A view from the outside

For the first time, I had an opportunity to read a book written by a politician. YES! I could read it and was stunned, stumped and bowled over.

"A view from the outside" is a book written by Mr. P Chidambaram, our very own ex-finance/home minister. I walked into this book on more than a few occasions at Landmark. I read one chapter and was very impressed but was really bothered if the other pages was as good as the one I read. I took the decision to buy considering that the alternatives were poor and the time had come to diversify from business/investments. Partly, I was forced to do because my work takes me a little into politics.


I liked the book for many reasons.

• Clarity of thought: While being a minister in various capacity has definetely helped him in writing, it still is difficult to pen one's thought with such openess discussing drawbacks and future aspirations of respective areas. His view that India would soon (next decade or two) see a two party system (coaliation led ofcourse, but essentially on two frame of thoughts led by two important parties with a lot of allies between them) is interesting considering that most of us have a lot of parties to choose but little interest in doing it. His explanation of the problem which the leading parties have is a true eye opener for anyone reading politics for the first time. India is seeing coaliation politics due to the inherent strength of regional politics in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Tamilnadu is simple and straightforward. His discussion on India living in rural India is simply brilliant.It is the same old story of 70% rural population contributing less than 20% of India's output. The only difference is the way it is presented.
• Passion that seems to be driving his work immensely. I clearly will not be able to tell this if all MP's and MLA's are of the same cadre but this author has shown a genuine desire to move India into the next growth trajectory, whether in opposition or not. Whether, it is the issue on addressing taxation, creating investment opportunities that can drive growth and stimulate demand, the genuine need of creation of new states to improve governance, the idea of an ideal election manifesto (though it did not show in their recently released party manifesto), the importance of younger minds to enter into politics or the plight of poor people (though exaggerated a bit beyond necessary) his thoughts comes with such passion that it is difficult to accept him as a politican who has represented his constituency, Sivaganga, since 1984.
• Consistency: this book is essentially a collection of his writings during the NDA regime. The period of writing is between 2002-04 and by and large, I have not seen too much deviation in his thoughts in these collection of articles. Considering that our regular thought is that a politican knows to praise the side where the butter is, this book atleast shows that he has not deviated much from his earlier ideas/goals.
  
• Honesty: There is a genuine concern to move India to its next growth path. His expertise in Law, economics and management is shown with the way he writes. His discussion on elections in India is a wonderful insight thought not as complete as one would have expected. The problem plaguing Indian politics having nexus with members having questionable past, the discussion on money in politics and candidates.
  
• Unbiased on mostly discussion areas: He is a lot unbiased than I thought he could be. He showers praises and throws brickbats at Congress, BJP, and the left on their various policies. For a person in the opposition, the favorite past time would be to take a pick at the policies of the ruling party. Surprisingly and unlike most other politicians, he is willing to appreciate few policies executed by the BJP/NDA. He appreciated the Left for the way they handled their internal working specificially on organisation structure.
  We know that he had the opportunity to pick at Congress as he was part of Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) which later merged with Congress.
  

I can go on and on on praising this book but there are a few drawbacks in this book.

• There are two pieces on International politics or rather India and its neighbours and some general discussions which could not be classified anywhere. These two sections does not seem to be very convincing as the author might have wanted. His discussion on health, girl child, education seems to be a bit hollow.
  
• I was a bit disappointed was that he seemed to be to show too much praise for Rajiv Gandhi. A little study of his life shows that there is a history why he is a big follower of Rajiv Gandhi.
  
• At times, you see a politician side of him. He has picked his oppositiong posting a few numbers where the difference though appears wide seems disappointing small compared to the overall context. For example, he picks up an issue on under utilising the expenditure on various heads (critical ones of course) by the NDA. However, the difference is so small (though appears) compared to the overall expenditure of the government that the topic loses its relevance.
• On a lighter vein, I have paid around INR 395 for this book for about 85-90 articles. This would have come at a much lower cost had I bought the papers.
  

There is a piece written on India Shining where you see the humourous side of him. It is a well written article and he takes the case of everyone in it.

This is the first time I have read any politician from his own words. I do hope that I would be able to read a few more as the years progress. I was tempted to buy a book by Arun Shourie, who Mr Chidambaram sincerely appreciates (except when he was in office as a minister), but wanted to wait to see if I am able to complete this one. This book has given me confidence that India has politicians that we can trust however: scattered and few they may be.

And yes...read this book ...it is a simple yet a powerful one.