Self-seeking stilted pursuit

Sandeep Dikshit

Yashwant Sinha (YS) is identified as one among the trinity from within the BJP that emerged as the foremost critic of the Modi government during the second half of its first term. Arun Shourie and Shatrughan Sinha complete the trio. In terms of literary and societal accomplishments, YS would fall between the two. However, when measured in terms of personal advantage, he is heads and shoulders above Shourie and Sinha.

Consider this: YS was Principal Secretary to two Bihar CMs, sundry postings in the IAS, including a stint in Germany, PS to Cabinet Ministers, a Chandrashekhar acolyte, who became Finance Minister for a few months, crossed over to the BJP and became aligned to the Advani camp, a stint in the Rajya Sabha followed by Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, back in the Rajya Sabha, won Lok Sabha polls and became Finance Minister again. He was shifted to Ministry of External Affairs, lost in 2004 but won back the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seat in 2009. By then his marginalisation in the BJP had started. Yet, he managed to transfer his Lok Sabha seat to son Jayant, who had just landed from the US and found a berth in the Modi ministry 1.0 while father was still in the BJP fold.

The title of the book is Relentless and when the stilted prose of the book is considered along with the few insights into governance and machinations that an Indian politician’s biography provides, perhaps what YS is referring to is his capacity for hard work and to take momentary eclipses of political fortunes with good cheer.

There was nothing remarkable in the way he started out, as compared to a Arun Jaitley or a Kanhaiya Kumar whose instinct for political life was apparent from their student days. Like most middle-class children, YS was into clearing the civil services which he duly vaulted much like pole vault he would indulge in his youth.

Yet, for some unfathomable reason YS wanted to be in politics. He wanted to quit IAS after a few years but Jaiprakash Narain (JP) in 1968 advised him to reach a stage where he would not need public funds to run his household. That failing, JP — the conscience of the country at that time — reminded him invariably leads to corruption.  

YS remained undeterred. He joined JP’s iconic Patna Maidan rally in 1974 but escaped a censure from the government and was transferred to Delhi to serve under a Congress minister whose policies he had opposed during the rally. If there was someone pulling the strings, YS is not telling. The final disillusionment came in 1984 when he suspected Rajiv Gandhi had passed on his plans to break the DTC strike to union leader Lalit Maken. 

But it is rather surprising that a man, who had his political antenna out within four years of government service, provides no insight over the differences between the two Germanies or the great game that was played out between the superpowers during his stint in West Germany.

Brushing off an offer from a Shaman to be her second in command, YS quit the IAS and opted to be the aide de camp to Chandrashekhar instead. His first contact with electoral politics was a disaster in 1984, yet his perseverance with the Janata Parivar got him a Rajya Sabha ticket just a year before polls were held in 1989.

The elections produced a Janata Dal government but his mentor was sidelined. YS was offered Minister of State but he walked out of the swearing-in ceremony. The offer was upped to independent charge, yet he spurned it. If he knew the Congress had plans to split the party and offer power to Chandrashekhar’s rump, YS is not telling. Along the way Governorship of Punjab came his way, an executive post, since the state was under President’s rule, and duly rejected. When finally Chandrashekhar made it to South Block, YS hit the jackpot – he got the finance ministry. Why did he opt to be a part of a clearly immoral formation that came to power with just 50-odd MPs? YS’ explanation is that Rajiv Gandhi pulled down the government because he feared Chandrashekhar would: a. Solve the Punjab problem; b. Untangle the Ram Mandir knot; and c. Improve India’s ties with Pakistan. Either he is economical with facts again or delusional. 

His account of the stormy and conspiracy-ridden Janata Dal days does not go beyond what has been already chronicled but YS does settles the argument that it was Kamandal (Ram Mandir) that came before Mandal (OBC reservations). 

Meanwhile, out of power, he found himself busy as a Rajya Sabha MP. Along the way he proved two Congress Finance Ministers were untruthful: Manmohan Singh in 1992 and Chidambaram later. YS claims to have accessed official records to assert Dr Singh lied to a Parliamentary committee on reappointing MJ Pherwani as UTI chief while Chidambaram had to apologise for claiming in 2004 that he was the first to propose the abolishing of gift tax in 1997 when YS had done so a year later.

The latter showed that in addition to hard work, YS was sometimes ahead of the curve. This was proved repeatedly: suggested abolishing the Planning Commission in 1994, a full 20 years before Narendra Modi wielded the axe; had an eye on recruiting Raghuram Rajan nearly a decade before Dr Singh tapped his services; imposed a cess on petrol to finance road construction (Modi put a Rs 2 cess in 2019); and, amended the Companies Bill to make Corporate Social Responsibility mandatory. 

