Narayan Datt Tiwari (18 October 1925 – 18 October 2018) was an Indian politician. He was formerly in the Praja Socialist Party and later joined the Indian National Congress.
He was a three-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (1976–77, 1984–85, 1988–89) and served once as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand (2002–2007). Between 1986 and 1988, he served in Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet, first as Minister for External Affairs and then as Minister of Finance. He served as Governor of Andhra Pradesh from 2007 until 2011.
Early life and education
Narayan Datt Tiwari was born to a Kumaoni Brahmin family in 1925, in the village of Baluti located in Nainital district of Uttarakhand state. His father Poornanand Tiwari was an officer in the forest department, and who later resigned and joined the Non-cooperation movement. Tiwari received his education at various schools including, M.B. School, Haldwani, E.M. High School, Bareilly and C.R.S.T. High School, Nainital.
His initiation into politics came early, when during the Indian Independence movement, he was arrested on 14 December 1942 for writing Anti-British leaflets opposing imperialist policies, and sent to Nainital jail, where his father was already lodged. Upon his release after 15 months in 1944, he enrolled at Allahabad University, where he topped the University in M.A. (Political Science); he continued his education with an LLB from the same university, and was elected as the President of the Students’ Union of the Allahabad University in 1947. Meanwhile, he remained Secretary of the All India Student Congress from 1947 to 49.
Career
Early career
In the first election in Uttar Pradesh after the independence for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly held in 1952, he was elected from Nanital constituency and became an MLA for the first time on Praja Samajwadi Party ticket. In 1957, he was elected from the Nainital legislative constituency, and became the leader of Opposition in the Assembly.
In 1963, he joined the Indian National Congress party, and was elected Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Kashipur constituency in 1965 and was subsequently appointed a minister in the Government of Uttar Pradesh. After that he also remained Minister for Finance and Parliamentary Affairs in the Chaudhary Charan Singh Government (1979–1980). In 1968, he established Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre (JNNYC), a voluntary organisation. He remained the first President of Indian Youth Congress from 1969 to 1971.
Later positions
Tiwari was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh three times: from January 1976 to April 1977, from August 1984 to September 1985 and from June 1988 to December 1988. He was elected to 7th Lok Sabha in 1980, and served as a union minister in several portfolios in the 1980s: starting with Planning, and also remained Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission. Thereafter he became a member of Rajya Sabha 1985–1988, during this period he also remained the Minister of Industries in September 1985 and in addition to that portfolio, became minister of Petroleum in 1986. He then served as India’s External Affairs Minister from October 1986 until July 1987, at which point he became Minister of Finance and Commerce. He served in that position until June 1988, when he became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third time.
He was an unsuccessful contender to be Prime Minister of India in the early 1990s but was pipped to the post by P. V. Narasimha Rao. In 1994, he resigned from Congress and formed his own All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) along with senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh in 1995. He joined back when Sonia Gandhi came at the helm of affairs of the party two years later, and after a devastating defeat of the party under Narasimha Rao during the general elections in 1996. Tiwari was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996, and again to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.
He later served as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh, from 2002 through 2007. He resigned on 5 March 2006, citing his age and left office in March 2007 following setbacks from his party in the state elections.
Narayan Datt Tiwari was appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh on 19 August 2007 and was sworn in on 22 August. Following a controversy over his involvement in a sex scandal, he resigned as the Governor on 26 December 2009, citing “health grounds”; subsequently he relocated to Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Support to the BJP
A lifelong Congressman, Tiwari along with his son Rohit Shekhar (advocate and former advisor, Government of Uttar Pradesh) and his wife Ujjwala, Tiwari gave his blessings and support to Narendra Modi and the BJP for the assembly elections held in the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in presence of BJP President Amit Shah in the name of development.
Personal life
In 1953, he married Sushila (née Sanwal), who died in 1991.
On 14 May 2013, he married Ujjwala Tiwari (née Singh), his longtime girlfriend and mother of his biological son Rohit Shekhar, at the age of 88.
Tiwari died on his 93rd birthday on 18 October 2018 in New Delhi from multiple organ failure. He was hospitalised for a long time.
Controversies
Sex scandal
Tiwari was involved in a sex scandal which depicted Tiwari in bed with three women at his official residence in the Raj Bhavan. A police complaint was filed against Tiwari for “sexually abusing girls, blackmail and misuse of office” and the Raj Bhavan staff were interrogated by police about details related to the scandal, alleged to be the result of the fallout of a mining deal. Tiwari publicly apologised, but claimed that he was being “framed” by “a political conspiracy”. On 27 December 2009, E. S. L. Narasimhan was appointed to discharge the duties of governor for the region until regular arrangements for the office were made.
Paternity suit
In 2008, Rohit Shekhar Tiwari filed a paternity suit claiming Tiwari to be his biological father. The court ordered that DNA mapping of Tiwari be done, which the court successfully compelled compliance with on 29 May 2011. On 27 July 2011, the Delhi High Court, citing a need to end the controversy, rejected a request from Tiwari’s lawyers to keep his paternity test result a secret.
The DNA test results released by the court on 27 July 2011, established that Tiwari was the biological father of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, and that Ujjwala Tiwari is the biological mother. Tiwari urged the media to respect his privacy, saying “I have every right to live my life my way. No one has the right to look into my private life. Please respect my privacy.” On 3 March 2013, he said “I have accepted that Rohit Shekhar is my son. The DNA test also proved he is my biological son,” he told NDTV.
On 14 May 2013, Tiwari married Ujjwala Tiwari, Shekhar’s mother, in a ceremony that took place in Lucknow. Rohit Shekhar was strangled to death on 16 April 2019 allegedly by his wife Apoorva, it is said that she pounced on him and smothered him, as he was highly intoxicated and could not resist the attack. According to Delhi Police Statement, murder was not pre-planned but happened in heat of the moment. According to his wife’s testimony, their relationship was sour from the beginning of their marriage. The matter is pending before the court and at present trial is going on.