ON MY TERMS
From the Grassroots to the Corridors of Power
Sharad Pawar
Speaking Tiger
312 pages; Rs 699
Nothing Mr Pawar ever does is apolitical: On My Terms is a strong political statement, coming as it does just ahead of the opening act of the drama that will be the election to the post of president of India. His birthday celebrations in December, 2015 his 75th in a culture that has a tradition of celebrating the 14th, the 60th and possibly the 80th but not really the 75th was also to remind everyone of his stellar role in Indian politics. Everyone cutting across party lines came to his Vigyan Bhavan birthday party: so much so that Sonia Gandhi, who had earlier sent her regrets, changed her mind and attended.
She could not have read the book: Mr Pawar describes the circumstances in which the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was formed. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) met in 1999 after the ouster of Sitaram Kesri as party president. It was to decide on Sonia Gandhi as president of the party, but the issue of her foreign origins was uppermost in everyones mind. Mr Pawar spoke his mind. The way he tells it, he said at the CWC: The people of India will not forget that the Gandhi family has contributed a lot to this country. Therefore, we shall be able to counter effectively the Oppositions campaign against Soniajis foreign origins We must meet the Opposition head on. But it will be our gross mistake to presume that the Opposition will not campaign on the foreigner issue.
Okayyy
Little wonder, then, that Mr Pawar found the Congress party hostile to him and writes the police advised us [him and his colleagues] against going anywhere close to the party office as there was a possibility of physical assault on us. Soon after the CWC meeting, he wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi to take the political initiative of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of India that the offices of the president, vice-president and prime minister could only be held by natural-born Indian citizens.
Within days the group was suspended from the Congress. Mr Pawar and others decided to form a new party that would promote the original Congress ideology and ethos. Exactly what that was the leaders obviously made up as they went along because within months the same Congress party and NCP had a power-sharing arrangement in Maharashtra. As Mr Pawar was now a free agent, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who became prime minister in 1999, made him vice-chairman of the National Committee on Disaster Management with the rank of Cabinet minister. A Congress leader commented, half-enviously, to this reviewer at the time: Paanchon ungliyan ghee mein, sar karhai mein (which roughly means that he had the best of all worlds).
This is not to deny the administrative and political acumen of a man who always won even when his team lost and was ever generous to adversaries and rivals, never betraying a trace of vindictiveness. The people he admired were also the people who taught him his political values Jawaharlal Nehru, Y B Chavan, Mr Vajpayee, Chandra Shekhar, to name a few.
The most remarkable thing about Mr Pawar is his sense of balance. Some would call it opportunism, others would say it is political equivocation. However, his refusal to get blown off his feet when everyone else was staggering about in the throes of white-hot passion, whether on caste reservations or the Babri Masjid demolition, is the great hallmark of his leadership. His assessment of people is unerring: which is why he always knew how to get the best out of them, even when he sensed they were not on his side.
His tenures as chief minister of Maharashtra and as Union agriculture and defence minister had their share of controversy. That is to be expected. The then army chief, S F Rodrigues, told a newspaper in an interview in 1992, that the Army should have a role in governance because things were very bad in the P V Narasimha Rao government. This created a storm in Parliament. As defence minister, Mr Pawar saved the situation by making a statement that, Army officers are not as clever as politicians in fielding questions from newspapers. Some remarks that could have gone in the Army language but need not have appeared in print were actually made by General Rodrigues and carried by the newspaper.
As agriculture minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, many questioned his decision to import wheat at prices higher than the Minimum Support Price (MSP) in 2007 when procurement was low. However, he was able to hold his own. He is the man who gave the cooperative movement in Maharashtra its pre-eminent political position.
The one aspect of his life that is hardly covered in this book is his interest in the politics of cricket. A sequel is needed. Mr Pawar is one of Indias most interesting and complex political personalities: they dont make them like him anymore.
