Book Review #19: The Accidental Prime Minister By Dr. Sanjaya Baru

Probably this is one of the first book that gives us the insider picture of a Prime Minister's Office, popularly called as PMO. Sanjaya Baru tells us his journey and his memoir of his tenure as a Prime Minister's Media adviser from the period of 2004 to 2008. Being an elite columnist, journalist, editor and an economic expert, he has shown us a great detail of how the PMO works. Nobody has known how a PMO works for PM, especially media advisers and PM's personal secretariat officers. This books gives us a clear picture of all those things.

The_Accidental_Prime_Minister is a popular bestseller of 2014 in India under Non-Fiction category. This book came at the right time when India was preparing herself for the epic general elections. This book was an oasis for opposition parties especially BJP, that was always blaming the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a non-functional, spineless and a yes madam type PM. I pity them, because those people wouldn't even have read a single page of this book.

This book doesn't in any manner, I repeat, doesn't in any manner degrade former Prime Minister ManMohan Singh. This book has given a complete detail of how MMS (short form for ManMohan Singh) rose to be the successful Prime Minister of UPA-1 tenure between 2004 to 2009. The successful nuclear deal with the US, which is surely a feather on the cap for MMS and his many popular schemes that was launched to uplift the poor classes of India.

This book is a narration of the Author Sanjaya Baru, from the time of his appointment as Prime Minister's Media Adviser till he resigned from his post. He just recalled his memory and presented before us a memoir. Author has begun this book, by introducing us to the phase where he gets a phone call from none other than MMS to come and work for him as his media adviser. Here, the author emphasizes a phrase that MMS has asked him when he joined his office. "You have to be my eyes and ears"!!

Then he goes on describing his tenure and his ups and down as his advisor. How he got along with PM and how he was admonished on several occasions and on the same time, how he was congratulated by PM for his excellent works and so on. The minute details of how a PMO works for PM is an excellent read from this book. Several committees, groups, elite panel and other intellectuals that was in the team of PMO has made sure that, PM's job was kept in super vigilant and they ensured that PM was functioning in right spirits.

The entire focus of the author has been on PM MMS and his relationship with him. At times, you may feel that, this book is just about self boasting of Sanjaya Baru. Of course, he deserves his due credit, he prepared MMS from what we known as a silent, not so talkative, reserved PM to one of the best PM's that India has produced over the years. He was the only PM that ran his office for a complete 2 terms.

Author had not forgotten to explain us, the soaring success of MMS and his downfall at the beginning of 2009 by his own partymen. Author tells us that, PM MMS was infact sidelined at the beginning of 2009 and most of his ministers were not even reporting to PM. They were actually reporting Sonia Gandhi, the party president and leader of UPA. This has made MMS dull and low on several occasions.

Author introduces several persons in front of us, that were very close to Sonia Gandhi. Especially Pulok Chaterjee, Ahmed Patel, Pruthviraj Chavan, P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukharjee, who were reluctant to listen to PM MMS and they thought they are never answerable to MMS. They were only listening to Sonia Gandhi. At the beginning of 2009, PM MMS was not even in a position to select his own ministers for his cabinet, which is usually the job of PM to select his ministerial team. This was done and finalised at the Sonia Gandhi's office. This was the incident where, the tainted minister of 2G scandal, A. Raja was appointed as a minister in MMS cabinet. MMS has strongly opposed to the induction of A. Raja, but, he failed to do so.

This book just goes on in this tone of sad story of MMS's downfall. The interesting section was, when MMS about to take some credits for his good work in UPA-1 tenure. His own partymen from congress tried to snub MMS, by elevating a dimwit Rahul Gandhi as the person behind expansion of NREGA, RTI and other popular schemes which happened because of MMS's hard work. This was the point when Congress was ready to take his resignation and promote Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister. Later, when Congress came to know that, Rahul was not prepared for this huge role, they let MMS continue for his full term. MMS on several occasions told Baru that, "She has let me down".

At the end of the book, Author reiterates the phrases told by MMS. "You see, You must understand one thing. I have come to terms with this. There cannot be two centres of Power." This phrase rightly pointed to the person who has the actual power of government.

Overall, a must read book for every Indians. After reading this book, My opinion on MMS have changed a bit. He was used as a mere pawn by Congress and its allies in UPA. From a popular economist who held very responsible positions in his entire lifetime, became Prime Minister by virtue and not by accident has let down by his own people. that's the sad part. From "Singh is King" to "Singh is Nothing".

My Rating: 5/5