PANDORA'S DAUGHTERS
Kalyani Shankar
Bloomsbury India
300 pages; Rs 499
In late 1984, Congress leader Uma Shankar Dikshit told his daughter-in-law Sheila Dikshit that Rajiv Gandhi wanted her to contest the Lok Sabha elections. "I was surprised since I did not even know what a polling booth was. But my husband and my father-in-law were very keen, so I said okay," recounts Ms Dikshit in Kalyani Shankar's book, Pandora's Daughters. For a woman whose family had been in politics for years to say that at the age of 46, when the offer to enter politics was made to her, she had no idea what a polling booth was is preposterous.
In those elections, which followed Indira Gandhi's assassination, Ms Dikshit won, even though she did not make any "stirring speeches". The atmosphere was such that "even a lamppost would have won at that time because of the circumstances," says Mani Shankar Aiyar elsewhere in the book to explain another victory - that of a "young shrieking" Mamata Banerjee over CPI(M) veteran Somnath Chatterjee in Jadavpur (West Bengal). From here, Ms Shankar follows the journey of a politically raw Ms Dikshit into the powerful and demanding Prime Minister's Office and then to her becoming a three-term chief minister of Delhi, one who has "taken more credit than was due because of her ability to manipulate the media".
Now does this political journey of hers, launched and sustained by the Gandhi family, qualify Ms Dikshit as "Pandora's daughter"? In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on earth, created out of clay by the gods. We have plenty of "Pandoras" in Indian politics, created by the "gods" - the men in their family.
But it is Pandora's daughter who is in question here. She was the lone woman to have survived the Great Deluge and to have re-populated the earth. If we interpret "surviving the Great Deluge" as standing out in the flood of men dominating the political scene, then perhaps we can call Ms Dikshit "Pandora's daughter". As we can the other women who find space in Ms Shankar's book on powerful women politicians - Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Jayalalithaa, Mehbooba Mufti and, to a small extent, Pratibha Patil.
But if we were to look at the second, and the more important, role that Pandora's daughter played - to re-populate the earth or, as can be interpreted in this context, to reinvent the politics of our time - then only two women will truly qualify to be here: Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati.
Pandora's Daughters is a crash course in the political lives of eight significant women politicians, one of whom, Sonia Gandhi, dominates one-fifth of the 300-page book. But hers is a story we have read all too often. It is her mind that we would want to read. Ms Shankar, however, like everybody else, is unable to venture into it with much success. It's only after about 90 pages that the book gets interesting and has some new nuggets to offer.
Ms Shankar is an experienced reporter and has closely followed the political beginnings and rise of her subjects, and this shows in her book. Through personal interviews with politicians, their supporters, detractors and independent observers, and her own experiences of events as a reporter, she brings out some interesting facets of their lives and their politics. The point at which Ms Banerjee's dislike of the Left turned into bitter hatred and the root of Mayawati's distrust of the Samajwadi Party are some examples.
One particular incident involving Pratibha Patil sheds light on the tricky negotiations required of a woman politician to meet the demands of family and politics - one of the reasons we don't see too many women in politics. One day, fed up after a quarrel with her husband, Ms Patil handed in her resignation to the then chief minister Vasantrao Naik. Besides being a deputy minister in Naik's government, she was at the time also a young mother. Had Naik not called the husband and wife and mediated a compromise, Ms Patil may not have been around in politics long enough to become president.
The nuances of the battles to outdo one another are also captured well. There is an interesting anecdote about the day Ms Banerjee was to register her party, Trinamool Congress, with the Election Commission. It was the last day of registration. But Ms Gandhi was pressuring her not to launch the party and went to the extent of trying to delay her with a meeting so that she would miss the deadline. Ms Banerjee, however, proved to be too smart to be taken in.
The most interesting bits, however, come from the leaked United States embassy cables, sprinkled through the book and which insightfully capture the personalities and politics of the eight women. For example, how Ms Banerjee forced the CPI(M) to retreat on Singur and Nandigram by "projecting herself to be more left than Left". And how, by becoming chief minister for the fourth time, Mayawati "hastened the decline of Hindutva" and the Bharatiya Janata Party on the national level.
