This is a factual and objective account of Manohar Parrikar, the boy from Mapusa who became the Chief Minister of Goa and later India’s Defence Minister.
An Extraordinary Life: A Biography of Manohar Parrikar
By Sadguru Patil and Mayabhushan Nagvenkar
Penguin, Rs 499
The straight-talking and vociferous statesman of Goan politics cannot be understood unless you’ve followed the late Goa CM and former Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s trials and tribulations as the BJP’s first IITian CM, and bull-headed Opposition leader. An Extraordinary Life, the first English biography by Goan journalists Sadguru Patil and Mayabhushan Nagvenkar, follows an irascible lad with a knack of getting into and out of sticky situations — a gift he brandished through life. His last days battling pancreatic cancer, undoubtedly the most painful, saw this son of Goa mulish about holding on to the power seat.
The biography gives you a front-row seat on Goan politics, and its activist citizens who had an intrinsic relationship with their Bhai. It gave them the right to give kudos and brickbats in equal measure. Unlike larger states, Goa’s grapevine and rhetoric is entrenched into Goan lives owing to the accessibility, connectedness and proximity to political brass. Patil and Nagvenkar have followed Parrikar’s career for two decades, interviewing him often, which gave them a deeper insight, which they have dealt with fittingly and succinctly. This factual and objective account of the boy from Mapusa who became chief minister and defence minister says it like it was. Surprisingly candid.
His penchant for right wrongs and the RSS ideology gave Parrikar the wings to fly. Ten succinct chapters, each weaving together his life, the book is a silent bystander as it documents the good, bad, ugly, and then lets you be the judge. Surgical strikes, his IIT days, his mercurial relationship with the media and more.
The oft predictable progression to public life saw Manohar Parrikar turn into a consummate politician. As Opposition leader, he was almost cantankerous about scams, casinos, and mining. An interesting read, it follows promises and about-turns, a common currency in politics.
“It is the story of numerous revolutionary leaders and idealists in history who have also followed similar trajectories. Parrikar’s three key promises made to the people of Goa, namely doing away with the casino industry, cracking down on the mining mafia, making primary schools — which draw financial grants from the government — teach in a students’ mother-tongue, were all victims of his dramatic U-turns,” say the authors, as they speak about the mining scam that saw a huge outcry
“Take the valuation of the scam for example. Parrikar as chairman of a legislative committee pegged (a portion of) the scam at Rs 3,000 crore. In a letter to the President of India, as leader of opposition, Parrikar said the scam was worth Rs 25,000 crore. As chief minister, the figure kept dwindling to Rs 100 crore. A mathematical miracle,” says Nagvenkar.
The tender beginnings of an ideology find roots early on for Parrikar, when RSS and being a sangh rakshak became intertwined with his political demeanour, though not a deeply religious man.
A chief minister and defence minister who was early on seen driving his Esteem, lending his Maruti for sangh tasks (even wedding) around Goa without security, eating snacks sipping tea at roadside gaddos (stalls), having tete-tetes and lambasting sessions with the media, Parrikar’s stint in Delhi was difficult. Pandering to diktats aside, his quick-witted harangue was at odds with the cautious rhetoric there.
Both authors speak of his growing disenchantment with Delhi then, and its politics, “He liked to chair a political darbar, like his own in Goa (albeit much smaller). He was not used to being a courtier. His uneasy relationship with then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also did not help his cause. We have touched upon Parrikar’s uneasiness with Jaitley in the book in the context of the One Rank One Pension conundrum”
Sadguru Patil had earlier written a biography on the CM in Marathi, which had not dwelled into Manohar Parrikar’s Delhi days. Without that national perspective, which all of Goa, regardless of caste and creed, is proud of, this one explored the Delhi stint. “It (Marathi biography) did not have information on the surgical strikes or OROP. When in opposition, Parrikar himself was a good investigative journalist and an alert RTI Activist. No doubt, he made mistakes and compromises, but overall, he was a unique politician — the likes of which Goa has not seen in 40 years. Present politicians in Goa lack this,” adds Patil.
That quick-thinking saw Parrikar in four terms (almost) as CM, fighting foes which he later embraced.
“We have tried to draw comparisons between the Manohar from Mapusa and Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer. He knew how to skip punishment in school, how to get away from censure (even after being caught watching a porn film at a movie hall), he thought on his feet,” says Nagvenkar.
“If there was one person whose rebuke Manohar Parrikar shied away from, it was his elder sister Jyoti. His younger sister Lata lovingly griped to us about Manohar’s brusque behaviour with siblings. No hellos, no exchange of pleasantries, he would just barge into her home. He also loved the way Lata cooked wild mushroom curry, one of the few vegetarian dishes Parrikar loved,” the authors add.
One gets a rare glimpse at Parrikar and his family, and is left wanting more. “We owe our appreciation to Parrikar’s siblings and his sons Utpal and Abhijaat for their remarkable candour.”
Parrikar’s wife Medha passed away in 2000 after battling leukaemia. A void he tried to fill with endless work, Goa and a bit of Delhi. The book touches on their romance flourishing under the eagle eye of his sister Jyoti, giving you a peek into an obstinate and indefatigable leader’s softer side. Yet, understanding Parrikar and his personal life would require a deeper look. The paucity of space might have been the culprit. A photograph of the Parrikars’ is also oddly not included, which the authors hope to add later.
Two journalists with diverse backgrounds and outlooks, Patil who is bureau chief with the Goa edition of Lokmat and Nagvenkar who is the Indo-Asian New Service’s Goa correspondent, have fastidiously stayed away from conjecture.
“It is a fact that Parrikar’s was the RSS poster boy in Goa. He has had several run-ins with the Goa Church in his political career. There is a degree of scepticism with which he is generally viewed by Catholics and Muslims in the state. Yet, it is a small passage in a condolence message issued by the Archbishop of Goa Fr Filipe Neri Ferrao after Parrikar’s death, that puts into context, the part which pragmatism plays both in politics and religion.”
After many brash decisions, Parrikar himself turned to pragmatism and workable alliances that to this day BJP has emulated.
In as much a story is a sum of many parts, Parrikar’s diverse qualities, and peccadillos are laid out.
The image of an ailing chief minister, who once had a bounce in his step, a smile, or a caustic tirade, launching the Atal Setu bridge with a tube attached, saddened well-wishers. “In that entire year where he refused to give up the chair. He lost a lot of ground and goodwill he had earned. The actual gut-wrenching physical pain and pangs of a disease like cancer had to be endured. He had his family, friends but his hand-picked political allies, who were like fair, obedient doves when Parrikar was in command and in good health, started growing talons and hooked beaks, once their chief minister started wilting,” say the authors.
Parrikar’s legacy crumbled in the hubris of politics, yet his many firsts, and there were many, have been resurrected for history here.