The Disruptor

Title: The Disruptor – How Vishwanath Pratap Singh Shook India

Author: Debashish Mukerji

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2021 (First)

ISBN: 9789354894138

Pages: 542

 

Vishwanath Pratap Singh, popularly known as V. P. Singh, was a politician who changed the course of national politics through his serving office as India’s finance and defence ministers and then as its prime minister. VP is known for his untiring crusade against corruption and unflinching commitment to social justice. Though he has served in many capacities at the national level and in Uttar Pradesh state, in each of his last three positions – as finance and defence minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet and as prime minister in the subsequent Janata Dal government – his actions made lasting changes to the national political milieu. For a person who impacted Indian politics as profoundly as V P Singh, his posthumous neglect is a disgrace. Not even a postal stamp has been issued in his name, let alone a street or state-owned institution even in his native Prayagraj. On the occasion of Singh’s 90^th birth anniversary, this biography is an effort to redress the imbalance. Debashish Mukerji was a journalist for nearly 40 years, working with numerous reputed publications. He has written extensively on Uttar Pradesh and on national politics.

 

V P Singh is known for his fierce opposition to corruption and crony capitalism. But this streak in his character came to light only after the death of Indira Gandhi who was his mentor and benefactor. His entry into politics and subtle maneuvers to acquire positions of authority are typical of a career politician with no streaks of greatness in them. Belonging to a large zamindar family who enjoyed the privilege of prefixing the title ‘Raja’ to their names, he donated large tracts of land to Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s ‘Bhoodan’ movement with great fanfare that it looked like he was trying to muster political mileage out of it. He tried to join Congress in 1957, but was rebuffed by suspicious local leaders who feared the rajas would take over the party. Then he cultivated Lal Bahadur Shastri who also hailed from Prayagraj. In a public meeting in 1965, he dramatically cut his thumb with a razor blade and used the blood that trickled out to mark a tilak on the forehead of Shastri who was the prime minister then. Unfortunately, Shastri died a few weeks later at Tashkent and VP switched his loyalties to Indira Gandhi. He lobbied for a Rajya Sabha ticket but had to settle for a nomination in the UP assembly elections, that too after several backchannel negotiations. He bypassed all local leaders and went straight to Indira with the help of his brother Sant Bux Singh, who was an MP.

 

Then came an era in which Singh served Indira almost as a slave. Mukerji narrates the events with dispassionate objectivity. Singh entered Indira’s cabinet in the 1970s and continued to be loyal to her when she declared Emergency in 1975 and stifled the democratic process. He was a minister of state for commerce in the cabinet and stood solidly with Indira even after she was thrown out of power. His calculations proved right when she returned to power and he was made UP chief minister in 1980. His selection was literally out of the blue and his name had never figured in media speculation about the likely candidates. 250 out of the 309 MLAs had not even personally met him before he was made chief minister. VP spent 31 of his first 100 days as chief minister in Delhi, seeking prior sanction for all important decisions before announcing them. He extended his loyalty to Sanjay Gandhi too, the all-powerful younger son of Indira and called him an ‘avatar of Swami Vivekananda’ (p.147). After Sanjay’s untimely death in an air crash, Congressmen wanted his elder brother Rajiv at the helm. Showing his credentials as a sycophant, Singh appealed in a public meeting to give them Krishna, referring to the Mahabharata episode in which Pandavas opted for the services of an unarmed Krishna while the Kauravas settled for his well-trained army.

 

The author suggests that Rajiv Gandhi and V P Singh made an attempt to liberalize the Indian economy in their first budget in 1985. The Left protested and they quickly made a U-turn. The subsequent budgets firmly trod on the ‘socialist’ path until finally the economy verged on collapse and a new direction was shown by P V Narasimha Rao in 1991. However, Singh took on the industry with a vengeance that is rarely seen in a politician. His relentless struggle against the Reliance group is neatly catalogued in the book. The systematic raids by agencies rattled other industries as well, which seemed to proceed industry by industry like textile, real estate, jewelry, cigarettes and film production. The same business forums that had hailed his budget complained loudly, but VP replied that ‘he had only turned the ignition on and not yet started moving’. In his tenure as finance minister lasting two years, the country witnessed about 6000 raids with 100,000 premises searched and half a million people interrogated. He engaged a US investigative agency named Fairfax to spy on Reliance without proper security clearance and finally Rajiv transferred him to defence and then dismissed.

 

V P Singh is still hated by a section of the upper castes for introducing 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, drawing on the recommendations in the report of the second Backward Classes Commission chaired by Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal. They accuse him of taking this step at a time when even the OBCs were not vocally clamouring for it. Singh was in the midst of several crises threatening his government which reached the crescendo in August 1990 when he suddenly announced the reservation in government and public sector jobs. This book tells a different story in which the preparations had started right from Singh’s swearing in. The Janata Dal poll manifesto had declared that Mandal recommendations would be implemented if it was voted to power, but nobody took them seriously. Politicians Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan supervised the proceedings which were initiated by P S Krishnan who was a secretary in the social welfare ministry of the 1956 IAS cadre from Andhra Pradesh. Krishnan submitted a note on Mandal report to the cabinet on 1 May 1990, pointing out that enforcing it needed no parliamentary approval but a mere executive order. VP, as prime minister, wrote to all state chief ministers in June 1990, but only Bihar and Uttar Pradesh replied, promising their support. Singh’s deputy, Devi Lal, had raised the flag of revolt in the meantime seeking better prospects for his son Om Prakash Chautala. Lal was ousted from the party on 1 Aug 1990 and Mandal issue came up in the next day’s cabinet meeting. A meeting of the MPs of National Front was also held on 2 Aug in which the implementation was scheduled for 7 Aug. When parliament reconvened, Singh announced it in the Lok Sabha. The official notification was issued on 13 Aug 1990. Many parts of India witnessed violent protests against the measure including self-immolation. It is estimated that 152 people burnt themselves of which 63 died. But the government stood firm. The Supreme Court stayed the order initially, but upheld its validity after excluding the creamy layer among OBCs. 1200 backward castes common in the Mandal list and corresponding state lists were thus entitled to 27 per cent reservation in government jobs. It is to be remembered here that such jobs constitute only one per cent of the total jobs in the country, but they are better paid.

 

The book is a very good read. Mukerji has made sufficient background research to present the facts with a clear sense of direction. His style is immensely appealing that is comparable to renowned international works of this genre. The author examines his subject with sympathy and grace, but has never allowed his personal emotions to cloud his judgment. Whenever criticism is due, he doles it out in the required proportion. Though written after two decades of Singh’s demitting office, the book has been able to present the narrative as something fresh out of the political arena.

 

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star