New Delhi, Feb. 7 :
New Delhi, Feb. 7:
Thirteen days after her death, Vijayaraje Scindia's embittered relationship with her son Madhavrao burst out into the open with the
dramatic disclosure of her last will and testament.
Describing Madhavrao as the 'most painful part of my life' in the will written in her own hand, the Rajmata of Gwalior said: 'I have not disinherited him though my bequest may show I have done it. But the hard and true fact is that he has disentitled himself and rendered himself unfit even to the right to cremate his mother's dead body and do the last rites (kriyas), which is the religious duty of every son.'
Copies of the 12-page will, drawn up on September 20, 1985, were given to the press by her private secretary and four-decade-long confidant Sardar S.C. Angre who is believed to be the root cause of the acrimony between mother and son.
Angre, a cousin of the Rajmata's husband, was instrumental in crafting her political career as well as the rise of the Jan Sangh and, later, the BJP in Madhya Pradesh. He served a term in the Rajya Sabha.
The copies circulated had the names of two witnesses, Prema Vasudevan and A. Janakiraman. Angre and swadeshi ideologue S. Gurumurthy were mentioned as executors. The statement said copies of the will had been sent in a sealed envelope to her solicitors in
London, Lovell, White and King, and two others.
Reacting on behalf of the Scindias, Madhavrao's counsel Abhishek Singhvi said: 'It is an hour of grief for the family and we decline to comment.'
Madhavrao had started his political career in the Jan Sangh but quit the party after his estrangement with his mother. He joined the Congress after the Emergency.
'Any mother can imagine how painful and agonising it is to disown her only son - but the way my son disowned all that the Scindias stood for in their long struggle in defence of the country left me with no option but to try and forget that I ever had a son,' Vijayaraje said.
'He just did not stop with merely surrendering to his political masters, but actually became their tool in order to harass me and my supporters. He foisted, by his power and money, false criminal cases on my loyal friends and relations merely because they were loyal to me, locked me out of my own house, got my private living apartments raided by the help of the police and his own staff in my absence under the allegation of theft, with the sole objective of humiliating me, his mother,' she said.
Madhavrao had lit the pyre when the Rajmata was cremated in Gwalior. When questioned, Sardar Angre said: 'This will was not in my hands. It came after the cremation. But I will carry out the rest of the rituals. In any case, the son cremating hardly makes a difference. Everybody was there at the cremation.'
She had nominated Sardar Ranoji Rao Shinde or any of his brothers to perform the last rites. Shinde was a member of the Gwalior gharana's 'stock' family, which meant he was of 'identical blue blood'.
Vijayaraje appears to have never forgiven Madhavrao for being hostile to Angre, on whom she lavished praise apart from bequeathing two stud farms at Jodhpur. She nominated him as a trustee of the Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Trust which also includes her daughters Usha Raje, Vasundhara Raje and Yashodhara Raje, S. Gurumurthy, the late N.K. Shejwalkar, a former Lok Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, and Appa Ghatate, a close friend of Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee.
'Apart from the unalloyed support I received from Sardar S.C. Angre in my public life, as a person I am greatly indebted to him for his unquestioned loyalty to me and to my family at all critical and testing times and the ease and smile with which he suffered all insinuations and hostilities of my own son who (afraid to hit me although willing to) made him and his family special target and used all his official and muscle power to harass and persecute this most loyal man of the Scindia Royalty,' she said.
In contrast to the ill-will towards Madhavrao, the Rajmata appeared to be especially fond of former BJP MP and JAIN TV owner J.K. Jain. 'He and his wife Ragini have always been a great pillar of strength to me in any hour of distress. They have been almost members of my family.'
Her daughters merit a fleeting mention in the Rajmata's will and inherit only part of her jewellery. Unlike Madhavrao, Vasundhara and Yashodhara were of the same political persuasion as their mother.