Writing a legacy

Between 1947 and 1964,then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote hundreds of letters to state chief ministers. The letters are collected in a bulky five-volume series and aim at more than information exchange — after all,Nehru’s chief ministers were inevitably from the Congress,and intra-party mechanisms existed to do the real talking. No,the letters were about protocol; Nehru’s enduring belief that governing institutions were separate from personalities and parties. His letters also aimed to involve the states in a national conversation,which explains the foreign policy thrust in many of his letters. After Nehru’s death,the practice reduced to a trickle. One suspects the decline had less to do with phones — and later,email — and more with the erosion in the sanctity and independence of these executive offices that Nehru held so dear.

What to make,then,of the 100-odd letters that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh since she assumed power in May 2007? The comparisons to that earlier era are striking. Her letters range from the warp and weft of political spin (why isn’t caste included in the 2011 census?) to global concerns (piracy off the coast in Somalia). The format is quaintly formal,addressed to “Dear Prime Minister” from “Respectfully,Mayawati”. Many of the letters are personally written,from a leader not exactly known for such touches. But more than anything else,it is the frequency — about one every 11 days — that evokes Nehruvian comparisons.

Unlike Nehru though,Mayawati is no writer; her autobiography,for example,is cliché-ridden and polemical. