JALAGAM'S BOOK FULL OF LIES: LAKSHMI KANTAMMA--CALLS PV A COWARD

P V Narasimha Rao

I had interviewed Tella Lakshmi Kantamma at Vijayawada, where she was staying with her daughter. Infact, the interview was about the PV Narasimha Rao’s forth coming book Insider, where he made veiled reference to Lakshmi Kantamma, but also about Jalgam’s book.

It was a free-wheeling interview, where she opened up about her political life, rumours about her affair with former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, which she brushed aside, PV friendship with two women journalists in New Delhi and so on. She called PV “spineless” and unhelpful man.

Tella Lakshmi Kantamma (1 August 1924 – 13 December 2007) was a politician, who served MP 1962 to 1977. She was also a political advisor to Prime Minister P.V Narasimha Rao.

Lakshmi Kantamma hailed from a large family of Kamma landlords, hailing from Alampur village in Mahabubnagar district of Telangana State in India. She studied up to 5th class in Kurnool, and then her sister helped her in completing SSLC in Gudivada. She entered Madras Christian College to pursue intermediate studies, and completed B.A. in Machilipatnam. She later received a master's degree in economics in 1971.Like P.V Narasimha Rao, she was a writer and Sanskrit scholar.

She married Tella Venkata Subba Rao on 1 November 1944. He was then District Forest Officer in Anantapur; she was elected as secretary of Ladies Club. After that she completed her MA in Pachiappa College in Madras, when her husband went to England to undergo training as Assistant Conservator of Forests.

On 5 June 1960 Lakshmi Kantamma and Subba Rao had a daughter – Jogulamba who was their only child. Singer Smita is her granddaughter.

Political career

Her three decades of political life began with a claim for a position on the MLA ticket from Khammam seat in 1957.

She was first denied the ticket on the grounds that she was the wife of a government official, but she took this issue to the notice of Lal Bahadur Shastri and questioned whether they were looking at her as citizen of India or wife of an officer.

Shastri secured the ticket for her, but she lost to N Peddanna of PDF party. She was elected to Lok Sabha from Khammam in 1962, 1967, and 1971 as a member of Congress Party. She served as Executive Member of Parliament Committee when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister. She opposed imposition of emergency in 1975 and joined Janata Party in 1977. She contested 1977 Lok Sabha election on Janata Party's ticket from Secunderabad but lost. She contested a bye-election for Lok Sabha from Secunderabad in 1979 but lost again.^[5]

During the China War in 1962, she not only learnt rifle shooting but also won 2nd prize. She was a member of Indian delegation from Parliament to visit Australia. In those days women were not allowed to become IAS officers. Lakshmi Kantamma took the initiative and convinced Mrs. Indira Gandhi and got the barrier lifted.

 She raised the issue of enacting a law for 50% property right for women several times in Parliament. As member of the state election committee in 1972, she was instrumental in allotting tickets to 70 women and youth. Chekuri Kasaiah who faced defeat at her hands, recalls even now that there used to be huge crowds during her electioneering at Khammam in 1957. Khammam is a seat where Congress had lost its deposit in the previous election but Lakshmi Kantamma gave a tough fight, and lost only narrowly.^[4]

She was in the forefront of leaders who fought to secure Police Academy, BHEL, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and Kothagudem Thermal Power Project. Her role in the election of V. V. Giri as President of India was mentioned by V. V. Giri in his autobiography. Though she was very close to Indira Gandhi, she opposed her when she imposed emergency. She declined various ministerial berths offered by Indira Gandhi as she felt people are of utmost importance than positions. She influenced the politics of those days as a co-worker with Vajpayee, Chandra Shekar, Morarji Desai, P. V. Narasimha Rao and Charan Singh. She was an important leader in Janata party and served as All India General Secretary of the party. She got elected as an MLA from Himayat Nagar constituency in Hyderabad. She declined the opportunity to become the Chief Minister of the State, and was instrumental for making P. V. Narasimha Rao as Chief Minister of A.P.

She turned to spiritualism is the later part of her life, accepting Shri Shiva Balayogi Maharaj as her guru. She donated valuable properties to his trust and headed the trust for several years.

Perhaps she is the only woman who led a versatile, unique and multi-faceted personality after Durga Bhai Deshmukh who led a conscientious political and social life. Starting from the communist student's movements to rubbing shoulders with Indira Gandhi, she played different roles very efficiently. 

She was committed to the principles she believed in, could speak out boldly what she believed in and never bowed her head and displayed self-confidence all through. She loved driving her jeep and was physically active till the tail end of her life. She passed away on 13 December 2007.