From the Grassroots to the Corridors of Power
Sharad Pawar
Speaking Tiger
312 pages; Rs 699
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What can you say about a man who has never lost an election and has come close to becoming prime minister at least twice? That he must be both a genius and vastly resourceful, possessed of a ruthlessness of spirit and of flexible ideological persuasion? You would be describing Sharad Pawar, one of Maharashtras most beloved sons, mostly accurately.
Nothing Mr Pawar ever does is apolitical: On My Terms is a strong political statement, coming as it does just ahead of the opening act of the drama that will be the election to the post of president of India. His birthday celebrations in December, 2015 his 75th in a culture that has a tradition of celebrating the 14th, the 60th and possibly the 80th but not really the 75th was also to remind everyone of his stellar role in Indian politics. Everyone cutting across party lines came to his Vigyan Bhavan birthday party: so much so that Sonia Gandhi, who had earlier sent her regrets, changed her mind and attended.
She could not have read the book: Mr Pawar describes the circumstances in which the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was formed. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) met in 1999 after the ouster of Sitaram Kesri as party president. It was to decide on Sonia Gandhi as president of the party, but the issue of her foreign origins was uppermost in everyones mind. Mr Pawar spoke his mind. The way he tells it, he said at the CWC: The people of India will not forget that the Gandhi family has contributed a lot to this country. Therefore, we shall be able to counter effectively the Oppositions campaign against Soniajis foreign origins We must meet the Opposition head on. But it will be our gross mistake to presume that the Opposition will not campaign on the foreigner issue.
Okayyy
Little wonder, then, that Mr Pawar found the Congress party hostile to him and writes the police advised us [him and his colleagues] against going anywhere close to the party office as there was a possibility of physical assault on us. Soon after the CWC meeting, he wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi to take the political initiative of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of India that the offices of the president, vice-president and prime minister could only be held by natural-born Indian citizens.
Within days the group was suspended from the Congress. Mr Pawar and others decided to form a new party that would promote the original Congress ideology and ethos. Exactly what that was the leaders obviously made up as they went along because within months the same Congress party and NCP had a power-sharing arrangement in Maharashtra. As Mr Pawar was now a free agent, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who became prime minister in 1999, made him vice-chairman of the National Committee on Disaster Management with the rank of Cabinet minister. A Congress leader commented, half-enviously, to this reviewer at the time: Paanchon ungliyan ghee mein, sar karhai mein (which roughly means that he had the best of all worlds).
This is not to deny the administrative and political acumen of a man who always won even when his team lost and was ever generous to adversaries and rivals, never betraying a trace of vindictiveness. The people he admired were also the people who taught him his political values Jawaharlal Nehru, Y B Chavan, Mr Vajpayee, Chandra Shekhar, to name a few.
The most remarkable thing about Mr Pawar is his sense of balance. Some would call it opportunism, others would say it is political equivocation. However, his refusal to get blown off his feet when everyone else was staggering about in the throes of white-hot passion, whether on caste reservations or the Babri Masjid demolition, is the great hallmark of his leadership. His assessment of people is unerring: which is why he always knew how to get the best out of them, even when he sensed they were not on his side.
His tenures as chief minister of Maharashtra and as Union agriculture and defence minister had their share of controversy. That is to be expected. The then army chief, S F Rodrigues, told a newspaper in an interview in 1992, that the Army should have a role in governance because things were very bad in the P V Narasimha Rao government. This created a storm in Parliament. As defence minister, Mr Pawar saved the situation by making a statement that, Army officers are not as clever as politicians in fielding questions from newspapers. Some remarks that could have gone in the Army language but need not have appeared in print were actually made by General Rodrigues and carried by the newspaper.
As agriculture minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, many questioned his decision to import wheat at prices higher than the Minimum Support Price (MSP) in 2007 when procurement was low. However, he was able to hold his own. He is the man who gave the cooperative movement in Maharashtra its pre-eminent political position.
The one aspect of his life that is hardly covered in this book is his interest in the politics of cricket. A sequel is needed. Mr Pawar is one of Indias most interesting and complex political personalities: they dont make them like him anymore.