Clarion call to courtiers

Leaders, Politicians and Citizens Fifty figures who influenced India’s politics

Author: Rasheed Kidwai

Publisher: Hatchette 

Pages: xiv + 350 

Price: Rs 499

This collection of 50 sketches, which the author Rasheed Kidwai calls “obituaries”, bears a somewhat misleading subtitle. While there are two presidents, four prime ministers, nearly a dozen state chief ministers among those covered, several others would probably merit not even a footnote in history. The choice of subjects is quite eclectic and the length of sketches varies, from barely two pages (Hazarilal Raghuvanshi, an obscure Madhya Pradesh minister, whose sole claim to fame appears to be his walrus moustache) to over 20 pages (Indira Gandhi). I could detect a common thread, which appears to have been purposely disguised. More about this later.

Mr Kidwai has been associated with The Telegraph, but most of us have known him as a regular among the TV talking heads, overly sympathetic to the Congress but not quite its official spokesperson. Nothing wrong in that but it does show a pronounced bias. I counted 25 Congress persons and another eight Congress sympathisers in the list. Sonia Gandhi’s name appears in several sketches, indicating her great relevance to the book. The Congress wordsmith Shashi Tharoor has written the foreword and Jairam Ramesh provides a very laudatory blurb. No need to elaborate this point.

The author seems to be aware that given his background and earlier work (Sonia: A Biography and 24 Akbar Road: A Short History of the People Behind the Fall and Rise of the Congress), readers would consider these obituaries, especially those of ranking Congresspersons (Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi) exercises in hagiography. Therefore, he has added some criticisms of the subjects as well, but in such a manner as to actually burnish the image of the subject: “Rajiv Gandhi’s gambles to forgo power did not make many of those Accords stable, though his moves were based upon realism and aimed at quelling unrest (p 114).”

Obituaries are expected to be balanced exercises (unlike eulogies) listing high and low points of the subjects’ careers. Mr Kidwai covers the Emergency in his essay on Indira Gandhi, there is no mention of Operation Blue Star, the proximate cause of her assassination. P V Narasimha Rao’s mastery of political manipulation and his (mis)handling of the Babri demolition are discussed, but his major achievement of unshackling the Indian economy gets the short shrift. Rajiv Gandhi’s profligate import-led flourish of the economy that led to the balance of payments crisis requiring the mortgaging of India’s gold reserves finds no mention at all. Arun Nehru makes several appearances, but the other Arun (Singh), an even more important confidant of Rajiv Gandhi, rates no mention. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s profile mostly highlights the courtesies he showed to three generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family and vice versa.  A P J Abdul Kalam’s trip to Gujarat after the 2012 riots is the highlight of that essay.

The book is abominably edited, both in language and content (all emphasis added): “Indira Gandhi…made a (sic) Congress ministry… who  step down in favour of Abdullah (pp 12-13).  The LTTE plan to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi in 1990-91 is referred to as a plot “to eliminate the prime minister.”  The 1991 succession deliberations took place “while Rajiv Gandhi’s body had not even been buried (P 252).  Vidya Charan Shukla becomes Vidya Shankar Shukla in the space of five lines on page 290 and retains that moniker thereafter.  On page 232, Bofors becomes a “Swiss arms manufacturer.”  The compilers of notes do not seem to know the standard formats of citations for books and articles.

These are but a few examples of howlers, in a book where the author has thanked profusely his editors at Hatchette and many others for carefully reading and correcting the manuscript.  One shudders to imagine what Mr Kidwai’s original manuscript must have looked like.

If the content is bad, the production is worse. The sketches (let us stop calling this collection of anecdotes obituaries) are mostly arranged alphabetically, but Vajpayee is sandwiched between Arun Nehru and Owaisi and Tiwari between Sayeed and Scindia.  New profiles should usually start on fresh pages — but not here, even when there is space for just two lines.

Columnists know well that anthologies of columns seldom make good books.  So the usual question — why this book and why now — assumes greater significance in this instance.  Unwittingly perhaps, the real purpose does peep out: “Indira Gandhi, considered an astute judge of personality, used to value Rahul Gandhi’s grit and determination and despite him being barely fourteen at the time, she often considered him mature enough to be taken into confidence on subjects she avoided discussing with his parents.”  With drum beats for the 2024 campaign already being sounded, a clarion call by a trusted “outsider” for the faithful to rally round the leader of a party on an interminable downward slide, perhaps?

I have had more than my share of poor books to review; this must rank near the bottom of the heap.  What is it that I mind the most, the publishers’ conceit in expecting us to pay for this disaster of a book, poorly written, shabbily edited and cheaply produced, or the low esteem in which they hold the reading public?  Most likely both.