Mani Shankar Aiyar – A story of victory and disaster of a Maverick

Politics is said to be the last choice for boredom. This may also be the first choice for gentlemen and noble minds. Mani shows the road.

Mani Shankar Aiyar’s autobiography, “Political Maverick,” is a fascinating and touching story of his victory and disaster in electoral politics. His journey of life is shaking between ecstasy and despair.

For serious students of modern Indian history between 1991 and 2021, this is an ever-changing political landscape of India, an important chronicle of its colorful and attitude politicians, and the towering figures that have shaped modern India for forty years – Narasimha Rao, Narasimha Rao, Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Gandhi and Manmohan Singh,

For lay readers, Aiyar is a thriving literary thriving, and narratives are a mixture of personal anecdotes, political opinions, and missteps. The writing style is simple and attractive, full of viciousness. For example, he wrote:

“When Jayalalitha became the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, she presented a baby elephant to Guruvayur Temple. When I became the CM of TN, I will show Jayalitha to Guruvayur Temple.”

This is unforgivable. Jayalalitha and her cadres were inflamed. Even Mani’s wife didn’t agree. Mani thinks they have no sense of humor.

Mani was ungodly, impetuous and unorthodox, but with a brilliant mind, with verbal fanaticism and gab gifts, thus attracting the anger of Sonia Gandhi, who he called him a “loose cannon”. Discretion is not one of his virtues, and he shares a trait with his party Supreme Rahul Gandhi, who was convicted of slandering Modi. Mani’s two personal attacks on Narendra Modi detailed and refuted him, resulting in him being party for eight months. What Mani didn’t get is that Rahul was the crown prince and could get rid of it, not Mani.

Mani shows some huge obsessions throughout the book: Gandhi family, secularism and Nehruvian socialism, RSS and Modi, Panchayati Raj and Pakistan, what he calls a “magnificent obsession.”

He quoted Rajiv Gandhi, whom he worshiped, “Semitic India alone can survive. Perhaps an India where non-semite India should not survive.’’

Panchayati Raj and transferring power and funds to the village level was his idea of ​​evangelical enthusiasm, as the magic potion lifted rural Indians out of poverty. He served as India’s first ever Cabinet Minister of Panchayati Raj Trade Union at UPA-1. He led a committee and produced 1800 pages of Tome, an encyclopedia Panchayatica during UPA-2. Sadly, it never aroused the imagination of Manmohan Singh government or subsequent governments, which later governments would focus on large projects in industries, highways and IT. Panchayati Raj may be the legacy of Mani’s descendants if you re-interest in this spa

He spoke of interacting with Pakistan at every opportunity to open the way for peace and mutual cooperation. He made a subtle distinction between governments, military and ISIs, which encourage cross-border terrorism, as well as people who share common race, heritage and culture with India, are their kits and relatives. He worked tirelessly to reveal the futility of each other being subjected to the blood of religious hatred and fanatical nationalist anger. He failed, but never gave up.

The Gandhi family established and untied him. When he was inspired by Rajiv Gandhi, he gave him a ticket to a contest in the Tamilnadu constituency, who was elected to parliament only after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Mani entered Lok Sabha during Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s reign and won three Lok Sabha elections, was elevated to a cabinet post and owned four portfolios. He then tasted the defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha election but still received the award for the Rajya Sabha seat in 2010. However, Sonia Gandhi sent him to the ranch. Over the years, as Congress declined and collapsed, the power centers moved from Sonia to Rahul. Mani was eliminated, trying to meet Sonia, and was ignored. When he was appointed with Rahul who had never been awarded, he felt crushed and shouted out Rahul treated him like a “political leprosy”.

His wife, Suneet, was furious and lashed out at him, unable to see him cringing in front of the Gandhi family. “Do you have no self-esteem? …Don’t you see you being discarded like dirty tissue?” Sadly, Mani was in trouble with the Gandhi Family and continued to try to get in touch with them, begging for recognition and reward for their loyalty and talent.

Despite these failures, this book has great value. Mani reveals the warts and the mirror for everyone with a totally candid sense of humor and self-deprecating humor.

His achievements in the Ministry of Sports and North-North concealed his vulnerability. He served as ministerial committee on the Oil Ministry, proposed a white paper through R and D to increase production and carried out comprehensive reforms to make India’s energy self-sufficient, a groundbreaking effort that was once again hit by vested corporate interests.

The questions raised in Mani’s book – chaos of democracy and authoritarianism and nepotism, also reigned during the UPA – as he was unceremoniously separated from his oil portfolio, religion and caste were divided and violently suffered from community conflicts, without job creation, global behavior, and globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, globally, and globally, and these are increasingly dealing with these issues.

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