The second volume of Mani Shankar Aiyar’s acclaimed memoirs

Mani Shankar Aiyar ends his first volume of memoirs as he is elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 at the age of 50. In this second volume, he continues his story as he becomes a three-term Member of Parliament (MP), then a cabinet minister in the UPA government (including becoming India’s first ever minister of Panchayati Raj) and finally, a Rajya Sabha member.

Most politicians conceal unflattering events in their memoirs. Aiyar is incapable of doing so. He draws a colourful picture of a life in politics, with vivid glimpses of politicians – and their policies – such as Jayalalithaa (whose party thugs nearly killed him), Sonia Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and others.

He writes perceptively of the challenges of being a good MP and why development doesn’t win a politician votes. And he tells, too, of negotiating the power struggles of the UPA era, where he was moved from the Petroleum Ministry, and turns the lens on financial improprieties and his ideological reservations as sports minister in the run-up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

In the course of recounting his life story, he reflects on his unconventional, non-conformist opinions that have rendered him a maverick in politics, accounting as much for his rise as his fall. The book ends poignantly as he faces the sunset years of his unusual life.