Much to tell

Through the Corridors of Power — An Insider’s Story
By P.C. Alexander, HarperCollins, Rs 500

By any yardstick, P.C. Alexander has had an extraordinary career as a civil servant. He was adviser, and more, to three prime ministers ? for two of them in an official capacity, and the third, P.V. Narasimha Rao, he helped install as prime minister. He served as India?s high commissioner to London, had varied stints in the United Nations and was appointed governor of two important states, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

The greater is the pity then that, having been frustrated in fulfilling what would have been the crowning achievement of his career ? a stint in Rashtrapati Bhavan ? he begins the tale of his career on a bitter note. For a man who obviously knew the art of man management, his inability to reconcile himself to one failure ? if it can be so described ? seems to have left a lasting scar. And it was certainly an anti-climax that he should have clutched at the straw of a Rajya Sabha seat, courtesy Sharad Pawar and the Shiv Sena?s Bal Thackeray, in his twilight years.

It is plain that Alexander cannot forgive the Congress (and, by implication, Sonia Gandhi) for setting up an insurmountable hurdle in the otherwise swift progress in his career advancement. In recounting this episode, he takes aim at Natwar Singh and, somewhat surprisingly, Brajesh Mishra, the national security advisor of prime minister A.B. Vajpayee, in what he views as a conspiracy. The former has already joined issue with him publicly while the latter has kept his peace for the moment. He is less than kind to K.R. Narayanan for delaying his announcement that he would not be a candidate for a second term in Rashtrapati Bhavan because it worked against Alexander?s chances.

Alexander was a witness to history in momentous times and was close to the eye of the storm during the ill-fated Operation Blue Star in the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the serial Bombay blasts, a major earthquake in his bailiwick, and the assassination of two prime ministers he had served, Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv. He has, therefore, much to tell the country and the world about the goings-on in the corridors of power.

The author has his own pantheon of heroes and villains. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv are clearly in the first category, while Natwar Singh has been relegated to the second. He had a tiff with Morarji Desai during the short-lived Janata Party rule and actually resigned from service. Nor does he have many kind words about V.P. Singh, who also had a brush with the country?s top executive post.

Alexander is selective in his account and opinions, not entirely for reasons of length. He skates over the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the Seventies and has surprisingly little by way of comment on the tempestuous days of Sanjay Gandhi and his contribution to the evolution of Indian politics. He does talk about Indira?s assistant and retainer, R.K. Dhawan, who was in the doghouse for a time after Indira?s assassination. It speaks volumes for the latter?s resilience that he has graduated to becoming a Congress leader in the meantime.

Alexander squarely blames the army in the persons of General A.S. Vaidya and the then lieutenant general, K. Sundarji, for botching up Operation Blue Star. It was these officers? decision, reluctantly accepted by the prime minister, that tactics be changed at the last minute to storm the temple, the Sikhs? holiest shrine, instead of laying siege to it. The army was inadequately informed of the strength of the insurgents? arsenal in the temple and the tragic consequences are now part of history. The author details at length the painstaking efforts made by Indira to resolve the crisis through negotiations. He again takes aim at General Sundarji on the less-than-glorious stint of the Indian peace-keeping force in Sri Lanka, suggesting that the latter had ?no clue? about the sophistication of the weapons in the Tamil Tigers? possession.

An obvious complication in tackling Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his supporters inside the Golden Temple was the presidency of Zail Singh, a former participant in Punjab politics and a keen follower of events there. Judging by Alexander?s account, relations between the president and prime minister were strained and the former was kept out of many crucial meetings on Punjab, obviously because of her feeling that his presence would complicate matters. In any event, the president was treated in a cavalier fashion, a pattern repeated by Rajiv after succeeding his mother.

There are some interesting vignettes of the workings of the government at the Centre and in the states ? for instance, Indira?s doodles during official meetings that did not engage her fully and her habit of passing on notes to her advisers. At one stage, in May 1982, Alexander quotes her as saying that she would like to resign and opt for the post of president. There is a description of the traditional ?mother-in-law versus son?s-wife? drama, the staple of Indian soap operas, in the estrangement of Maneka from Indira, which was embarrassingly played out in public. But Alexander chooses not to mention Maneka?s revenge in joining the opposition and being duly rewarded, or the going over to the Bharatiya Janata Party of Varun Gandhi.

Alas, such asides are few and far between. One delicious morsel is Indira?s sudden departure for Srinagar one day to see chinar trees shed their leaves. The two flaws of Alexander?s account are style and the self-esteem that he wears on his sleeves. The pedestrian style of writing is often reminiscent of notings in official files in the true tradition of the babu. Besides, the reader could have been spared the laundry list he gives of the bureaucrat?s daily chores. And the high opinion Alexander has of his abilities and probity ? often quoting his seniors? commendation and press comments ? tends to grate on the reader.

It is time our bureaucrats and politicians emulated the Western model of writing memoirs ? or other books ? by employing professional writers. A good co-author would have boiled this account down to half its length, and edited out the less-than-gripping passages detailing an administrator?s routine tasks. Despite its drawbacks, the volume is assured of a big audience because the author held important positions in interesting times. But a professional could have turned it into a bestseller for the lay reader.