'A Maverick In Politics' Review | Mani Shankar Aiyar's Candid Take On His Political Journey

A MAVERICK IN POLITICS: 1999-2024 

Author: Mani Shankar Aiyar 

Publisher: Juggernaut 

Pages: 410 

Price: Rs 899

𒈔Mani Shankar Aiyar begins the first chapter of his second volume of memoirs “A Maverick in Politics”, by saying that he was “horrified” when Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat acquiesced at “India’s betrayal of Palestine”. This was in January 1992 when Prime Minister Narasimha Rao (PVNR) announced that India would upgrade India’s relationship with Israel to ambassadorial level at a joint press conference with the visiting Palestinian leader.

ꦐIt distressed him since it happened just a day after Arafat had specially invited Aiyar to meet him at the Rashtrapati Bhavan to thank him for “championing the Palestinian cause”. At that time, Aiyar requested Arafat to “tell Prime Minister PVNR to desist from doing so”, meaning not to announce elevation of diplomatic relations. “Arafat’s reaction was ambiguous to the point of being puzzling”. Aiyar was so crestfallen that he asked his wife to put away the mother of pearl tray gifted to him by Arafat “out of human sight”.

ꦅThis incident would indicate the author’s deep aversion to what he considers deviation from the original principles of government policy laid down by our founding fathers and his steadfast determination to go alone even if he gets hurt in that process. This is the thread that runs throughout this book which deals with innumerable instances when he had to defiantly chart his own path, as narrated by Rabindranath Tagore in “Ekla Chalo Re”:

൲If no one speaks to you, oh thou of evil luck If everyone turns his backs to you and is afraid Then wholeheartedly, you alone speak up what is in your mind (translation by Nikhil Kulkarni).

ꦇAiyar’s repugnance in 1992 would seem justified when compared with the Palestinians’ sad plight in 2025. However, Aiyar should have realised that Arafat’s tolerance towards Israel was dictated by realpolitik which arose out of tectonic global developments, following Mikhail Gorbachev’s withdrawal from Soviet Union’s spheres of global influence as described by Hedrick Smith in his enlightening book “The New Russians” (1990).

🅘It needs to be mentioned that this reviewer had accompanied two successive Indian foreign intelligence chiefs to Tel Aviv in 1988 and 1990, approved by Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Vishwanath Pratap Singh. On both occasions we met the same Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who requested us to specially convey to our prime ministers, Yasser Arafat’s message to him that he had no objection if India elevated diplomatic relationship with Israel. PVNR was only following that line.

🐎Aiyar’s unwavering dedication to his principles is evident when he describes his agony that his government’s economic liberalisation from 1991 had led to a “disturbing imbalance” between the benefits reaching the rich and the poor and had also facilitated the Enron, Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parikh scandals.

🦂Towards the end of his book Aiyar tells us how a prominent journalist had described him as “the Brahmin with a peculiar sense of humour” when he was working in Rajiv Gandhi’s office. He then confesses: “I have always delighted in being a ‘maverick’, wading into controversy, unconventional, unorthodox, and yet articulate about my non-conformist views”.

In 1991 which was the first month of his parliamentary term as member (MP) for his constituency in Tamil Nadu, he hit out at his own government. He alleged that by not officially publishing the interim “Cauvery River Water Tribunal award” and by “conniving with the Government of Karnataka”, ruled by Congress ✱Chief Minister S. Bangarappa, New Delhi went against Tamil Nadu, governed by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, then a Congress ally, heading All India Anna DMK(AIDMK).

ꦬLater he published a column describing PVNR as “Dhritarashtra” (“Moral blindness to right and wrong”) who did not “distinguish good from evil” in the struggle between “Draupadi” (Jayalalithaa) and “Dushyasan” (Bangarappa). He says: “Mercifully, I was not reprimanded for this act of lese-majeste.”

However, when the Congress-AIDMK alliance broke down in 2001 he published a column in a weekly that he would “present” Jayalalithaa to the Guruvayur temple just as she had “presented a baby elephant to the Guruvayur temple” when she became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. This was a retort to Jayalalithaa for calling his leader Sonia Gandhi 𝓡a “foreigner”. As a result, his car was attacked and damaged by her followers on 13 October 2003.

💯The four chapters on his ministerial assignments (2004-2009) are very informative, revealing how inter-ministerial squabbles over policy and personnel could sabotage good intentions in a democracy. The book has a sad end when he describes how he was “crushed” by his own party on 26 March 2024.

(The writer is a former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat- Views personal)