It was an evening replete with anecdotes, discussions, questions and laughter as Neerja Chowdhury, Sumit Mitra and Rajesh Sharma talked about India and its various prime ministers and their modus operandi.
Veteran journalist, author and political editor of Indian Express, Neerja Chowdhury has seen it all. She has seen the rise of the prime ministers of India and their fall. She has witnessed their agony, their joy, their triumph and defeats too. In her decades of walking and reporting from the corridors of power, she has also been a privy to a lot of conversations that have erased and created the history of India. Her recent book ‘How Prime Ministers Decide’ has been the talk of the nation because for the first time ever it helps a common man to really understand what goes on in those lofty corridors of power. Hence it is but obvious when such a personality visits Rashtradoot for an evening of book discussion, there is bound be a lot of excitement.
Sharing the stage with Neerja Chowdhury was Sumit Mitra, who is currently working as a consultant with ABP Ltd and Rajesh Sharma, editor, Rashtradoot Newspaper. Sumit Sharma has also been a part of the journalism world for decades. He has worked as a senior editor with India Today. He has also served as the associate editor of Sunday and as an editor of the Sunday Mail.
It was quite a candid conversation that flowed as Sumit Mitra inquired from Neerja Chowdhury about why did she decide to write such a book. Neerja replied that she thought about writing such a book somewhere in the year 1999. She was a political journalist who had closely observed the dealings in the highest echelons of power and she wanted to write something that would help the millennials to truly understand and relate to politics because she feels that the younger generation does not connect well with politics that well and easily.
Some one in the audience questioned Neerja about who has been her favourite prime minister to which she replied that since she has closely seen each prime ministers workings and dealings, she really doesn’t have any favourite. However, she admitted that when it came to strength, she considers Indira Gandhi to be one of the strongest prime minister but when Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash, she became quite fragile and vulnerable. She also talked about how no one has ever understood why Indira Gandhi despite everything going for her went for elections in 1977 which ousted her party completely.
When a member of the audience asked her about her take on Narendra Modi and the lack of a chapter on the current prime minister in her book, Neerja replied that though she has mentioned Modi in her book but since he was still ‘work in progress’ and she did not have the advantage of hindsight about his work, she dropped the idea. She also admitted that many of her friends and acquaintances who had read the book said that incase she does dedicate a whole chapter to Modi, her readers may not pay much attention to the past prime ministers and only concentrate on the current ones.
Rajesh Sharma questioned her about her chapter on the former prime minister P V Narsimha Rao who was referred to as the ‘The Prime Minister Who Refused to Decide” in the book. She talked about how the Rao did not take any decision even when he was informed of the Babri Masjid demolition. She talked about how Narsimha Rao had once said that he had allowed this incident to happen so that BJP loses its face.
When some one asked her about why she did not cover prime ministers like Chandra Shekhar or Moraji Desai, she said that she chose only those prime ministers who had completed a whole term in the office except for perhaps V P Singh who had stayed in the office for only 11 months but his decision to set up the Mandal Commission had far reaching consequences for the nation.
She also revealed that it was Rahul who prevented Sonia Gandhi from becoming the Prime Minister… dadi died, was killed, his father was killed, he said, ‘In six months you will be killed and that you have 24 hours to decide, if you go ahead, I will do something drastic’,” said Chowdhury, adding that Sonia Gandhi didn’t want Rajeev Gandhi to come into politics, but she wanted Rahul to get into it.
The audience sat entranced as she talked about how no matter who was in the office as a prime minister, their only aim she could understand was to stay in power regardless of the condition of the nation or its people. For the audience, they had never heard of this kind of an insight into the corridors of power.
In response to a question by a member of the audience, Neerja remarked that Manmohan Singh is often considered to be among the weakest PMs, with Sonia Gandhi virtually being half-PM at the time. She also remarked that despite this Singh showcased his strength of character through the Indo-US nuclear deal. She remarked that whether he was underrated in his overall tenure is hard to say, but he was certainly underrated in what he pulled off with the nuclear deal and his efforts led to a transformation in the strategic partnership between India and the US, which continues with the present dispensation.
When some one asked her about how she could trust people about the information they gave her about the prime ministers or their modus operandi because politicians are known to lie and bluff often, Neerja replied that she had always kept careful notes on everything that was told to her. Years later when she rechecked the information from her sources, it was the same which confirmed the authenticity of the information provided.
Over all, an evening with Neerja Chowdhury proved to be an insightful, thought provoking affair where the audience understood and realized a lot of truths about the nature of Indian politics.
You must be logged in to post a comment.