THE INSIDER: A Critical Assessment
Dr. B. Parvathi
That a hectic public life is no hindrance to
creativity is amply proved by the Polyglot, Scholar, Jnaan Peeth Awardee and
the former Prime Minister of India, Sri P. V. Narasimha Rao in his book The
Insider. His unique achievement has been the successful fictionalizing of
Pre-Independence and Post-Independence Indian politics in high places. This
heavy book of 833 pages of semi-autobiography and fictionalized politics is a
significant contribution to Indian English Writing in general and the political
novel in particular. The difference between other political novels like A
Strom in Chandigarh and A Situation in New Delhi of Nayantara Sahgal
and The Insider is that while the former delve into human stories rooted
in political events, politics forms the very core of this novel. It is not only
a rich addition to the political novel in Indian English but stands first among
the existing ones.
The Insider is a record of the intelligent and idealistic
Anand’s life from the days of Bhagat Singh to the assassination of Indira
Gandhi. It is also the obverse of a nation’s story about its ruling political
party, a record of the immediate past of India and its current history, for
whose future many sacrificed their lives the fruits of which are gathered by
undeserving, vily, cunning and scheming power-hungry politicians. The
description of the cause and effect of pursuit of political power in The
Insider is graphic.
Here Sri P. V. Narasimha Rao searches for the
factors which hindered the nation’s progress as desired and planned by the
leaders after the British left India, and exploited the innocence and trust of
a people who believed in the reality of a heavenly India. He shows that the
attempts at nation building are thwarted more by self-seeking, power-mongering
politicians than by poverty or illiteracy. He makes a very pertinent
observation that “persons and designations changed but the relation between the
ruler and the ruled persisted in a different form”. He also sees through the
veneer of political ideology and service which draws from him the observation
that the “ideal of state employing power judiciously to support the
disempowered and protect and assist the weak” is lost in the game for power
“where people figured nowhere in the high drama of politics”. He adds elsewhere in the book that almost all developments
in the political field could be traced to a clash or egos.
Post-Independence Indian history is
synonymous with the History of the Congress Party which ruled the country
continuously from 1947 to 1977. Sri P.V. Narasimha Rao traces this
consanguineous history and relationship with objectivity and concern.
Difference of opinion resulted in splitting of the party while unabashed
opportunism among the members resulted in its general weakening. The former
Prime Minister’s assessment of his party and party men in this book is critical
and comprehensive. With the mediocre and selfish drifting into politics by
design how ideological goals have dwindled into efforts to grab and hold power
by any means is illustrated in the characters of Mahendranath and Chaudhuri.
Even though an ardent admirer of Nehru, Anand the protagonist is anguished and
angry with the giant who did not envision a suitable leadership for the country
after his term and in his absence. He is conscious of opportunists who
clustered around power centres like Nehru or Indira Gandhi being detrimental
not only to the party but also to the country. As Sri Rao observes such men are
interested in retaining power without assuming responsibility. Hence, men in
the party speak much rhetoric with out effecting any change and make claims
without showing results.
The Insider is also a lucid history of the young state
which faced the Chinese aggression in 1962, war with Pakistan in 1965, refugees
from East Pakistan and witnessed the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. It is also a
clear document on the reasons which gave rise to these events, and others like
the Kashmir issue, linguistic reorganization of Indian states, anti-Hindi
movement, nationalization of banks, the spell cast by the two words ‘garibi
hatao’ and land reforms. In The Insider Sri P. V. Narasimha Rao makes an
appraisal of the general degradation of journalistic standard where
sensationalism replaced reportage. He writes not without a touch of humour that
“......to a journalist, a compelling headline was much more valuable than the
head of his best friend”. He also examines the reasons for slackness in the
public sector.
No work of fiction can be complete without a
web of human relationships. The scope of the book throws light on the
artificiality of fleeting, need-bound relationships in political life. However,
the complexities of personal relationships within and outside family are also
drawn. It must be stated that though these are scanty, they are insightful as
in the case of Aruna and her brothers. The novel abounds in very memorable and
insightful lines such as the terrible unarticulated tensions in a Hindu family,
“the fall of a friend or foe, a brilliant one, gives rise to a subtle ripple of
joy in many human hearts”, “politics is a male dominated hell-hole where men
are lecherous”, “people worship the stone god who eats or drinks and the sadhu
who doesn’t, why not respect the natural?” etc.
The criminalization of politics is an
important issue discussed here in the character of Shekhar. In spite of his
limitless ambition, opportunism, trickery and villainy. Shekher appears to be
closest to the writer’s heart, like Milton’s Satan. In Shekhar is the instance
of a high intelligence twisted due to familial and social deprivation. His
intelligence and efficiency initially take him to the underworld enroute to
political power. Shekar, the ‘Vakrabuddhi’ in spite of his power, as a deprived
individual harbours, not without reason, fantasies of revenge and annihilation
of a society that would never grant him status or respect. His observation that
leaders just keep talking of a casteless society without believing a word of it
is significant for its reflection of human hypocrisy: Sri Rao’s portrayal of
not a ‘Shekhar Chaudhuri’ or a ‘Shekhar Gupta’ but of a ‘Shekhar Nothing’ is
tinged with deep sympathy.
In this book the former Prime Minister holds
the bending of ideology to suit selfish, personal ends and the lowering of
ethical standards in political sphere responsible for a general and widespread
degeneration in public life. Reading The Insider is not an easy or
comfortable job considering its bulk and its central concerns. But it has what
a good book ought to have readability. It is the fictionalization and
contextualization of the Indian
situation. It does not matter if there are long sections on electoral process
or about nonalignment or Chinese
aggression - they read better than any book on civics or history. It lays intelligible a
number of bewildering issues in
the Indian political scene. For a book
of this volume and kind, in
spite of the four additional chapters and an Epilogue the conclusion to The
Insider appears sketchy and abrupt. I hope that its sequel will recompense The
Insider’s lapses.