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This was in 1985. Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, he took charge of the country. In the Lok Sabha elections held in December 1984, under his leadership, the Congress won a massive majority on a sympathy wave. Vishwanath Pratap Singh was made Union Finance Minister on 31 December 1984 in Rajiv Gandhi’s new government. At that time he was a member of the Rajya Sabha. VP Singh was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1980 to 1982. Later he was included in the Union Cabinet.
When VP Singh became Finance Minister, he was very strict on tax evasion. including the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). Income tax And issued strict instructions to other tax related departments to take strict action against tax evaders. Dhirubhai Ambani was the target of DRI in those days. He was about to be raided but was paralyzed after learning the news. After this, VP Singh postponed raids on their positions.
Income tax officials were also keeping a close eye on many industrialists and cine stars. In this regard, some officials of the Income Tax Department were keeping an eye on the then star actress Rekha. Rekha was questioned several times by Income Tax officials, which left her distraught. So she was looking for a way to deal with this problem.
Senior journalist and former MP Santosh Bharatiya wrote in his book ‘VP Singh, Chandrasekhar, Sonia Gandhi and I’, “I interviewed Rekha several times. One day she said she wanted to meet VP Singh. I asked the question, ‘What happened?’ , she said Income tax Officials are facing a lot of trouble. I said, your problem may not be solved because VP Singh has never been involved in such problems but maybe I can introduce you.”
The Indian further wrote that after reaching Delhi, when he requested VP Singh to meet Rekha for 10 minutes, he agreed to the request. This was then reported to Rekha. After three-four days Rekha reached Delhi. The Indian writes that, the next day she went to the Finance Ministry with me. The corridors of the Finance Ministry were packed with people. When she reached the finance minister’s room, she was surprised to see such a big room. Then VP Singh was disposing of the files. Seeing this he got up, greeted me and sat on the sofa. Tea came, everyone drank tea, then after talking for a while, Rekhaji told her problem. VP Singh remained silent, did not say anything but later came to know that Rekha’s problem was solved.