A narrative of India’s political events
BHUPENDRA YADAV
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An exhaustive narrative of ‘high politics’ in Independent India, the book has 14 chapters, which carry the names of big leaders
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INDIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE — Making Sense of Indian Politics: V. Krishna Ananth; Pearson Education, 482 FIE, Patparganj, Delhi-110092. Rs. 750.
India, as we know, emerged from colonial subjugation in 1947, wounded in body and a little tattered in spirit. A steady socio-economic development and a sturdy civil-libertarian democracy (eclipsed briefly during the Emergency) have been the hallmark of the Indian experience so far. Publications on this experience are growing, the important ones, by Indian authors, being India After Independence (2000) by Bipan Chandra et al, and India Afte
r Gandhi (2007) by Ramchandra Guha. This book is a welcome addition to the works in this genre. The author is some kind of a polymath. Trained as a historian, he worked as a journalist/teacher for 15 years and is a lawyer now.
High politics
A sound and exhaustive narrative of ‘high politics’ in Independent India, the book has 14 chapters, which carry the names of big leaders. Besides this, ‘OBC’ (the Other Backward Classes) politics is sufficiently covered because the socialist and peasant versions of it have a notable presence in this book. However, those looking for new social movements, such as assertions by the feminists, the environmentalists, and the Dalits, may be disappointed.
The genesis of the book lay in the discovery by Krishna Ananth, as a teacher, that there was a dearth of material to familiarise trainee journalists with contemporary history. The book says the expected good things about Nehru and V.P. Singh and the usual not-so-good things about Indira Gandhi. What about Rajiv Gandhi?
Rajiv Gandhi was like the tragic meteor that shot to the top and just crashed in all of 10 years. He faced hard times when Punjab and Assam were on the boil; the worst drought struck in 1987; and the RSS-sponsored Ram Janmabhoomi movement was let loose on the country. He put the government in the ‘good governance’ mode through Panchayati Raj and his six technology missions on drinking water, literacy, immunisation, milk, edible oil and telephones. But this is not all. He had a darker side too.
Circumstances
The author says he was nudged by V.P. Singh into writing this book, but has chosen not to specify when and how. The circumstances that led to it could be traced to a sequence of events. V.P. Singh was shunted out of the Finance Ministry in January 1987, probably at the behest of Dhirubhai Ambani. What upset Singh was not his being shifted to the Defence Ministry but what happened there. On April 11, 1987, he informed Rajiv Gandhi that Rs. 30 crore was paid as commission to Hindujas for the HDW submarine deal. Rajiv Gandhi is reported to have said: “Why did HDW disclose the names? it pays so many heads of states and governments and if they disclose the names they will be out of business.” A stunned V.P. Singh’s terse reply was: “It is not our job to give the HDW business … what happens to HDW has nothing to do with us.” The next day Singh resigned and, a few months later, launched himself into oppositional politics. That V.P. Singh found the opposition politics as much messy and that he contributed his bit to muddy the political waters is another story.
This political narrative would be useful for students and general readers alike. Two things about the organisation of the book and writing style of the author are noteworthy. The subject has been chronologically, not thematically, treated. This has its own advantage. Someone interested in knowing just what happened on June 25, 1975, may turn to the pages on Emergency and be done with it, without much ado. The writing style of the author is matter-of-fact. He seems to be in a hurry to say things — he would use just 10 words even when he is given a word limit of 12. Brevity, of course, is a great virtue but why sacrifice literary flavour for it? One request to the publisher: would you please increase the font size and reduce the price of the book when it goes into reprint?
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