The Lok Sabha election has rekindled interest in the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family, especially Rahul Gandhi, who has been enduring below-the-belt attacks for a decade and more. But critics of the family have left out Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, who was an ‘accidental’ prime minister and a reluctant politician before that. Memories of that generation are coloured by the Bofors scandal and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) disaster in Sri Lanka.
Mani Shankar Aiyar’s latest book―The Rajiv I Knew, And Why He Was India’s Most Misunderstood Prime Minister―is a personal note on the prime minister, under whom he was a joint secretary. The book is lucidly written, and Aiyar’s frankness in not wanting to claim ownership or first-hand knowledge of what he was not officially part of comes through in every page of the book.
According to Aiyar, Rajiv, who was at the centre of difficult developments, was not fully informed about the Bofors deal. Not just that, he was not briefed enough on the Shah Bano case, or, for that matter, on the overnight opening of the locks of the temple in Ayodhya―all of which showed him up as naive, and cost him and his party dear as the 1989 Lok Sabha poll result proved. For Ayodhya and Shah Bano, Aiyar puts the blame on Rajiv’s cousin Arun Nehru. And the IPKF disaster? General Krishnaswamy Sundarji was to be blamed, says Aiyar. Aiyar’s arguments are simple―straight from the heart, and mostly convincing.
Aiyar gives credit to Rajiv for multiple peace accords that he had signed with political and militant groups in the north and the northeast. He praises Rajiv for giving Constitutional protection to the Panchayati Raj system, especially with 33 per cent reservation for women. In fact, it was Aiyar who drafted the amendments required and did much of the paperwork and propagation even while continuing as Rajiv’s official speech-writer.
Aiyar also commends Rajiv’s contributions to the cause of nuclear non-proliferation. Aiyar’s book is worth a read, and possible re-read, especially if you were a fan of Rajiv when he was alive, or a critic, then, and since.
The writer is a policy analyst and political commentator.
THE RAJIV I KNEW, AND WHY HE WAS INDIA’S MOST MISUNDERSTOOD PRIME MINISTER
Author: Mani Shankar Aiyar
Published by Juggernaut
Price: Rs548; pages: 323