Review: ‘A Maverick in Politics’ by Mani Shankar Aiyar
The last volume of Mani Shankar Aiyar’s autobiographical trilogy, that looks at the period from 1991 to 2024, presents a candid account of the various stages of his political life
It is worth speculating about the trajectory of Mani Shankar Aiyar’s political career had Rajiv Gandhi not died so prematurely and had he himself not been such a “maverick”. Aiyar is a person with independent, often unusual, thoughts, which he has the courage to articulate, no matter what the consequences.
In this last volume of his autobiographical trilogy, the author gives us a candid account of the various stages of his political life. Some of the events described are no longer of much public interest and the reader’s attention may flag while negotiating the exhaustive narration. Nevertheless, many of Aiyar’s experiences, as an ordinary MP and as a minister, are worthy of documentation.
As a “Constituency MP”, he worked zealously to promote the well being of the people but not always with matching electoral success. He was more than compensated for this by a compliment from Sukh Ram, one of India’s most electorally successful politicians: “Winning an election is easy but gaining the affection of the people is difficult. You have won their affection.”
As a “National MP”, while he was able to do useful work on some issues of national importance, his desperate efforts as a deeply committed secularist to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid failed. To his amazement, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao sought to correct his definition of secularism by declaring, “You don’t understand that this is a Hindu country”. When the historic mosque came down with the PM missing in action, Aiyar made this scathing, though not necessarily fair, remark: “Narasimha Rao has proved that death is not a necessary precondition for rigor mortis to set in”.
Many years passed and the Congress returned to power in 2004 with Manmohan Singh as PM. In the next few years, Mani was entrusted with four ministerial assignments: Petroleum and Natural Gas (2004-2006), Panchayati Raj (2004-2009), Youth Affairs and Sports, and Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER)(2006-2009).
He brought intense commitment to each of his assignments including to Youth Affairs and Sports, which was thrust on him though he had absolutely no interest in sports. To make matters worse, his time in this ministry coincided with the shenanigans of Suresh Kalmadi. Aiyar tried hard to discourage Kalmadi’s misuse of public funds in the organization of the Commonwealth Games but was ultimately unsuccessful.
When he was allotted the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, he made strenuous efforts to educate himself on the subject, modestly seeking guidance from all stakeholders. This empowered him to conceptualize many innovative ideas for measures, domestic and external, to promote India’s energy security. It all came to naught, however, when he was suddenly replaced by Murli Deora, “a close family friend of Ambanis”.
Sadly, Aiyar does not regard his stewardship of the Panchayati Raj ministry – for which he has been known since his enthusiastic association with Rajiv Gandhi on the subject – as a success. He is convinced that we have failed to establish a genuine Panchayati Raj, primarily because the Constitution as adopted in 1950 did not incorporate local self-government in the scheme of governance. He attributes this to BR Ambedkar, who was convinced that villages were a “den of ignorance… leaving the Scheduled Castes in a state of eternal perdition….”.
Interestingly, it was the ministry for the Development of the North Eastern Region that he enjoyed most. He had deep affection for the region and its people. But he brought to the performance of his ministerial duties something more than mere emotional links. With the help of a team of area specialists, he produced ā two-volume Vision Document for the region. “It set out our priorities in 17 key paragraphs, which ranged from high rhetoric to minute technical details.” (emphasis added by the reviewer). This ability to combine inspirational ‘high rhetoric’ with pragmatic ‘minute technical details’ to ensure practical action were typical of Aiyar. Unfortunately, soon after “a triumphant launch” by the Prime Minister, Aiyar lost the 2009 elections, and with his successors’ lack of interest, “Vision 2020 withered on the vine”.
A somewhat melodramatically entitled chapter, Decline… Fade Out… Fall: 2016-2024, vividly captures the manner in which his political career came to an end. In the years following his loss in the 2009 election, when the rest of the party did rather well, a series of his comments were distorted, one suspects gleefully by the sensation seeking media but maliciously by political opponents, making Sonia Gandhi think of him as a “loose cannon”. What really exploded in his face was his calling Narendra Modi a “neech kism ka admi”. Aiyar was responding to what he believed was the abysmal cultural level to which the Prime Minister’s rhetoric had sunk during the election campaign. He points out that it is clear that his remark had nothing to do with the person’s caste but even his own party, panic-stricken, turned against him, and “cast him to the wolves”. Interestingly, Aiyar also believes that Rahul Gandhi, who was increasingly drawn to Hindu philosophy, became averse to him because of his atheism and secular fundamentalism.
Sadly, in the midst of it all, trying desperately to prevent the slide in his political fortunes, he sometimes ignored his wife Suneet’s sage counsel to keep his self-respect intact. Indeed, it has been Aiyar’s great good fortune to have not only a wise wife but three capable and highly supportive daughters.
READ MORE: Review – The Rajiv I Knew by Mani Shankar Aiyar
As he muses on his life, he recognizes one of the paradoxes governing it: “Had I less felicity with words I would not have achieved the unusual successes that have come my way, nor the ultimate failure…” For many years, his witticisms contributed to his popularity on television and to the great demand for his articles. However, they also often offended the powerful. To quote the author, “…it is I who have created the quip that killed me”.
He believes his principal passions remain unaccomplished. These include: secularism, Panchayati Raj, peace with Pakistan and universal nuclear disarmament. To his credit, he pursued these goals with fervour and courage. There is no reason for him to regret that they constitute his “unfinished journey”. As far as the struggle for a secular India is concerned, he declares: “That alone is enough for me to continue in public life. The time for cerebral secularism is over. The time for secular activism is now”.
The book’s conclusion, titled Curtain Call recounts the forces that influenced his early years and moulded the personalities of many of his generation, including this reviewer. Aiyar writes: “Nehru was the Man of Peace the world needed and turned to. It made my generation and me, in particular, proud of being an Indian.” Then, he looks at Hindutva, oscillating between hope and apprehension as he presents the challenge it poses to the Nehruvian Idea of India.
This reviewer is glad that Mani Shankar Aiyar is/was “A Maverick in Politics”. It is precisely this quality that makes his memoirs honest, revelatory, irreverent and so much more readable than most autobiographies.
Vinod C Khanna was India’s Ambassador to Cuba, Indonesia and Bhutan. After retirement, he was Director, Institute of Chinese Studies and founder of Pratham Delhi Education Initiative.