Opinion Truths to tell

The kerfuffle over the book and its claims appears to have punctured Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s stoic silence. (Source: Express photo by Neeraj Priyadarshi)

Former Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh’s book, One Life is Not Enough, has touched off a storm. It promises to unpack the black boxes of the Congress and UPA. The daily dribble of disclosures is fascinating by itself. But things could get more exciting. The kerfuffle over the book and its claims appears to have punctured Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s stoic silence. She has promised to respond with her own version of events. In a country starved for in-the-know, behind-the-scenes accounts at the highest echelons of politics and government, Gandhi’s counter is eagerly awaited.

This could be the chance for one of India’s most intriguing leaders to tell the people about the daily routines and significant milestones in her dramatic journey. The prime minister’s widow who became the president of India’s oldest political party. The reluctant politician who immersed herself in the political cut and thrust in the country she made her own, yet refused to be PM. Was it, indeed, her “inner voice” or Rahul Gandhi’s, that guided her in 2004? What was the division of labour, really, between 10 Janpath and PMO?

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In India, politicians and their intimates remain generally tight-lipped. Elsewhere, the code of political omerta has, happily, been long dead, with a steady flow of political tell-alls signalling that discretion is on the wane and disclosures are on the rise. Be it the flood of books by people who have worked for former President George W. Bush, or those by politicians who have no further axe to grind, the US in particular has seen political stalwarts and their confidants perform Beltway editions of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. The revelations may often be sudsy, leaning on vaguely attributed sources, intent on settling scores. They could lead to a more mean-spirited public chatter. Yet, loquacious insiders ought to be encouraged  to spill the beans. The more secrets come out in the open, the better our approximation of “truth”.