Twin setbacks in sunset years

Aditi Tandon

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Former Union Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, died in New Delhi on Thursday on his 93rd birthday.

Tiwari passed away at a private hospital following multiple organ failure. He had been under intensive care for a while and had not been keeping well for months. A former Congress stalwart, Tiwari had switched over to the BJP in 2017 with his wife Ujjwala and son Rohit Shekhar on the eve of the last Uttarakhand elections.

A political luminary for most part of his life, Tiwari suffered severe setbacks to his career in the sunset years of life.

In 2008, Shekhar filed a paternity suit to prove that he was Tiwari’s biological son, something the former CM had denied for years until the court ruled in the petitioner’s favour in 2012 following a DNA test. Tiwari married Ujjwala, Shekhar’s mother, in 2014.

That wasn’t all. As a sitting Governor of Andhra Pradesh, Tiwari got embroiled in a sex tape scandal and had to quit in 2009 under massive pressure from opposition parties.

Starting 2009, Tiwari’s political career nosedived and never really recovered. On the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he sought to revive his sagging political fortunes by visiting his constituency Nainital and naming Shekhar as his political heir.

Later in 2017, just before the Uttarakhand elections, the former CM of the state severed his five-decade-long ties with the Congress to join the BJP.

Uttarakhand Chief Minuster Trivendra Rawat was the first politician to tweet condolences to Tiwari’s family members. Rawat described Tiwari’s demise as a “personal loss”.

From the Congress, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the first to send condolences as he wrote a personal note to Tiwari’s wife Ujjwala: “I have learnt with profound sorrow about the sad demise of your beloved husband. In his death, our country has lost a great leader and an efficient minister of the union government. His service to the nation as the CM of two states, UP and Uttarakhand, Union Minister of External Affairs and Finance Minister and as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh will be remembered for a long time to come.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to the late leader saying, “Saddened by the passing away of ND Tiwari. A towering leader, he was known for his administrative skills. He will be remembered for his efforts towards industrial growth & working for the progress of UP and Uttarakhand, a state he steered in its initial days. My condolences.”

Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted his respects for Tiwari after PM Modi’s message. “I’m sorry to hear about the passing of ND Tiwari, an important and illustrious member of the Congress family, who was respected and admired across party lines.”