Book Review
 |
| Quite a contrast! |
Let me start with a disclaimer. This is a book review and has nothing to
do with the movie of the same name. I read a few reviews of the movie and each
one trashes the movie as cheap propaganda for the right wing. The movie seems
to be an attempt to denigrate Dr Manmohan Singh as well as the Congress Party,
according to the reviews I read. The book, on the other hand, is a genuine
attempt to understand Dr Singh as a person.
The author, Sanjaya Baru, was Dr Singh’s media adviser during UPA-1. He
had very close associations with the Prime Minister if the book is to be
believed. When the book was published in 2014, the Congress Party was
displeased with it for obvious reasons. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are shown
to be manipulators who did not let Dr Singh wield any real power during his
second reign as PM. The Prime Minister’s
Office released a press release then labelling the book as mere fiction.
Baru carries conviction, however. There may be some exaggerations here
and there. But the book comes across to the reader with a high degree of
credibility. Baru admires Dr Singh’s “intellect, his humane persona, his gentle
and civil conduct, his political instinct and his deep patriotism.” The book
reveals these aspects of Dr Singh’s personality.
Baru shows us how Dr Singh managed to keep the power with him during
UPA-1 but lost that power when he assumed the office for the second term. The
focus of the book is on the first term, however. Baru was not the media adviser
during the second term; he had left the job for “personal reasons”.
“The world is not a morality play,” the book quotes Dr Singh. “The
world’s political and economic system is a power play and those who have
greater power use it to their advantage.” Dr Singh’s failure was he did not
know how to use his power to his and the nation’s advantage. He let others pull
the strings. His second term as Prime Minister reeked of scams and scandals
because he did not wield his power properly. Personally he remained clean; no
one could raise a finger against his personal integrity. The book shows how
personal integrity is not enough in politics.
The book throws ample light on the personality of Dr Singh. He is an
admirable person. Noble souls need not be successful politicians. Thus Dr Singh
ends up as a tragic character fit for a Shakespearean history play. Baru’s book
is able to fathom the depths of that great character and to that extent it is a
great book. We also get some brilliant peeps into the dark corridors of power
at the Centre.
https://matheikal.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-paradoxical-prime-minister.html
Good to know what originally written in the book.
ReplyDeleteFilms often differ much from the book on which it is based especially if the director of the movie has a different political leaning.
DeleteSounds interesting. We ought to know Dr. Singh better. What makes it better is that it's written by somebody who worked closely with him.
ReplyDeleteWhen books turn into movies they tend to put these kind of covers. But it's really odd that they did that to a biographical book.
The book does portray Dr Singh realistically. I'd recommend it to anyone. The movie is quite another matter and the publisher stooped too low by putting the actor on the cover.
Delete