The short but sordid and salacious saga surrounding Narayan Dutt Tiwari could be summarised briefly as ‘sex, lies and hypocrisy’.
A day after the entire country watched still pictures of video clips that allegedly featured the Andhra Pradesh governor in various sexual acts with three women, Tiwari resigned the gubernatorial position here on Saturday, citing health reasons.
Jharkhand Governor K Sankaranayanan has been given additional charge of Andhra Pradesh.
A press note released by Raj Bhavan on Saturday evening said Tiwari sent his resignation to President Pratibha Patil. It is believed that the resignation came a day before Patil’s scheduled visit to Hyderabad where she was to be received by Tiwari.
Sources in New Delhi said Patil declined to be received by a tainted Tiwari. President’s secretary Christy Fernandez confirmed that Tiwari had quit. The Union Home Ministry has sought a detailed report from the Andhra Pradesh government.
Clearly, the denial that Raj Bhavan circulated on Friday, denouncing the TV news story before terming it as a “tissue of lies”, turned out to be no less than a means to deny the undeniable.
According to sources who have access to the video clippings, an active sex racket was operating in Raj Bhavan with girls from Uttarakhand being brought there with a stopover at AP Bhavan in Delhi.
Hypocritical stand
The 86-year-old former Uttarakhand chief minister and one-time Union minister left the Banjara Hills Raj Bhavan shamed and humiliated, but not bothering to cite moral reasons for an act which would universally be condemned as an abuse of high office. A Telugu TV news channel owned by the Andhra Jyothi media house broke the story and released the clip, including explicit still pictures of Tiwari in a sexual romp with three women, without a stich of clothing on them, allegedly brought into Raj Bhavan by Radhika, a woman who is believed to have sought a mining contract favour from the governor.
Across Andhra Pradesh, the footage outraged women’s organisations who demanded Tiwari’s resignation.
A call for Tiwari’s ouster was also made by many political parties, most notably the TDP which went so far as to demand that the governor be sacked.
Angry women activists took to the streets, demanding that Tiwari leave Raj Bhavan immediately. The Congress’ high command reacted cautiously to the charge of sexual misconduct by a leader holding and abusing a constitutional position.
Embarrassed by Tiwari’s alleged indiscretions, the Congress said he had taken the “appropriate decision” by quitting and acting on “moral principles”, a contention ridiculed by the BJP. Soon after Tiwari resigned, AICC media department chief Janardhan Dwivedi said, “I think he does not want to hold an office till it is proved that whether it (the video) is true or false.” The main source of information is a woman called Radhika (not her real name) who had business dealings with Tiwari. She reportedly paid a huge amount towards getting an iron ore mining licence in AP but when it did not materialise she decided to expose the goings-on. However, it is not clear who made the recording of the activities that were aired by the news channel ABN.
According to Radhika, she was asked to escort two girls to Hyderabad. These girls later told her of the sexual perversions of the Governor and also of how they had to “entertain” VIPs, especially of the ruling party. They took names of several VIPs. The girls alleged they were brought to Hyderabad with the lure of employment and one of the officers would videograph the girls “working on” the governor. The news channel reportedly procured the recording three months ago and since then has been chasing the story for verification.
The sources said Radhika approached Ujjwala Singh for guidance. Singh reportedly had a relationship with the governor and her son Rohit filed a paternity suit against Tiwari. Ujjwala guided Radhika to ABN. Interestingly, Tiwari admitted to having a relationship with Ujjwala in his petition in the paternity suit.
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