The Chinar Leaves -- a peek into murky polictics of Congress

I have finished reading the book "The Chinar Leaves" yesterday. Author of this book M L Fotedar, a Kashmiri Brahmin, was a political secretary to the Indira Gandhi and to Rajiv Gandhi. It was regularly reported back then that he advised them on various matters of political and administrative importance at the national level. As per his version, he played a major role in ensuring that Rajiv succeeded his mother after her assassination. He also writes how he was able to persuade Sonia into active politics and thereafter getting her installed as Congress President.
    After their recent electoral setbacks, many senior politicians of the Congress party now seem to have a lot of spare time at their disposal.  Some of them wrote books as their memoirs.   We may refer to his memoir as insider account of the Gandhis that is Indira, Rajiv and Sonia. To me though, it appears to be unabashedly biased. To put it in proper perspective, the memoirs of Jairam Ramesh and Sanjay Baru were quite dispassionate in comparison in their respective books "To The Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story and "The Acciental Prime Minister".
    "The Chinar Leaves" paints a portrait of M.L. Fotedar’s six- decade long political career. A career that began in Kashmir and reached the inner corridors of power during the Gandhi heydays.  The memoir gives us a peep into the murky goings on that made up the national politics back then. In it there are stories galore of many careers made and unmade within the Congress Party. Among these are P. V. Narasimha Rao's efforts to stay in power, Amitab Bachan's falling out with Mrs Gandhi's family, Zail Singh's rift with Rajiv Gandhi etc. Also described in detail are the complex web of politics, deceit and conflict that took place in the immediate aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
The book also deals with the way the Indian National Congress, the political party of our national movement, was turned into “Indira Congress" first then into “Sonia Congress”. Somewhere in between there was also a period of “Tiwari Congress”.  Fotedar lays claim to these and many more machinations that were planned and executed by such party luminaries as G.K. Moopanar, Sharad Pawar etc. He also narrates how Mrs Gandhi stoically withstood the grief of Sanjay's death and groomed Rajiv to take charge. In this way she ensured that Rajiv, and not R. Venkat Raman, PV or Pranab, succeeded her. According to Fotedar, it was during the time that he was being nudged out of the family coterie, that Rajiv gradually lost his grip on power. A significant portion of the book also tells us the finesse with which he (Fotedar) had facilitated Sonia's rise. This came after PV was installed at the helm, that was against the wishes of Pawar, all the while handling and checking the ambition of  Sitaram Kesri etc. But then again, when Sonia formed a new coterie of her own, he was left out.

While narrating such stories with ample "Mirch Masala" , Fotedar doesn't reveal all. He does not say why Indira warned Rajiv not to have Amitabh and Madhav Rao Scindia in his cabinet. He doesn't say whom Amitabh recommend for the Chairperson of women's wing of Rajasthan Congress. We find many such incomplete stories, and I would say, it hides as much as it reveals. Moreover it is totally biased against Narasimha Rao. Mr Fotedar assertion that Anjaiah, the CM of AP, was removed at the behest of Narasimha Rao, is hard to take. From whatever little I know, Narasimha Rao and Anjaiah never had any differences. He might have had something against Chenna Reddy or Vengala Rao or even Mr Shivashankar, but not with Anjaiah. In fact it was reported that when Rajiv Gandhi, as General secretary of Congress visited AP, some differences had led to the removal of Anjaiah. Either Fotedar knows only half the truth or perhaps he wants to blame PV?
Regarding the division of AP, he says, that none of them were interested in the division and blames the party high Command. Sitting in New Delhi, he would have had very little perception of a problem that that simmering down south for sixty years. Congress lost because it delayed the matter for years. And then again there was no real leader with mass appeal after the demise of YSR. In erstwhile AP elections of 2004 and 2009, YSR had taken the individual responsibility and won. Now there is no such leader. Take any state for that matter, Congress is losing because it lacks leaders with charisma. The allotment of tickets, among others, is also to blame. Without clearly spelling out the reasons, Fotedar blames Mr. Narsimha Rao for losing big states such as UP and Bihar.  In my humble opinion this does not seem to be right.
       While commenting on this book Sanjay Baru says,  Fotedar  made Narasimha Rao a villain and Priyanka Vadra a heroine. The decline of Congress is placed solely on Narsimha Rao’s shoulders. From the defeat of Congress in  AP in 1982 to its decision to align with AIDMK (as against the  DMK), all the political failures of Congress are laid at Narasimha Rao’s door. In truth Fotedar siding with Arjun Singh and D Tiwari, had actively sought to unseat PV. Writing about Priyanka he says Mrs Indira Gandhi wanted her (Priyanka) to be her successor and lead the party. To this Rajiv too was in agreement. Fotedar sees no hope for Congress under Rahul. Sonia is a non Indian and Rahul is no Rajiv while Priyanka could be Indira redux.
   Coming from a man who wielded immense influence behind the scenes, this is a shocking view of Indian politics. The book falls very short as it is a mix of half-truths with scant regard for objectivity. Finally, it is no match to Jairam Ramesh 's or Mr SanjayBaru's memoirs.