The paradoxical politician

From a nondescript village called Ibrahimpatti in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh to the highest seat of power in Delhi, Chandra Shekhar’s life was extraordinary by any standards. A legend in his lifetime, he embodied many contradictions: a loner who had many friends cutting across party and ideological lines and a socialist who had many capitalists as friends. It would not be wrong to describe him as the first rank outsider in Lutyens’ power clique.

The rise of Chandra Shekhar (1927-2007) was coterminous with the most turbulent phase of post-independent Indian politics. The biographical account of this unique leader penned by Harivansh, the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha and one-time a colleague of Chandra Shekhar, and Ravi Dutt Bajpai, a scholar on India, offers a riveting, insider’s view of that phase.

Mr Harivansh, who belongs to Sitabdiara village, close to Chandra Shekhar’s Ibrahimpatti, is well qualified to write this biography for many reasons. The most important among them is his access, first as a journalist and later as a confidant, to the former prime minister. Given his socialist background and close association, he may not be as clinically critical of the politician’s life as he is expected to be. But Mr Harivansh makes it clear at the start that the book aims to bring out the untouched and humane aspects of Chandra Shekhar’s life.

The authors have succeeded in that effort. One anecdote — Chandra Shekhar’s first conversation with Indira Gandhi, daughter of prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru — is instructive. When Indira Gandhi asked why he chose to join the Congress after working with the Praja Socialist Party (PSP), he said that as a committed socialist, he wanted to steer the Congress towards socialism. And if this objective was not achieved, he went on, “I will endeavour to break the party, for I believe that unless the Congress is fragmented, no new kind of politics can emerge in the country.” Indira Gandhi looked at him in astonishment, but in today’s context, those words were prophetic.

But that encounter was vintage Chandra Shekhar; he did not hesitate to speak his mind even in the most adverse circumstances. He ticked off his senior and most adored ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia when the latter came to Ballia to attend a political function. Whether Nehru, Lohia or Indira, Chandra Shekhar could not be cowed by the force of personality and circumstance. That is why former President Pranab Mukherjee in the first volume of his autobiography recalled Chandra Shekhar as one of the “most outstanding leaders” who did not get the appreciation he deserved.

Mr Harivansh has justifiably tried to correct this historical wrong. One of the many facets of Chandra Shekhar’s personality includes contrarian views that went against the popular will. His stance on Indira Gandhi’s decision to launch Operation Blue Star in the Golden Temple in 1984 was one such and it made him quite unpopular. He steadfastly opposed the army action, arguing that anyone conversant with the history of Sikhism would know that such an action would entail a heavy social cost. He was proved right when Indira Gandhi was assassinated a few months later by her own Sikh security guards. 

Much before the Punjab problem reared its head, Chandra Shekhar did not hesitate to show his rebellious streak even against Indira Gandhi while he was in the Congress. He openly sided with redoubtable Jayaprakash Narayan and came out with the pearl of earthy wisdom —“Vinash kale vipareet buddhi (wisdom leaves you at the time of ruin)” — when she arrested JP. In turn, he, too, was arrested and jailed until the Emergency was lifted. Chandra Shekhar chose incarceration over compromise and suffered for it.

Chandra Shekhar’s powerful personality exists now only in the margins of people’s memory. In the late eighties, he was seen as a leader who was not inclined to cede ground to V P Singh who had emerged as the chief crusader against corruption. He felt cheated when he was upstaged by a conspiring Singh and Devi Lal in choosing the prime minister after the 1989 election that saw the Janata Dal emerge victorious. Singh, however, did not last long because the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew support following the arrest of L K Advani in October 1990. So it was in turbulent circumstances that Chandra Shekhar took over as prime minister on November 10, 1990. At that point, the social fissures were wide open on account of the politics of Mandir (the Ram Janmabhoomi) and Mandal (the OBC reservation in education and jobs), and the new prime minister had no track record as an administrator either. 

Despite the challenges, as the book explains, Chandra Shekhar made a good beginning that raised the hackles of the coterie around Rajiv Gandhi who soon began breathing down his neck. Chandra Shekhar strove for the solution to the Ayodhya dispute and was close to resolving it, according to the book. Similarly, he was bequeathed with an economy tottering on the brink of bankruptcy. According to the book, even at the risk of unpopularity, Chandra Shekhar allowed the mortgaging of sovereign gold in order not to default on the country’s international debt repayment obligations. When he signed the order, he knew his days in politics were numbered.

Messrs Harivansh and Bajpai have uncovered many vignettes that throw light on the life of a man who earned immense respect among his peers though he was marginalised towards the end of his life. Paradoxes defined Chandra Shekhar. This book, an effort to unravel that political enigma of our time, is a laudable endeavour even if it borders on hagiography.

Chandra Shekhar: The Last Icon of Ideological Politics

Harivansh & Ravi Dutt Bajpai

Rupa Publications, 324 pages, Rs 595