WikiLeaks on Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed

The WikiLeaks put the top Congress leaders in a bind, with a string of the US Embassy cables coming to light recently on Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. Yet another one was on former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who had signed the Proclamation of Emergency in 1975. "Fakhruddin is concerned that the PM and her son are pushing too hard on the political and Constitutional system of India," one cable said. One version, the cable reported, is that the PM asked Fakhruddin to arrange for Vice-President B D Jatti to resign, "since he had been too quiet in praise of the Emergency." The cable said: "In his place, the PM wanted to place former Defence Minister Swaran Singh. Fakhruddin allegedly expressed his strong reluctance to go along with such a scenario." This is in sharp contrast to his popular image of Fakhruddin being a President, who was pliant to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. BJP veteran leader L K Advani once recalled Abu Abraham's cartoon showing Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in bath tub handing over files after signing it. It was a stinging comment on Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed acting as rubber-stamp of Indira Gandhi. Perhaps the US Embassy cables may alter that familiar image.