Look who is praising Rahul: Natwar sees him as PM in 2012

Speaking to The Indian Express,Natwar Singh said,“Come to 2012. President Pratibha Patil completes five years,no second term because nobody got it after Rajendra Babu. Dr Manmohan Singh shifts from 7,Race Course Road to Rashtrapati Bhavan,he is going to be 80 years old and will make a very good President. And Rahul Gandhi will move from from 32,Aurangzeb Lane to 7,RCR. He will be PM at 41,his father became PM at 40.”

How did he know all this?

This was crystal-gazing,he said,based on “experience.”

Rahul Gandhi,he said,“will bring with him a whole new generation of younger people. They will all be the future of Congress,there will be generational change. In some ways,Rahul Gandhi has already reinvented the Congress party. He is in the process of rejuvenating it. Rahul’s generational mindset fits in with the 21st Century.”

Singh also had praise for Manmohan Singh saying the Prime Minister “outwitted” L K Advani in the BJP leader’s “weakest-PM” campaign. This is the same Natwar Singh who,in August

2006,had said he wanted to write to the Guinness Book of World Records that Manmohan Singh is the only Prime Minister of India among the 11 Prime Ministers the country has had who has not won even a municipal election.

Today,he struck a different note. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh outwitted Advani at every step. Personal attacks on the PM do not go down well (with people) and I think BJP realises this.” What would Manmohan Singh’s second term be like? “I firmly believe that UPA-II will last five years and,in some ways,change the face of India for the better.”

Asked if there was a political message to the Congress in all this praise and whether he would meet party chief Sonia Gandhi or the PM,Natwar Singh said: “I don’t plan to meet either the PM or Sonia Gandhi,I don’t want to return to active politics. I am a gentleman-at-large,on good terms with myself and enjoying the pleasures of old age.” Asked if he wanted any role in the government,he said: “This is a completely academic question,(but) I firmly believe that people of my age should make contribution by writing on foreign policy issues and give advice,when asked (for).”

So what’s he doing these days?

Singh said that he is working on his next book which will be out in October this year. Titled Yours Sincerely,the book will be a compilation of letters to him from personalities like Indira Gandhi,C Rajagopalachari,E M Forster,Nirad C Chaudhari,Lord Mountbatten,Vijayalakshmi Pandit,Mulk Raj Anand,R K Narayan,Raja Rao,Nargis,Jayawardene amongst others.

What about the letters he received from Rajiv Gandhi,Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh? Singh declined comment and then added: “I will start work on a book on foreign policy: the next 20 years from 2010 to 2030. I hope it will come out in 2010.” Two years before Prime Minister Rahul Gandhi,if his crystal is clear.