New Delhi: “I am now residing in a political world where irony is dead”, says writer-turned-politician and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of his book “The Great Indian Novel” here today, he said “I am now residing in a political world where irony is dead. We don't do nuances in politics and if we try to do that people will twist and turn your words and hammer it on to you. So, you will miss the satire in today's contemporary world.”
The widely acclaimed book is based on the story of the Mahabharata. The book retells modern Indian history and renowned political personalities begin to resemble characters from the Mahabharata.
“The political leaders which we had during the 20th century were larger-than-life characters which I frankly feel is missing in this slightly more mundane life which we are living...,” said Tharoor.
Brimming with incisive wit and as enjoyable a read as it is cerebrally stimulating, The Great Indian Novel brilliantly retells reality as myth.
However, Tharoor says, “if a sequel to the book had to be written it would not be by me because in this world now there are different constraints.
“The kind of freedom which I wrote with, that is no longer possible with the political life I have chosen,” he said.
The Congress leader had written the book when he was working at the United Nation (UN) as a junior officer and was quite skeptical whether the book would be banned or not because of the political implications and characters which were synonymous with the leaders of that era.
The book has references to dynasty politics in the country which, according to the author-cum-politician, should not be commented upon in the present-day political scenario.
“ See, it's really not right for me to comment on whether Mulyam's son should be a chief minister of UP or whether Ajit Singh should now be turning his house into a memorial and whether we should have rival Thacherays in Maharashtra competing for the legacy.
“I think as a democratic politician, I won't cause any offense to them,” said Tharoor.
Talking about BJP coming to power in the country, Tharoor said “Ram Rajya” has not really come into the picture and is an illusion.
“I think that if you really want to go into that illusion of a certain BJP Prime Minister said to a certain BJP chief Minister in 2002 that there are certain-Niyams of Raj Dharm' which have not been followed, so Ram Raj coming from the same source will be a stretch”.
“But”, Tharoor quickly added, “I have not come here to play politics. This is a literary evening and all I would say is that I think we should create our own Ram Rajya through democratic process with fair exchange of ideas, values, compromises which characterize an electoral democracy rather than expecting something to descend on us from the Man on the white horse cantering through the epic of our political lives. It's not going to happen,” according to Tharoor.
