STRICTlY PERSONAl
Author: Daman singh
Publisher: HarperCollins, Rs699
This book is a rare glimpse into the personal life of a political personality. Author Daman Singh tells ANANYA BORGOHAIN about her parents, former PM Dr Manmohan Singh and Gursharan Kaur, and about the journey that started in the 1930s
Author Daman Singh, in her latest book, Strictly Personal, etches the biographical details of her parents, and describes how they lived as a family. In a conversation, she speaks about paying the tribute.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
I have been writing ever since I can remember. As a student I would write long letters and short stories. For about 20 years, I worked in the field of rural development. In those days I wrote a large number of articles, papers and reports. At some point I decided to switch careers and became a writer. Strictly Personal is my fourth book.
Please take us through your journey while writing the book. What were the challengesIJ
Strictly Personal is the story of my parents. It starts in the 1930s and ends in the year 2004. The book is based on conversations with my mother and father. These were not the kind of conversations that I normally had with them. We had to go far back in time, to events they had experienced, places they had been to, people they had known. None of this was easy. It was even more difficult to talk about how their opinions and beliefs had formed, and how they changed over the years. So it was a very intensive process that took place over a period of about three years.
While I was writing the book, I had to constantly juggle between being a writer and a daughter. I wanted to write about my parents as real people, with strengths as well as weaknesses. I didn’t want to gloss over uncomfortable or painful moments in their lives. Such things are difficult for a daughter to write about. I had to make a huge effort to find the right balance. To a large extent, I think I succeeded. It is certainly an affectionate account, but it is an honest one as well.
When you mention your mother in the book, it is largely on a familial or sentimental turf, whereas Dr Singh has been described more in the political domain. Do the personal and the political also overlap between them at timesIJ
My mother’s world is woven around family, friends and acquaintances. Each person is special to her in some way or another — whether it is her sister, her classmate, her doctor or the sabziwalla. And she sees everything from the personal angle, the human angle. This is what I have tried to put across in the book.
On the other hand, my father’s world revolves around his work. This is how he has always been — as a professor, as a civil servant and as a politician. He has always kept a strict line between work and home. He doesn’t discuss work at home. And he doesn’t let his family interfere in his work.
What are your fond memories of Dr Singh essentially as a fatherIJ
I remember summer nights when we all slept outside on charpais. And wintry Sunday afternoons, when we munched on moolis or gannas that grew in our garden. My father liked to drive, though my mother always complained that he drove too fast. He would take us to bookshops and let us buy whatever we liked. We went to restaurants quite often — South Indian, Mughlai and Chinese, in turn. In those days he was very fond of a drink called ‘Rim Zim’, that all of us found ghastly. Being diabetic, he was on a pretty strict diet. But when my mother was not around, he often sneaked into the kitchen and hunted for mithai. My sisters and I invariably caught him in the act of consuming a large piece of barfi, but he managed to convince us to keep this a secret.
What are your memories of living in Parkway Village in the late 1960sIJ You mention the difficult times during the Civil Rights Movement, the assassinations of Martin luther King and Senator Kennedy, the Vietnam War and so on.
When my father joined UNCTAD in 1965, we moved to New York. I was only two years old. So my memories of Parkway Village are rather blurred — kindergarten, birthday parties and visits to the zoo. We were there for four years. My mother liked living in America, but my father never really felt at home. He was keen to get back to India. If he had stayed on another year, he would have got a very generous UN pension. But he got a job offer from the Delhi School of Economics, and he decided to take it at once.
You have described your father’s inspiring academic inclination and journey in immense detail. How much of an academic is he todayIJ
My father was an outstanding student. He taught in Punjab University and the Delhi School of Economics. In 1971, he left academics and joined the Government. In some ways, he remained an academic at heart. For instance, he believed in using knowledge, analysis and reason to find solutions to poverty, disease and hunger. At the same time, he tried to find solutions that were practical and actually worked in the real world.
Which accomplishments of your father, both as an academic and an economic policy maker, do you cherish the mostIJ
I have tried to capture those moments in my father’s career that help explain his vision, his ideas, his character. Frankly, his professional accomplishments were simply too many and too complex for me to write about in detail. I think he has always been driven by the desire to serve his country. He has always put the country first. And he has always worked with complete sincerity and dedication. These are the accomplishments that I most admire.
You also quote him saying, “The political system needs money. This money cannot be raised in a legal manner”. How do you look at his attempt to control corruption as you also mention “…fourteen years later, he would attempt to dismantle the very system that he once worked within”IJ
I think the boldest move to tackle corruption was made in 1991. Till then we had what was called the ‘license-permit raj’. There were all sorts of controls in every sector of the economy. These controls were in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats. And wherever there were Government controls, there was scope for corruption. As the finance minister, my father dismantled the ‘license-permit raj’ and did away with most of these controls.
Does your mother still cultivate a sincere fondness towards musicIJ
My mother has always been interested in music. She studied light classical music when she was in college in Patiala. In those days, she would perform on stage at inter-college events in different cities. Once or twice she even performed on All India Radio. After marriage, she continued to learn music for several years. These days she prefers to sing bhajans and gurbani. She has a huge music collection — of ghazals, thumri, dadra, as well as bhajans and gurbani.
How do you react to the criticism directed towards Dr Singh — when Rajiv Gandhi criticised the Planning Commission, when Rahul Gandhi criticised the Ordinance, or the books written by Sanjaya Baru and Natwar SinghIJ
My father is a public figure, and people have a right to criticise his work. Although I may not like such criticism, I have learnt to deal with them. But I can’t bear personal attacks on my father. Since I cannot stop them, I do my best to ignore them. If I come across an article or book that is nasty, I don’t read it. If there is a nasty programme on TV, I change the channel.
Do you intend to write a sequel to Strictly Personal about his years as the Prime MinisterIJ
He was the Prime Minister for 10 years, which is a really long time. There are a number of political, economic and social issues relating to this period that need to be analysed in an objective manner. Honestly, I’m not the best person to do this.
How does Dr Singh look at the Congress performance himselfIJ You have said in the past that he faced resistance from within the party too.
The economic reforms of 1991 have an important place in Strictly Personal. Before 1991, there were many attempts to improve the economic system. But the reforms of 1991 were not meant to improve the system, they were meant to replace it. They questioned everything that had been taken for granted for 40 years. Obviously, these were radical questions, difficult questions. And many people were not prepared to face them. There were skeptics in various political parties, including the Congress. It was mostly up to the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and my father to convince them to support the reforms.
How did your parents respond to the bookIJ
I gave them the first copy of the book. I think they were very, very pleased.