In March 1979, when State legislatures across India and Parliament were adjourned, wrongly, to mourn the “death” of Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan, the Speaker of the Maharashtra assembly, held out. Despite shouts from the members, the Speaker insisted the news should be cross-checked with the Registrar of Jaslok Hospital, where JP was admitted. When the messenger returned redfaced, the third time, to say that JP was still alive, the shouting MLAs were silenced and the Speaker had the last word.

The assembly Speaker, who went on to become the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and most recently the Home Minister, is now weaving one of his favourite anecdotes into his memoirs.

After resigning, and diligently attending all days of the last session in Parliament, Shivraj Patil is now writing his autobiography.

He is still looking for a title, and is not concerned about securing a high-profile publisher—someone he knows, based in his hometown Latur would do.

About 400 pages have been completed, written in longhand with his trademark sketch pen. There is a reason: Patil has reportedly read about John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage and the controversy around it once it won the Pulitzer in 1957. He wants to take no chances about authorship claims as he pens the record of his journey from being the chairman of a municipality in small-town Maharashtra to the Home Minister of India.

Another incident he is recalling in his memoirs is how he assured a then-nervous Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, how, despite an unruly opposition he would ensure that India’s first liberalised budget would be passed ¿ and he did, by calmly sitting out the dharnas and noise drummed up by the Left and the Right.

... contd.