New Delhi: There has been none like him in the pantheon of Congress leaders. As they would say in UP when the Grand Old Party was in its prime: na nar hai na nari hai, ye to N D Tiwari hai.
Three times UP chief minister, the only Uttarakhand CM to complete his full term in office, union commerce minister, deputy chairman of the planning commission. An impressive CV. Very impressive indeed right from student days when Tiwari became the Allahabad University Student Union president the year India won Independence.
Fresh from the nursery of India’s national movement, Tiwari instead chose to join Prajatantrik Socialist Party or the PSP to win his first assembly elections. Having proved his mettle, and like many others of his ilk, Tiwari was soon subsumed by the dominant political stream. Soon, ND Tiwari was the quintessential Congressman, donning the Gandhi cap.
Frome there on he never looked back. It was a time when Congress sustained in the Hindi heartland on the three pillars of Dalit, Muslim and Brahmin votes. The leadership, barring a few exceptions, was invariably Brahmin.
Interestingly, during Congress heydays in UP, though the two hill divisions of Kumaun and Gharwal with low population sent only 25 out of 425 legislatures to the assembly, leaders from that area dominated state politics for a long time. Govind Ballabh Pant, C B Gupta, Hemwanti Nandan Bahuguna. And then came ND Tiwari.
While the likes of Bahuguna drifted away from the Congress to the socialists fold, Tiwari got firmly ensconced in the Indira Congress. Even lifting Sanjay Gandhi’s sandals to cement his loyalty to Congress’ first family.
Tiwari interestingly was also Congress’ last chief minister of UP before the party lost power and votes in the mandal-kamandal churning.
In power, Tiwari, they say, made only friends. Enemies, few and far between were situational and co-incidental. Even those who fell in this category learnt a lesson or two while taking on the soft-s spoken leader.
And who would know it better than incumbent Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat. Who had been banished to Delhi by Tiwari despite leading Congress to victory as state president in the state in 2002.
Tiwari during his political career displayed an amazing control over his lachrymal glands. He could shed tears at will. Tears, which could mellow the most obdurate opposition to submission.
In handling the political crisis in the state after a rebellion last year, Harish Rawat displayed some of the political finesse displayed by Tiwari. Political observers were quick to make a comparison with Tiwari: Rawat they said was Tiwari minus the tears.
Politically however, Tiwari could not recover from the CD scandal which grabbed media headlines while he was the governor of Andhra Pradesh.
He fought a protracted legal battle in a paternity suit filed in the Delhi High Court. Finally, Tiwari had to give in and accept Rohit Shekhar has his biological son.
The 91-year-old leader was seeking a Congress nomination for Shekhar this year. Denied that, he was at BJP headquarters with him on Wednesday morning. Tiwari, as always in the Gandhi cap.
All this apart, Tiwari is perhaps one of the few surviving politicians from a generation who were equally at ease with Oxbridge crowd and hinterland politics. Who could recite both Wordsworth and Dinakar with unassuming élan. He could also make out the difference Japanese and Kangra Tea.
But then at the end of the day Tiwari, like many of his ilk, is a politician. And politicians never give up. Even with their backs to the wall.
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