My Country:My Life

Sometimes to make partisan judgements and to understand the fact of matter we have to make an extra effort to circumvent the existing calumny. I followed the same rule when I began to read the voluminous autobiography of L.K.Advani “My country, My life”.  Reading the book has been a pleasant walk into the Indian political history right from the early independence days to the year 2008.

After reading his autobiography, my respect towards politicians of early independence days has increased. They fought for a purpose and strived a lot to achieve something for the country, for the cause of nation. They were highly duty bound and were willing to sacrifice anything for principles and ideals. Sadly, this sense of respect and commitment towards an ideology is gravely missing in the new genre. The first generation of the politicians of independent India were supposedly the last generation of freedom fighters. They had a distinct vision about free India and were very enthusiastic towards the progress of the country. Though some of these leaders parted ways immediately after the first general elections due to ideological differences, they vigorously strived for the betterment of people. Hence they formed different political parties to give a voice to their principles. These parties later emerged as viable alternative to the oldest political party.

The octogenarian did a great job by dividing his entire life experiences into five different chapters. Some of the prominent past events were narrated in excruciating detail. Especially the declaration of emergency and then the sequence of events that soon followed were very well described. During emergency the press releases were highly censored and its freedom was totally curtailed. Hence authentic information of the events that happened during that period was less reported. The available reports on the other hand, don’t seem to give a comprehensive and unbiased account of the most trying period of India. Hence the repercussions and the outcomes of the emergency were least understood. The official records of those periods were highly classified. Hence the writings of these leaders are of great significance.

This book has chronicled all the important events of past 50 years hence it is a good read for enthusiastic young readers who want to know about the post-partition period and its immediate implications on both the nations.  Further, a detailed account of the audacious judgements made by the politicians at that time resulting  in the tumultuous neighbourhood has been provided.

The book offers a deep insight about the strengths and weakness of Advani. Clearly, his true mettle is reflected in his writings. His strong convictions and assertions perhaps made him to be categorised as Hindu extremist. But after reading the book we are forced to change our opinion and wish to call him a moderate and true Hindu. Since communal politics played and still continues to play a major role in changing the power dynamics, he tries to explain the meaning of word “Secularism”, its relevance, implications and its contextual inclusion in the preamble of Indian Constitution. It is sad but true that Indian politics are still dominated by the communal affiliations.  Perhaps this recently added feather of Secularism (through an amendment in 1975) to the preamble is creating and trying to exacerbate the religious differences.

 

Advani has been the most condemned leader of the present generation after the illustrious Narendra Modi for several implicit reasons. He has mentioned about all the three major controversies that has tested his character- his alleged, association/involvement during the Babri Masjid demolition, the Hawala case, the comments about Late Mohammed Ali Jinnah on his trip to Pakistan (with reference to his address in the constituent Assembly in the year 1947, which indicated his vision of present Pakistan to be a secular state).

He has attributed that his association with RSS during his early childhood days and as a youngster the lectures of Swami Ranganadananda have been influential in moulding his character. They have indeed helped him to hear to his inner call.  Patriotic spirit and service to nation were firmly instilled and rooted in his mind at an early age.

 

This book is like a compendium giving a elucidate information about both the internal and external threats. All the major issues/problems were described in great detail, further their implications and measures for immediate reprisal are explained.  Most of my doubts and misunderstandings have been clarified.  His party has been castigated widely for extremist views about religion and he was ostracised for being so vocal about Hindutva. But all the apprehensions have been satisfactorily answered. Though I don’t totally concur with his opinions on various issues, an assertive view point about each of these issues is convincing. As an erudite politician he has made every attempt to put forth all the historical events without any bias. He hasn’t missed any opportunity to trumpet out contributions made by his party during six years of NDA government in the book.

The character of a person can be judged by the way he carries himself during the dark phases of life. Throughout his political career spanning more than five decades he has emerged out as a tough and uncompromising person. I reckon him as one of the stalwarts of India politics.

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