Kunwar Natwar Singh has had enjoyed very close proximity to the power center of Indian polity for more than 4 decades. He escaped into a political oblivion in 2008 after Volcker report exposing the 'Oil for Food' scam linking his name with scores of others. 'One Life Is Not Enough' was his autobiography, released in the midst of high voltage politics of 2014 and it did achieve a lot of traction.
Born with a silver spoon, studied in the best of schools, married to a royalty, worked in 'most' prestigious service (IFS) and enjoyed absolute confidence of Prime Ministers like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and leaders like Sonia Gandhi. He did not mince words when he criticize bitterly the Prime Ministers coming from parties other than Congress and other than the Gandhis. He was not a fan of Morarji Desai, Devegowda, PV Narsimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh. Without any respect to the Democratic norms he considers succession of a 'novice' Rajiv Gandhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi as a natural choice and he repeats the same thing after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi though Sonia Gandhi refused to lead Congress after the death of Rajiv. He revolted against the leadership of Prime Ministers PV Rao and created a new Party with other senior leaders.
With respect to Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh in many ways he corroborates what Sanjay Baru has written in 'The Accidental Prime Minister'.
He was too close to the Gandhi family and at many a times it appears that he mixed his Foreign service job with his political interests. May be those were different times when India was Congress and Congress was India.
His political career went into a deep pit when his name came up in Volcker report. He calls it as a conspiracy hatched by some western lobbyist to get rid of him from External Affairs Ministry as he was bit "anti-American' in his ideology.
This book has many interesting anecdotes and talks in details about the political dynamics of Delhi.
Recommended (7/10)
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