Journalist Tavleen Singh had angered the Congress leaders three days ago by claiming that former PM Dr Manmohan Singh had violated the Official Secrets Act by sending confidential government files to Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi during the UPA regime. In a discussion of the Gandhi family remote controlling the party on India Today channel in the aftermath of Mallikarjun Kharge’s election as the Congress president, Singh had made the remarks.
While Tavleen Singh had said that she will provide evidence of her claim, now she has backtracked from her claim. Following massive criticism and trolling by Congress leaders and workers, and demands to furnish proof of the claim, the veteran journalist has now conceded that she has no proof that Dr. Singh had violated the Official Secrets Act.
When Tavleen Singh had made the claims on the show hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai on India Today TV, Congress leader Praveen Chakravarti, who was also on the panel, had objected to this claim, and demanded evidence. Soon after that, several other Congress leaders like P Chidambaram, Pawan Khera and others came forward to criticise the journalist and demanded proof that Dr. Singh violated the law.
The Congress party leaders followed this up by sending letters to Tavleen Singh demanding the promised proofs, and threatening legal action. Praveen Chakravarty, chairman of the Data Analytics cell of the Congress party, wrote to her demanding the proof, and an apology if she fails to provide the proof. He also said that the party will proceed with legal action if she does not come with either evidence or apology.
As a follow up, this letter was sent to @tavleen_singh today asking for the promised evidence of her charge of violation of the Official Secrets Act by former PM Dr.Manmohan Singh during his tenure.
— Praveen Chakravarty (@pravchak) October 21, 2022
. https://t.co/xmWIBGkbpo pic.twitter.com/w1jVwvTpEL
Responding to this growing demand, Tavleen Singh said that Sanjaya Baru in his book mentioned the name of the person who carried files between PMO and Sonia Gandhi’s residence. She also said, “Jayanthi Natarajan in a letter to Sonia Gandhi reminded her of her having stopped certain projects”.
Sanjay Baru mentions the name of the go between official in his book. Jayanthi Natarajan in a letter to Sonia Gandhi reminded her of her having stopped certain projects. I have the deepest respect for Dr. Manmohan Singh and said nothing against him. https://t.co/cjdAWPROkI
— Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) October 21, 2022
While Tavleen Singh didn’t name the book, it was evident that she was talking about the book titled The Accidental Prime Minister, The Making And Unmaking Of Manmohan Singh, authored by Sanjaya Baru, who was the media advisor of PM Manmohan Singh.
In another tweet responding to P Chidambaram, she again said that “people who worked in the PMO have named officials who carried government files to 10 Janpath”, and that former ministers admit taking orders from Sonia Gandhi. “She was de facto PM then and will remain de facto Congress President now,” she said.
People who worked in the PMO have named officials who carried government files to 10 Janpath. Former ministers admit taking orders from Sonia Gandhi. She was de facto PM then and will remain de facto Congress President now. https://t.co/lxyG3attgo
— Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) October 20, 2022
However, Tavleen Singh faced a setback as Sanjaya Baru denied making any such claims in his book. When a Twitter user tagged Sanjaya Baru responding to Tavleen Singh’s ‘evidence’, saying that Baru will be the right person to answer/clarify this, Baru responded. As Baru’s Twitter account is protected, the Twitter user named Shiva posted the screenshot of the reply, where Sanjaya Baru categorically denied the claims of Tavleen Singh.
I think this settles it, Tavleen should either give evidence or apologize and retract her statement. @PChidambaram_IN @sardesairajdeep pic.twitter.com/LuVcZKhhIn
— Shiva (@ssr99) October 20, 2022
“My book does not say PM breached Official Secrets Act. So Chidambaram is right to demand proof,” Baru wrote, causing a massive setback to Tavleen Singh. Therefore, when Praveen Chakravarty confronted her with Baru’s tweet, she was forced to concede that she does not have evidence for her claims.
OK. If Sanjay Baru says that his book doesn’t mention a violation of the Official Secrets Act I am happy to admit that I was wrong about that. https://t.co/j8UMYEVnOj
— Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) October 21, 2022
“OK. If Sanjay Baru says that his book doesn’t mention a violation of the Official Secrets Act I am happy to admit that I was wrong about that,” Tavleen Singh tweeted responding to the Congress leader’s tweet. While she had not tendered an apology as demanded by Congress leaders, she conceded that she made wrong claims about confidential files being sent to Sonia Gandhi from PMO.
However, later she clarified she admitted her mistake on the claim of violation of the Official Secrets Act, and not on the transfer of files itself. “No. I admitted that the files sent to Sonia Gandhi from the PMO may not have been those that violated the Official Secrets Act,” she said responding to a tweet saying that she confessed that she was lying.
No. I admitted that the files sent to Sonia Gandhi from the PMO may not have been those that violated the Official Secrets Act. https://t.co/vcCgEZnJcV
— Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) October 21, 2022
Therefore, Tavleen Singh maintains her position that files were sent from PMO and other ministries to Sonia Gandhi during the UPA govt, but she can’t say if it violated the Official Secrets Act.
Now coming to Sanjaya Baru’s book, it is a fact that he has been maintaining that he didn’t directly write that government files were carried to Sonia Gandhi, and certainly he didn’t write that the former PM violated the secrecy law. However, his book did talk about a PMO official having almost daily meetings with Sonia Gandhi, and seeking her instructions on important files cleared by the PM.
“Pulok, who was inducted into the Manmohan Singh PMO at the behest of Sonia Gandhi, had regular, almost daily, meetings with Sonia at which he was said to brief her on the key policy issues of the day and seek her instructions on important files to be cleared by the PM,” Baru wrote in Accidental Prime Minister, talking about IAS officer Pulok Chatterjee.
He further wrote, “Pulok was the single most important point of regular contact between the PM and Sonia. He was also the PMO’s main point of contact with the National Advisory Council (NAC), a high-profile advisory body chaired by Sonia Gandhi, with social activists as members. It was sometimes dubbed the Shadow Cabinet.”
Therefore, while it is true that Baru never claimed that Dr Singh violated the Official Secrets Act, he did give enough hints that Pulok Chatterjee did carry files to Sonia Gandhi. Or even if he didn’t carry the actual files, he did convey information contained in them to Sonia Gandhi, to get her instructions on the matters.
Therefore, while Congress leaders may be celebrating that Tavleen Singh has backtracked and Sanjaya Baru has denied her claims, actually none of them have denied that official files were sent to Sonia Gandhi. Only thing they have conceded is that it can’t be claimed that Manmohan Singh violated the Official Secrets Act.
And that is understandable, as while it was known that Pulok Chatterjee was carrying files or their contents to Sonia Gandhi, it can’t be ascertained if they contained anything that violated the law.
Sanjaya Baru is not the only person to say that Chatterjee used to carry PMO files to 10 Janpath. Veteran Congress leader Natwar Singh had also made the same claim in his book One Life is Not Enough: An Autobiography.
