By Sunil Kumar
Although I personally dislike the Con’Man’gress and its role in India’s stagnation, creating a template of ‘sycophancy’ and appeasement in the outward veneer of a mirage of so-called secularism, this biography is insightful when it comes to revealing the character of one of the prime movers and shakers in the republic’s existence.
The fact that many people are not even aware that there was such a ‘man’ owes probably to apathy towards one’s own history or today’s ‘moronic’ overkill that fixates on the Kardashians or Ambani weddings. To quote Mr. Haksar himself, probably J. Ramesh and Tharoor are the right men in the wrong party- if only they could exert their talents in the positive trajectory of the republic instead of the sham that goes on every day in parliament in the name of democracy and saving the constiution.
PN Haksar was an erudite intellectual of a different era, a Nehru acolyte and in his own words a ‘valet’ to the Nehru-Gandhi family. But, this Marxist leaning Kashmiri Pandit was also an independent thinker even if he was caught in the same haloed mire of the ‘Ganga-Jamuni’ Tehzeeb. I read many interesting anecdotes here- how Mountbatten requested Haksar and Indira Gandhi to honour him with official Indian armed forces presence like Nehru did for Edwina.
Haksar’s years in England and the leftist currents of the same time shaped his world-view impacting India’s destiny itself. Having lived for some time in that country myself, I am amazed at its continuing impact on the subcontinent. PN Haksar was a mentor to Indira Gandhi, steering her through bank nationalisation, the Bangladesh war, the Simla agreement and made his presence felt in multiple spheres including education, the JNU, cultural academies, the nuclear explosion at Pokhran, think tanks, interactions with the devilish duo Nixon and Kissinger, Indo-China relations and the space programme where he persuaded Dr. Satish Dhawan from Caltech to helm ISRO.
It was also surprising that due to the insistence of Mr. Dhawan who did not want to move out of Bengaluru, India’s space programme is headquartered there. In fact this was one of his main conditions to Indira Gandhi. The painful episodes of the Emergency, the animus that Sanjay Gandhi held for the well-meaning Haksar resulted in the tragic arrests of few of his relatives. But, Shri Haksar was loyal to the N-G dynasty and his ‘perceptions’ of India’s interests till the end. His friendship with Chakravarthy and their dissing Marx and his ‘childish’ love for Jenny Westphalen was also mentioned, an interesting snippet.
I have visited Highgate cemetery and seen the grave of this ‘bourgeois prophet’ myself, so this fact hit home. The unsung Marx would have been just another drunkard were it not for Lenin and the Russian revolution.
The author has managed to keep the pace interesting, however it is sluggish in some parts. All in all, an interesting read if you want to gain more insight into India’s political, economic history and geopolitical strategy.
