RK Dhawan (1937-2018):  In remembrance

As one of the closest aides and confidantes of late Indira Gandhi, RK Dhawan could literally read her mind. He was indeed her ‘man Friday’ in every sense of the word. He was loyal, discreet and kept an eagle eye on the bureaucracy.

Congressmen would say that RK Dhawan was invaluable to Mrs Indira Gandhi because he could quickly assess what she needed and what the iron lady wanted to do in trying circumstances. For more than a decade before Indira Gandhi's assassination by her own bodyguards on October 31, 1984, Dhawan was the most powerful person in the PMO and in the thick of things.

There is no doubt that he enjoyed the trust of the then Prime Minister. And bureaucrats would often claim that Dhawan could feel the pulse of the leader and had the uncanny ability to invite people, ministers and others, that the then Prime Minister would have liked to meet even before she could express it herself.

As Indira Gandhi’s body lay in AIIMS in 1984, one remembers Dhawan pleading with the doctors to save her life. He was visibly shattered when he realised that she was no more. His world had come crumbling down.

Rajinder Kumar Dhawan, who was born in Chiniot in Pakistan, died on Monday (August 6, 2018) aged 81. He was affable and a loyal aide, serving Indira Gandhi for 22 years from 1962 till her assassination.

He rose to become a member of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party. He was a key person among Mrs Gandhi’s advisors during the Emergency but he deeply regretted what he always described as misinformation that the Emergency was imposed only to protect one person -- Indira Gandhi.

While It is no secret that Siddharth Shankar Ray apprised Indira Gandhi of how the Emergency provisions in the Constitution could be imposed in the country, the decision, he would say, was not taken without a trigger. While Mrs Gandhi was convinced that a conspiracy was being hatched to throw her out of power and destabilise the country, Dhawan also maintained that there were various disturbing reports with the Government at the time.

Subsequently, Dhawan served as a minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government.

He would also frequently recall Mrs Indira Gandhi’s compassion and concern for others. Operation Blue Star was undertaken by the military between June first and eighth to remove militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale and his armed followers from the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar. In July 1983, the Akali Dal president Harcharan Singh Longowal had invited Bhindrawale to take up residence in the Golden Temple complex to evade arrest. Bhindranwale later on made the sacred temple complex an armoury and headquarter.

In the violent events leading to Operation Blue Star, militants had killed 165 Hindus and Nirankaris along with 39 Sikhs opposed to Bhindranwale. This had its inevitable fallout at the Sikh Regimental Centre in Ramgarh. Within forty-eight hours on June 10, there was a mutiny at the Sikh Regimental centre in Ramgarh where the recruits rebelled and murdered their commander Brigadier RS Puri.

Dhawan would recall the concern of Mrs Indira Gandhi about the well-being of the family members of the deceased commander. The commander's family was brought to safety with great difficulty and reinforcements were rushed to Ramgarh. Mrs Gandhi was keen to meet the family members of the slain officer for a first-hand account of the mutiny and directed that all necessary assistance be given to the bereaved family.

He seemed to work round the clock and was always available. He was said to be Mrs Gandhi’s eyes and ears. No wonder he was deemed to be even more powerful than central ministers and chief ministers of states.

What hugely upset him were the insinuations made by the MP Thakkar Commission of Inquiry appointed to probe Indira Gandhi’s death. As the head of the Commission, Justice Thakkar described Dhawan's responses to questions about the assassination as unreliable, observing that the needle of suspicion significantly pointed to his complicity or involvement.

However, Rajiv Gandhi, after initially sidelining Dhawan from his post cleared him of all charges.

TR Ramachandran is a senior journalist and a commentator.

The article was edited at 10.50 am on August 8 to rectify an error in the headline