          

The Insider is an account of the political scenario of India during the time of the former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who is the author of the book. 
The novel is based on a fictional state called Afrozabad, which is modelled on the actual state of Hyderabad.
 In the story, the author talks about the shocking but true political happenings in the country that he witnessed during his tenure.
The plot centers around a character called Anand, a young man who gives up a lucrative career in the hopes of bringing about political reformation.
He begins his political career by contesting against the oppressive ruling party. Next, he reaches a spot where he has to choose between the current Chief Minister and his rival. 
His rival soon wins the post of CM, and he is made to serve under him. Anand then moves to Delhi, at a time when Indira Gandhi takes over the reigns of power.
Under her governance, the tables turn, for Anand now replaces his rival Chaudhary and becomes the Chief Minister of Afrozabad. 
He then has to run the political show under her regime. 
The book discusses the state of events and the political scenario in India under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, delving into areas like her rise to power, second coming, assassination, followed by her son Rajiv Gandhi’s entry into the world of politics. 
The Insider reveals to the reader the state of affairs in a political scenario, narrated by a man who has had first-hand experience of it all. 

             Outlook story

                      S. Sivanand

                                   11 September 1996

                         Skeletons In The Closet 

Erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Vengala Rao's memoirs rake up P V Narasimha Rao's past

THE timing could not have been worse for P.V. Narasimha Rao. Already dogged by allegations of corruption, the former prime minister and Congress president has one more set of embarrassing revelations to fend off. 

Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and one-time Union Industries Minister Jalagam Vengala Rao has come out of retirement with his memoirs, Naa Jeevitha Katha (My Life Story), in which he has exposed Narasimha Rao's past and also the state Congress unit. 

The references will perhaps not implicate Narasimha Rao in a fresh scam but is likely to show him and the Congress in poor light—and is bound to be lapped up by Rao-baiters.

Particularly damaging to Narasimha Rao is Vengala's revelation of the Congress president's affair with Lakshmi Kantamma, a former Congress MP—which led to Rao's ouster as chief minister in 1973. 

The autobiography quotes Indira Gandhi as having remarked to the author that "PV has done nothing but flirt around with Lekshmikanthamma". She felt that it was irresponsible of Rao to be so smitten.

The Rao-Lakshmi kantamma affair has often been spoken about in political circles. 

But now that a former colleague has made a reference to it in print, it could prove to be embarrassing. 

There is also mention of how Narasimha Rao's elder son, P.V. Ranga Rao (a former minister in the ministries of N. Janardhan Reddy and K. Vijayabhaskara Reddy), used to make frequent trips to Delhi during Vengala Rao's tenure as chief minister to complain about his father's affair with Lakshmi Kantamma (then Lok Sabha MP from Khammam). 

Vengala Rao claims that Mrs Gandhi once told him she was quite annoyed with Narasimha Rao's behaviour: "I pity Ranga Rao and I did not expect PV to be such a characterless person, that too when he has so many grown-up children."

But Vengala Rao says he had no malafide intent in penning his memoirs. Which is one reason why he has not yet decided to release the book at the national level. 
"I have no intention to embarrass any individual in the party. Some of my well-wishers forced me to recall some of my memoirs and publish them. I dictated the text to my daughter-in-law, Vanu, for an hour everyday. It was edited by Bhandaru Parvatala Rao, who served four chief ministers as press adviser. My effort in the book was only to put certain facts in proper perspective. Beyond that I have nothing against anyone," he says.

Much of what is written in the book is gossip which made the rounds in political circles in Hyderabad at one time or the other. 

The 75-year-old tough-talking former chief minister is known to be a maverick and his detractors say his autobiography is only an attempt to tarnish his opponents' image at the fag-end of his political career. 

Much of what he has written is from personal experience and is not substantiated by any further evidence. 
Thus a prime minister, MP, or MLA is quoted as having told the author about a particular happening and Vengala Rao has faithfully noted it down—mostly word-of-mouth accounts which have little or no back-up references.

This is perhaps why many state-level politicians have not yet taken a serious note of Vengala Rao's outbursts against predecessors and successors in the government and in the Congress. 
Vengala Rao, by his own admission, has not "stepped into Gandhi Bhavan ever since I relinquished office as Andhra Pradesh Congress president".

And his bid to expose political rivals has no more than a "he said so" kind of relevance. 
Says PCC chief K. Rosaiah: "How can I react to what Vengala Rao says are his personal interactions with senior leaders?"

MANY of the book's facts relate to people who are not alive to contradict the author's claims. For example, Indira Gandhi is not alive to confirm or deny Vengala Rao's claim that he was the first one to be informed about the imposition of Emergency. 
Similarly, with Rajiv Gandhi—there is no way one can verify if the author had advised him on dismissing the S.R. Bommai government in Karnataka. According to Vengala Rao, this was an advice which went unheeded.

Justice Jag Mohan Sinha, former judge of Allahabad High Court who had set aside Indira Gandhi's election in 1975, has denied the author's claim that he had informed Jayaprakash Narayan of the judgement two months in advance. 
Justice Sinha dismissed the allegation as "an out and out lie" and said that it was "unfortunate that a person of Mr Vengala Rao's position was party to it".

The book levels serious corruption charges against Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (erstwhile AICC president and a former Union minister). 
Reddy has been accused of collecting huge sums from rice mill owners—he later contributed a chunk of it to party funds when the irregularity came to Mrs Gandhi's notice. Vengala Rao is cut up with Reddy for canvassing against him and foisting Narasimha Rao as Andhra Pradesh chief minister—back in the Seventies.

P V Narasimha Rao election coverage