I was full of praise for him,” he said.
However, Aiyar went on to add that in his days as the petroleum minister, he came up with something called “equitable burden sharing” to offset the impact of increasing oil prices and which would effectively need every stakeholder of the industry to take a cut in it. Aiyar said that “Mukesh never came to see me again”. Even the then finance minister P.Chadiambaram was opposed to such a formula.
After 20-odd months, Aiyar recalled that while he was at a distant village in his Tamil Nadu constituency, he got a call from the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to inform him that he was being moved out of the petroleum ministry.
“He [Singh] rang me on that dark, really dark and dreary night and said, ‘I’m sorry Mani, but I have been obliged to shift you out of the ministry.’ I said, ‘Sir, you’re welcome.’ He said, ‘No, I’m still trying to fight for you to remain in the ministry because I think you’ve done an outstanding job’,” Aiyar said.
“I took that compliment, but I also took the kick that came with that compliment, and I found that apart from the prime minister, there was no one else who wanted me to remain in the ministry,” he added.
Aiyar said that his understanding was that Deora had already been identified as the petroleum and natural gas minister but because he lost his Lok Sabha election, the former was asked to take his position temporarily. By the time Deora was brought to the Rajya Sabha, Aiyar had already spent 20 months in understanding the oil world.
Aiyar said that Sonia Gandhi told him that he was made clear that his stint in the petroleum ministry was only temporary right at the beginning but what was unfortunate was that at the time of exit, he had taken very significant initiatives which would have made India a significant player in the oil economy.
He recalled how with the help of senior diplomat Talmiz Ahmad, who he thought was the “most knowledgeable not only in West Asian politics but also in energy diplomacy” and former vice-president Hamid Ansari, he set up the Asian Grid on energy diplomacy that focussed on natural gas, played a crucial role in forming the International Energy Association in Riyadh, and organised one of the biggest meeting of Asian exporters and importers, so much so that “countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey” praised his initiatives for trying to create an alternative market in Asia and weakening their dependability on European and North American markets.
“We succeeded to a great extent in oil diplomacy,” he said, while remembering his stint in making the voices of Asian countries much more stronger than ever before, and playing a crucial role in giving the much required fillip to India’s growth rate which at the time was around 8%.
“Alas, when I ceased to be a minister within 20 months, all of these were left out,” Aiyar said.
He said that when Dharmendra Pradhan took over as the minister of petroleum and natural gas in the Narendra Modi government, he passed on the policy documents to him. “But he came back and said that all these are mere philosophy; what we need are real things,” Aiyar said, adding that the current minister Hardeep Singh Puri, too, hasn’t returned his calls on the issue.
Dispute with Kalmadi
After his 20-month tenure as the petroleum and natural gas minister, the Manmohan Singh government made him the minister of youth affairs and sports. But even that stint was cut short because of his refusal to cooperate with Kalmadi, Aiyar said.
As the sports minister, Aiyar said he was always against platforming big ticket sporting events without being a sporting nation. Aiyar said that he wanted to make a sports policy in which children could be exposed to different sports and facilities would be arranged by the government in panchayat land.
But that was a time when India was preparing for the Commonwealth Games, 2010.
Aiyar said that he realised that all sporting bodies were “very rich” but were not autonomous and had to function under the IOA, except those who oversaw cricket. Aiyar said that none of these bodies were governed by sportspersons, and the “pot-bellied” bosses would only be the first to take credit if a sportsperson showed rare talent.
When Aiyar joined the ministry, he said that two principal assistants of Kalmadi came over to meet him and spoke about him in language that “is only fit for the bathrooms of Doon school.”
“The problem was that we in the ministry were required to release thousands of crores of rupees to the organising committee of the Commonwealth games. But they (organising committee) refused to give us the utilisation certificates for our funds.”
Aiyar said these utilisation certificates (UCs) are necessary according to the general set of financial rules before you release the next installment, but Kalmadi “just refused to give those”. “My predecessor in the ministry Prithviraj Chauhan, who went on to become Maharashtra’s chief minister, warned me that if I don’t get those UCs, I would be in trouble,” Aiyar said.
Upon asking, Chauhan told Aiyar that he could not force Kalmadi’s hand as both of them were from Maharashtra and that would have disrupted state’s politics.
“So I called a meeting where Suresh [Kamladi] came, and he was adamant that he wouldn’t give me any UC. So then I said to him, I said, Suresh. I have no desire to share a cell with you in the Tihar jail, and I don’t want to bring chocolates and cake to you in prison if I don’t get into Tihar,” Aiyar said.
He said that he even called a meeting of an empowered ministers group where the then Union finance minister Chidambaram and Planning Commission’s deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia asked him to release the funds for Commonwealth Games. “But my officers who look after expenditure states that the finance rules are clear that no ministry is allowed to release the next installment until you see UCs for the first installment.”
“I was horrified that I was being asked to release the money. So I wrote to the prime minister a very strictly secret letter in which I said that this is happening. And very unfortunately for me, that letter was discovered by television. Years after I ceased being a minister, I was being displayed on the screen with my signature…,” Aiyar said, adding that he told the prime minister about “financial improprieties”.
“…but because there was misuse, eventually all of it came out and we had the Commonwealth as a national shame. I left the country not wanting to be here when the Commonwealth Games took place.
And I was in England and the newspapers there were full of what we were doing here in India with the Commonwealth. It was such a disgrace,” Aiyar said.
Kalmadi served 10 months in the Commonwealth Games scam in Tihar eventually. Aiyar said that the government eventually removed Kalmadi from his position but only “after they allowed him to complete the exercise, but almost immediately thereafter, he and I think four of his principal collaborators were put into jail for a long time.”
“Well, that was my grouse, but it wasn’t the government’s grouse,” Aiyar said.
Ending his dialogue on Commonwealth Games, Aiyar said, “Prince Charles came, who was then not king. Prince Charles came as the chief guest at the Commonwealth Games, and Kalmadi referred to Prince Charles and Princess Diana.”
“The man who lived in the past,” Sangvi remarked, leaving the audience roaring in laughter.
