Engaging ideas, picking best title for book

By K. Natwar Singh

MY autobiography One Life is Not Enough was published in August 2014. Its success came as a surprise to me and the publishers. We had beaten the expected target of selling 15,000 copies. Perhaps, the timing was propitious.

The book has been translated into Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali and Marathi. For some time, friends have been asking me if I am writing another book. My answer has been straight forward. I replied them that after the success of One Life is Not Enough, I felt that the next book could be a flop. That’s why I hesitated.

Over the months doubts began to recede. Last Sunday, I took the plunge. What should the book be about? The preliminary title is, ‘Mentors and Friends’. The mentors are Rabindranath Tagore, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Parmeshwar Narayan Haksar and Indira Gandhi. The friends are EM Forster, RK Narayan, Krishna Kripalani, Amaury de Riencourt and Han Suyin. Drawing the list was far from easy. 

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Last week, the death of Pakistani human rights lawyer and social activist Asma Jahangir attracted much attention in India. She was well known in Delhi and Mumbai. As a human rights crusader, Asma was admired and respected. For many, she was an inspiration. She had to fight all the way to make Pakistan aware of women’s rights. She was arrested During Zia-ul-Haq’s regime. On her release, she started where she left off.

In the last decade of her life, she became an international entity, particularly at the United Nations. Asma Jahangir sincerely felt that Pakistan should have cordial and good-neighbourly relations with India. This made some of her compatriots fume. She did not give up. That needed guts.

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What is common between Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Jacob Zuma of South Africa? Both resigned only when they faced impeachment. Mugabe misruled for 37 years and Zuma for nine. Zuma is still remains a member of the African National Congress (ANC). This is the party of Nelson Mandela, who could have ruled South Africa till his death in 2012. He refused a second term in 1999. In his case, it was auto-da-fe — an act of faith. 

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Finally, Nepal has a prime minister. KP Sharma Oli, 65, got a second term. Nepal needs a stable government and the one that does not collapse on account of squabbles among his partners in the coalition government. This has happened far too often in the past.

PM Oli has his work cut out. His foreign policy and diplomacy will take up much of his time. These will need uncommon adroitness. Oli has the reputation of being a Leftist, whatever that may mean in a post ideological and fractured world. Even China has shed its Maoist Marxism. It is now under the spell of Xi Jinping-ism. 

Oli flew to Beijing before choosing to come to India. One need not read too much into this, but in diplomacy, gestures are an indication. I have little doubt that the Nepalese leader will pay a little more attention to India, regardless of his ideological prejudices. Similarly, we too should go out of our way to make his task easier, keeping in mind his political inclinations. 

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The Maldives is no longer on the front page of newspapers. We did well not to undertake a military intervention.

Rajiv Gandhi got away with his diplomatic adventure in 1988 because China was then not a navigator in the troubled waters of the Maldives. Today, it is a major power in the area. The Maldives President unnecessarily burnt his fingers by his authoritarian functioning. Fortunately, the temperature has now cooled down. We, on our part, should be vigilant, not sanguine. 

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If RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat did not exist, it would not be necessary to invent him. His pronouncement that his outfit could do more for national security in three days than what the military would achieve in six months is uncalled-for. He has the reputation of a wise and sagacious individual, who normally uses his words carefully. Men of his stature cannot afford lapses of this kind.