Mani, the Maverick

Book Review

Title: A Maverick in Politics

Author: Mani Shankar Aiyar

Publisher: Juggernaut, New Delhi, 2024

Pages: 410

A politician’s memoirs will be intertwined with the history of his country. Mani Shankar Aiyar’s book is no exception. This is the second part of the author’s memoirs and it deals with the years from 1991 to 2024. The very opening sentence reassures you that this is a continuation from the last book: “I returned to Delhi elated and triumphant to find two sets of invitations to dinner from the two rival contestants for the leadership of the Congress party.”

The first few chapters describe what Aiyar did as an MP both in his constituency and in the parliament as well as wherever he was given responsibilities. His proximity to Rajiv Gandhi had given him an edge over many other Congressmen, and Sonia Gandhi gave him many important duties especially attending meetings and other programmes abroad. After all, Aiyar was in the Indian Foreign Service before quitting that to join politics. So sending him to participate in programmes abroad was a natural choice.

The middle portion of the book tells us about the various ministries which Aiyar handled successfully (his claim). He held some important portfolios like Petroleum and Natural Gas, Youth Affairs and Sports, and the Northeast. His narrative gives us a vivid picture of how politics function in India.

The last two chapters are, perhaps, the most interesting with Aiyar’s musings and reflections articulated with his characteristic humour and incisiveness.

What makes the book fascinating is its anecdotal approach. For example, the one single instance of his conflict with Jayalalithaa, then chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Aiyar joined a public meeting held in Nagapattinam, the district in which his constituency lay. Since the meeting was about developmental projects, Aiyar wanted to highlight his projects for his constituency. However, after his speech, Jayalalithaa rose and attacked him viciously calling him a “rotter.” Aiyar got up from his seat, went to Jayalalithaa at her lectern and told her that she was just a “cheapskate.” What had provoked Jayalalithaa’s ire was a recent article of Aiyar which began thus: “When Jayalalithaa became the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, she presented a baby elephant to the Guruvayur temple. When I become CM of TN, I will present Jayalalithaa to the Guruvayur temple.” Jayalalithaa’s elephantine physique and even larger ego couldn’t digest Aiyar’s bizarre humour.

Aiyar is honest through and through in the book. He accepts that he can be bizarre occasionally. Be that as it may, the anecdotes he provides in the book throws ample light into the character of the people concerned including Aiyar. What enchants us is the forthrightness of Aiyar’s narrative.

Jayalalithaa was not one to take insults lying down. After calling her a cheapskate, Aiyar left the stage. Soon he was chased by Jayalalithaa’s goons and he barely managed to escape because of a good friend’s timely intervention.

We get to see the real faces, the faces behind the masks, of many politicians in this book. Not only politicians. Business honchos too. When Aiyar became the minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, he was welcomed on his very first day in the Parliament by a whole bunch of “oil honchos … each of whom was staggering under the weight of the huge garlands and bouquets they had brought with them to greet me.”

This book is partly a history of India from 1991 to 2024. A lot of unfortunate things happened in the country in this period. The Babri Masjid demolition, for one. Gujarat riots, another. The economic reforms that Manmohan Singh initiated. Aiyar discusses all these in fair detail. His views are worth reading. For example, what he says about the Babri demolition:

The road was thus opened to Hindu majoritarianism and to the resultant apprehensions among the Muslim and other minority communities about their place in India being overtaken by vicious communalism that seemed to be heading towards ‘Hindu raj’, or, rather, Hindutva raj, for the country.

He doesn’t hesitate to state that even the Congress was influenced by this shift and the party became more rightist so much so Muslims were discouraged by Congress from canvassing in the election that followed in Gujarat.

What about Manmohan Singh’ economic reforms? This is what Aiyar concludes:

Thirty years after economic reforms were initiated in India, there is a duopoly of businessmen, among the richest in the world, who dominate an economy in which some 300 million live in absolute poverty (destitution) and about 700 million consider themselves poor. The bulk of the remainder of the population remains ‘aspirational’, in the sense that they still nurture hopes of improving their lot. The top wealthy businessmen have been co-opted, particularly through the electoral bonds scheme, to provide the money and muscle power that characterize elections in our country, making a commerce of politics. Inequality has grown exponentially, and the India that we dreamt of during the freedom movement and envisioned in the Constitution is a distant, abandoned dream. Crony capitalism has replaced socialism. Growth is cruelly purchased at the expense of equity.

The Congress party was ousted brutally in the 2014 general elections because of charges of corruption. There was corruption, no doubt. Manmohan Singh was not a ‘singh’ (lion) at all when it came to dealing with corruption in his party. However, all the noise made by people like Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev against corruption was not really justified, Aiyar implies. For example, A Raja and Kanimozhi spent a year in Tihar jail in connection with 12 lakh crore rupees (12 followed by 12 zeros, says Aiyar to highlight the enormity of the amount) supposedly swallowed by politicians in the spectrum auction of those days. Both Raja and Kanimozhi were released by the court after a year, cleared of all charges. So what about the charges of corruption? People forgot. Because the elections were over and Modi was on his throne.

What has Modi done to India? Aiyar deals with that towards the end of his memoirs. Pretty bad. That’s the plain answer. The country stands divided between Hindus versus the rest. Modi has made enemies of all neighbouring nations such as Pakistan, Nepal, and Maldives. It is easy to make enemies in the name of manliness and bravado. But the real master makes friends. Is Modi an aberration in Indian history? Aiyar seems to think so. And Rahul Gandhi, in spite of his apparent dislike of Aiyar, seems to be the only saviour of the Congress party, according to Aiyar who believes that the Gandhi family is the most suitable custodian of the Congress lineage. [This is one point on which I disagree entirely with Aiyar.]

This is an eminently readable book. Anyone who wants to see India from 1991 to 2024 through the eyes of a self-proclaimed maverick Congressman – who even considered leaving the party at least once – will find this book immensely worthwhile. It’s an honest narrative.

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