T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan: Memoirs and real politics

A few weeks ago, lured by the ease of online ordering, I bought several autobiographies of politicians. The one I ordered first arrived last. One or two never arrived at all.

Courier services being what they are, the books dribbled in slowly over a fortnight or so. India's much-splendoured last-mile problem was in evidence here also.

I left the packets unopened on a table. One day a friend who had come by asked what they were. Books, I said, and he decided to open them.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He asked me if I was mad. Why would anyone want to read such self-serving drivel?

There was something voyeuristically delightful about reading such books and comparing their versions of the same events, I said. Then there are all the sanctimony and the honeyed vitriol. Besides, it takes only a day or so to read them.

Sharad Pawar's book can be read in about two hours. He tells many stories, including those of his relationship with Sonia Gandhi.

In 1991, he says, she prevented him from becoming prime minister. He also says how she humiliated him by rejecting his lists of people for various posts. Once, as Leader of Opposition in 1998, he gave a list to the Speaker and found he already had one, sent by Madam.

When he asked her about it she coldly said "You may withdraw your list."

He finally left the Congress over her being a foreigner. Rather he was sent packing. He then formed the Nationalist Congress Party.

Then his party joined the Congress-led coalition in 2004 and he became agriculture minister. By now Ms Gandhi was capo di tutti capo (Italian for "boss of all bosses) but Mr Pawar had no problems with that.

Ouch!
Makhan Lal Fotedar had no such problems with her. He was not a politician or a leader with any personal ambitions. He was simply an Indira-bhakt, a servant of the family and, therefore in his view, of the nation as well.

He tells many, many stories, mostly to record for history the important role he played in every major political decision. In the process, no Congress leader emerges with honour. That cattiness makes the book a treat to read.

But after all that he did for her, Sonia Gandhi sidelined him and he has not taken kindly to his marginalisation. He says Ms Gandhi is not good for the Congress any longer. Nor is Rahul Gandhi.

In the very last paragraph of the book, he even accuses Ms Gandhi of shifting blame from herself to her son for the 2014 debacle: "Blaming Rahul is... shifting the blame from the Congress President... It is a matter of time before Soniaji's and Rahul's leadership is challenged from within...Sonia is not Indira and Rahul is not Sanjay."

Ouch!

Aiyyo da appa!
Salman Khurshid's view is in sharp contrast to this. According to him Rahul Gandhi has a "sharp analytical mind, the ability to comprehend complex issues at an incredible pace, an acute consciousness of a historical situation, absolute fearlessness, total commitment, scientific temperament and a capacity to persevere..." Aiyyo da appa.

He just falls short of calling Mr Gandhi the heat in the fire, the luminosity in light and the intelligence in wisdom. But that may only be because he may not have read the Gita.

He is not quite as effusive about Sonia Gandhi. But there isn't a hint of criticism.

His book is not an autobiography by any means. Indeed, at the very start he says that his book is "about the road ahead... about a beginning, not the end." He hopes the Congress will rule again one day.

Injured innocence
One issue of great interest to people of my generation is what happened between Rajiv Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee when the former was made prime minister even though the latter was No. 2 in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet.

President Mukherjee, in the second volume of his autobiography, is at great pains to explain that not only did he not have any prime ministerial ambitions, he actually pushed Rajiv Gandhi's name.

He even quotes P C Alexander at length in support. Mr Alexander, as Indira Gandhi's principal secretary, was in the thick of things on October 31, 1984, which puzzles Mr Mukherjee. Why him, a mere bureaucrat? How did he become the king-maker?

But the question refuses to go away: why was Mr Mukherjee dropped from the Cabinet in 1984 and then sacked from the Congress party in 1986?

He cites an interview that Rajiv Gandhi gave to T N Ninan in May 1986 in which Rajiv more-or-less accused Mr Mukherjee of violating party discipline.

Mr Mukherjee says he can only speculate on why he was treated so shabbily by Rajiv Gandhi. The injured innocence tone permeates his recounting of the episode.