| This gem of an anecdote appears in one of the 53 essays that Ashok Mitra wrote between February 1986 and August 1993 and are now included in the book under review. The years are significant. This period represents an interregnum after the author quit the West Bengal government as its finance minister and before he became a member of the Rajya Sabha, which gave him the freedom to reflect on issues and personalities without the obligations usually imposed on a writer when he occupies a political position. |
| These were also the years when corruption in high places snowballed into an explosive issue as allegations over the payment of kickback in the Bofors gun deal rocked the Rajiv Gandhi government. At around the same time, the Indian economy too went through its worst crisis, forcing the government at the Centre to implement a bold package of economic reforms with some degree of success, much to the author's discomfort. |
| No doubt, Ashok Mitra's essays in this book touch upon issues of corruption and the economic reforms package. There can be no prizes, though, for guessing their general tone. His fulminations over the corrupt ways of all political parties (barring of course the Left) and disenchantment with the pursuit of economic reforms constitute the running theme of most of these essays. This, of course, is no surprise and hence should not be the primary reason why one should read this book. |
| What makes the book special and a pleasurable read are a few essays that deal with his assessment of well-known contemporary individuals. One of those essays is on Sachin Chaudhuri, who had founded what later came to be known as the Economic and Political Weekly, and who much later became India's finance minister to earn the dubious distinction of having devalued the Indian rupee against the dollar in 1966. |
| Dr Mitra had to deal with many politicians, intellectuals and celebrities in his long and distinguished career as a political activist, essayist and an advisor to Indira Gandhi in her first stint as prime minister (the last fact is rarely publicised for obvious reasons). But only a few of them has come in for unqualified praise from him. Sachin Chaudhuri is certainly one of them. |
| The other person is Snehangshu Acharyya, a Leftist who became the advocate general of the West Bengal government. So enamoured the author is of him that he describes Acharyya as the true renaissance man, who gave away all his assets that he inherited as a member of the royal family of Mymensingh to, who else, the communist party. This was the hallmark of a true renaissance man, making atonement for the sins of oppression and exploitation committed by generations before him, the author argues. In the process, several stalwarts of the Bengal renaissance like Rabindranath Tagore and Jagadish Chandra Bose get rubbished a little. But then that is what Ashok Mitra is all about "" highly subjective, unconventional, passionate and often emotional. Manmohan Singh also comes in for attack more than once. |
| You may not always agree with the author on all his views and assessments. But he argues his points in brilliant prose. Even when he is not arguing a point, his language sets him apart as a great writer. Consider this. In his essay on Raj Thapar's terminal illness in April 1987, he writes: "she mocked at the apparition of death, asked it not to be proud...But now it was April, the cruel month, and things were falling apart in the nation's capital." |
| It is a pity that such a book has no index or an appendix to introduce to the readers the various individuals referred to in these essays. Hopefully, the publisher will keep this in mind while bringing out the second edition of this book. |
| THE STARKNESS OF IT |
| Ashok Mitra Roli Books 350 pages. Rs 295 |
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