YS found himself at a dead-end after the Janata parivar fragmented and he duly crossed over to the BJP. The explanation is again quite weak. It seems what forced his hand was Lalu Prasad Yadav’s antipathy to him. But wasn’t it the same Lalu whose MLAs were primarily responsible for him, an unknown, winning the Rajya Sabha seat in 1988?

As Leader of Opposition in Bihar, YS showed he was not cut from the cynical cloth when he defused a Backward Caste retaliation for Laxmanpur Bathe massacre. Instead of allowing the murder of eight upper caste men to fester to the BJP’s advantage, YS played the lead role in ensuring the situation did not spiral out of control. 

The Communist Party of India intertwines his life from the infamous incident at Dumka in the 1960s where CPI stalwart and Irrigation Minister Chandrashekhar Singh (from Begusarai) had a shouting match with the young IAS Sinha that seems to have become a defining moment in his career. Yet, the same CPI leader opposed his transfer out of Bihar since he considered YS to be a meritorious officer. The CPI was then to thwart his ambition for a second win from Hazaribagh in 2004. Yet, there is no mention of the role and decline of the left parties in Bihar and later Jharkhand or the rise of Naxalism in Hazaribagh except in the passing. This correspondent has witnessed polls in which YS was a candidate being held under the shadow of armoured personal careers. Yet, no word on that as well. Perhaps his son's electoral prospects depend on not riling the Maoists. 

The Dumka incident compelled Karpoori Thakur to appoint YS as his principal secretary giving him a bird eye’s view and participation in Bihar politics. 

Meanwhile YS’ personal life was an uphill struggle. Yet, there is an unexplained moment: why did YS, who did not help his struggling son in the US, later beseech LK Advani for a Lok Sabha ticket for him in 2014? Obviously, politics is a much appealing profession for one who doesn’t rise from the grassroots. 

YS would have floundered in the backwaters of Bihar if the Hawala scandal had not happened. He emulated Advani by resigning from the Assembly and an early acquittal enabled him to contest from Hazaribagh after the BJP high command denied the ticket to the sitting party MP.

That got him the finance minister’s chair again and the epithet of Rollback Sinha. YS wonders why he was singled out when other finance ministers had also backtracked on many budgetary proposals? The explanation is simple. Because this was the first time the Congress-liberal crowd was truly in the opposition and the media aligned with it was cottoning on every slip to embarrass the BJP. Much like it hounded Narender Modi, fairly as well as unfairly, during his stint as Gujarat CM.

When the 13-month Vajpayee government fell, the Budget was passed without discussion, a first in the annals of Parliamentary politics. In more recent times, too, it was passed without discussion but this was the Modi era. If it was by consensus during the Vajpayee government, the Modi government rammed it through a protesting opposition. 

The difference in style of governance was manifest when he came across his Pakistani counterpart at a SAARC meeting when bilateral ties were going through their usual turbulent phase. On coming face to face with the Pakistani FM, YS said “Janab haath to mila liya jaye taki duniya yeh na soche ke hum common courtesy bhi nahi jante.” This was a departure from the current times when Sushma Swaraj was trolled for sitting next to the Pakistani foreign minister. Or when there was sustained disruption in Parliament by the Congress on a resolution on Iraq. After it had persisted, Vajpayee summoned Sushma and YS to sit down with the Congress leadership to prepare a draft acceptable to both sides.

YS might not have survived long if the BJP had not been anushashit (disciplined). From Venkaiah Naidu to Advani to Kailashpati Mishra, all rose to back him at difficult times. Yet conspiracies persisted. After the 1999 polls, his opponents advocated trifurcating the finance ministry to cut him to size. That was thwarted. Sushma Swaraj, too, was eyeing the portfolio after failing to lead the BJP to a win in Delhi polls. But, as YS says, she, at least, criticised him openly unlike a leader with a “mass base of four journalists” who later became the finance minister in the Modi era.

The only take-aways from his years as Foreign Minister is Vajpayee advising him to be cautious in dealing with the US while his account on Pakistan is pedantic and the dislike for China evident. The only anecdote worth recalling is the rare appearance of Mrs Putin in India and her counsel to give Mumbai buildings a whitewash at least. 

 YS misses many turns perhaps because his extended family, mostly bureaucrats in high places, might have indulged him to pen his memoirs. For instance, he is unable to fathom why then Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov rushed to the hotel to fetch him back to the Kremlin after YS had staged a walkout. It was because at that time Russia, under the influence of Yevgeni Primakov, was pivoting towards Eurasia of which India was an important component. 

After 2004, YS began getting marginalised because the RSS-wallahs were gaining prominence. Modi had begun imposing himself, for the first time by forcing Jaswant Singh’s expulsion in 2009. Nobody, he writes, had the courage to take him on. Not even L K Advani. His slide to the dissident camp was ordained from then onwards. But he ensured his mantle in the BJP's Ivory Tower passed on to his son.