Thaindian News

By Madhusree Chatterjee
New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS) Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who quit as Andhra Pradesh governor after a sex scandal in December last year, says he has “no intention of returning to active politics and is writing an autobiography”.

“I am not coming back to electoral politics any more as I have clarified earlier. I am now involved in constructive politics - the politics of development and rebuilding,” Tiwari told IANS on a visit to the World Book Fair in the capital.

The 86-year-old former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and veteran Congress leader refused to talk about the scandal and was emphatic that “he was not interested in seeking an audience with the party high command in New Delhi”.

On Aug 19, 2007, he had been appointed governor of Andhra Pradesh and resigned Dec 26, 2009, after being accused of having a sex romp with three women at his official residence in Hyderabad. Tiwari had called the episode fabricated and untruthful.

“I don’t want to talk about anything,” said an unsteady Tiwari, who was helped on to his feet by three personal security men at the book fair. Attired in his trademark khadi clothes and a Gandhian cap, he was there for a book release.

“I am more than halfway through my autobiography which will be published at the end of the year. I signed up with Rupa & Co for the book three years ago,” Tiwari said.

“The book will span my entire life, right from my childhood when I escaped from home till date. It will cover my years in politics and in public life. I have written parts of the book and now I am dictating it,” he said.

Sources at Rupa & Co said “the political setback has delayed the autobiography by a few months.”

Tiwari, however, was ambiguous about whether he would incorporate the “ongoing controversy” in the book.

“Books have played an important part in my life. I started reading as a child and books inspired me to join the freedom struggle and then move to active politics. Books have taught me how to survive and inspired me along the way,” Tiwari told IANS.

Tiwari, a former union minister who held such important portfolios of external affairs, finance and industry, as also ex-chief minister of Uttarakhand, is now keen to take stock of the development map that he had charted during his rule in Uttar Pradesh to expand the satellite townships along the border with Delhi.

“I want to see Noida and Greater Noida and find out how the twin townships have developed,” he said.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)