Thursday, July 10, 2014

If only politicians were to write more books...

Continuing on my reading thread I have picked up another book, this time Shekhar Gupta's Anticipating India. I haven't been far through it and the themes of the previous book 'The difficulty of being good' are hard to shelve down still. But in going through it I am going through the equivalent of a 'torch shining through dark corners' of the mind.  The mind has a incessant capacity to seek reason and justify what it sees. When it sees something it understands and agrees with, it resonates harmoniously, when it seems something it doesn't like, doesn't agree with and doesn't understand, it jars and sends pain triggers depending upon how close you are to the problem and how big the problem is. And as time goes this rhythm of resonance and pain triggers somehow imprints itself on a memory reel inside the mind.

Reading up these books I am finding is slowly giving those missing answers to those questions never answered or issues never understood that lie way in the past, 20-25 years ago when I was growing up. Why did the painful events of 80s and 90s happen. The militancy in Punjab and Kashmir, the bribery scandals, political assassinations, riots, minority strife. Why? And looking at those events at the time, one was always trying to understand why the leadership was staying mute and passive.

Why was Narasimha Rao so quiet, when he did achieve much? Why Rajiv Gandhi, a charismatic leader, and a good human being by many accords, fail so miserably in expectations of him? Why did CWG corruption go unpunished for so long? Did people like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh not have power to rope them in? Why did Manmohan Singh not take any action against his corrupt ministers despite one scandal after another?

These are the kind of questions that remain entrenched. Slowly these collective of books are giving the answers. Not complete, not direct, but factual nuggets here, and plausible theories here that begin to stack up. And whilst they do not undo the wrong that was done, the fact that I understand 'why' better, rings in a degree of resonance to a question long unanswered.

All these books though are works of either senior and reputed journalists or senior industry leaders. None, by politicians. I wonder though if I can glean so much from memoirs or equivalent of journalists, how much more there would be to books by India's politicians. And why aren't there enough?

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that an Indian politician never retires and thus never has the space to go into a memoir mode. Unlike the United States or the United Kingdom, where once you have had your chance at power for an agreed timeframe 5,10 or 15 years, that is it. You are out of it then and expected to sit back and let a newer set lead. Not so in India. In India you just go back to the pavilion and wait your turn in the next innings. Over and over again. If you don't have a team that makes it to the league, switch loyalties and you will get there eventually.

And so it seems an unwritten mantra, if you want another innings, never make any foes, even with ones you are ideologically opposite to. By extension never write a book, for in doing so you are bound to expose skeletons in a variety of closets of your near or far. Doing so might mean your political career is over.

Thus the pitiable state of information in India. Slightly different, but in similar vein I recollect a reference Sanjaya Baru makes in his book The Accidental Prime Minister, on Dr. Manmohan Singh's initial drive to allow official documents older than 30 years to be released to public. However Dr. Manmohan Singh did not go ahead and in his response to why, said that the previous (NDA) government should have done that. Then why didn't they? Anybody's guess...

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

The pointlessness of it all..

Its not a great title to a post. But, its mid week and I have been reading a heavy dose of contemporary literature on India to and fro work. Needless to add, it is not the most optimistic set of books I have read, but it relates to fact in one case and deeply enmeshed mythology in another.

Book 1 - The Durbar - a gripping account of the 1970 to 90s through journalist Tavleen Singh's eyes and views. Hard to summarise but it tells a tale of how every one and anyone, particularly those close to or in power are basically bound to fail expectations or commit mistakes outside the realms of good sense. Few if any good stories emerge from that, from top to tail though its a story how how India was failed time and again and again by its leaders.

Ok, that's done though and whilst it wasnt disneyland reading, it was factual and contextual to a time when I was growing up.

Book 2 - The diffculty of being good, by Gurcharan Das - I am part way through this one, but already grinding to a halt. Which is no good, though in a lopsided way, a tribute to the abilities of Gurcharan Das to construct a powerful narrative. For all, it is an exceptionally richly written book, around the Mahabarat, its characters, the hypocrisy of nearly all - both the so called 'good' and the so called 'bad'. The part I have read so far, elaborates for a fair length on how the world is riveted to envy. How the prosperity and happiness that we so seek and cherish, its other side is abysmal and depressing trait of jealousy. And how many of the world's worst episodes from age old to modern 20th century find their roots in envy of of individual or another or of one group of another. And how unfailingly nearly everyone is prone to it and failings it induces.

It didn't help when to digress I picked a short story book by Anupam Kher and the first page I open is on the same subject! I must take a pause.

Obviously this post is not about optimism. Nor does it try seek a solution. Its like one of those soul searching movies that finish abruptly with credits, with a question suspended on you.

Is there a point to it all?