Ms Shankar has tried, but 300 pages are not enough to accommodate all eight politicians. And this constraint shows in the gaps that remain as the author tries to touch on every significant milestone achieved by her subjects. It would perhaps have been wiser to focus on fewer politicians. And it would certainly have been wiser to resist the temptation of describing both Ms Dikshit and Ms Patil as the "granny next door" and Ms Banerjee as the "girl next door".
Kalyani Shankar
Bloomsbury India
300 pages; Rs 499
In late 1984, Congress leader Uma Shankar Dikshit told his daughter-in-law Sheila Dikshit that Rajiv Gandhi wanted her to contest the Lok Sabha elections. "I was surprised since I did not even know what a polling booth was. But my husband and my father-in-law were very keen, so I said okay," recounts Ms Dikshit in Kalyani Shankar's book, Pandora's Daughters. For a woman whose family had been in politics for years to say that at the age of 46, when the offer to enter politics was made to her, she had no idea what a polling booth was is preposterous.
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Now does this political journey of hers, launched and sustained by the Gandhi family, qualify Ms Dikshit as "Pandora's daughter"? In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on earth, created out of clay by the gods. We have plenty of "Pandoras" in Indian politics, created by the "gods" - the men in their family.
But it is Pandora's daughter who is in question here. She was the lone woman to have survived the Great Deluge and to have re-populated the earth. If we interpret "surviving the Great Deluge" as standing out in the flood of men dominating the political scene, then perhaps we can call Ms Dikshit "Pandora's daughter". As we can the other women who find space in Ms Shankar's book on powerful women politicians - Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Jayalalithaa, Mehbooba Mufti and, to a small extent, Pratibha Patil.
But if we were to look at the second, and the more important, role that Pandora's daughter played - to re-populate the earth or, as can be interpreted in this context, to reinvent the politics of our time - then only two women will truly qualify to be here: Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati.
Pandora's Daughters is a crash course in the political lives of eight significant women politicians, one of whom, Sonia Gandhi, dominates one-fifth of the 300-page book. But hers is a story we have read all too often. It is her mind that we would want to read. Ms Shankar, however, like everybody else, is unable to venture into it with much success. It's only after about 90 pages that the book gets interesting and has some new nuggets to offer.
Ms Shankar is an experienced reporter and has closely followed the political beginnings and rise of her subjects, and this shows in her book. Through personal interviews with politicians, their supporters, detractors and independent observers, and her own experiences of events as a reporter, she brings out some interesting facets of their lives and their politics. The point at which Ms Banerjee's dislike of the Left turned into bitter hatred and the root of Mayawati's distrust of the Samajwadi Party are some examples.
One particular incident involving Pratibha Patil sheds light on the tricky negotiations required of a woman politician to meet the demands of family and politics - one of the reasons we don't see too many women in politics. One day, fed up after a quarrel with her husband, Ms Patil handed in her resignation to the then chief minister Vasantrao Naik. Besides being a deputy minister in Naik's government, she was at the time also a young mother. Had Naik not called the husband and wife and mediated a compromise, Ms Patil may not have been around in politics long enough to become president.
The nuances of the battles to outdo one another are also captured well. There is an interesting anecdote about the day Ms Banerjee was to register her party, Trinamool Congress, with the Election Commission. It was the last day of registration. But Ms Gandhi was pressuring her not to launch the party and went to the extent of trying to delay her with a meeting so that she would miss the deadline. Ms Banerjee, however, proved to be too smart to be taken in.
The most interesting bits, however, come from the leaked United States embassy cables, sprinkled through the book and which insightfully capture the personalities and politics of the eight women. For example, how Ms Banerjee forced the CPI(M) to retreat on Singur and Nandigram by "projecting herself to be more left than Left". And how, by becoming chief minister for the fourth time, Mayawati "hastened the decline of Hindutva" and the Bharatiya Janata Party on the national level.
Ms Shankar has tried, but 300 pages are not enough to accommodate all eight politicians. And this constraint shows in the gaps that remain as the author tries to touch on every significant milestone achieved by her subjects. It would perhaps have been wiser to focus on fewer politicians. And it would certainly have been wiser to resist the temptation of describing both Ms Dikshit and Ms Patil as the "granny next door" and Ms Banerjee as the "girl next door".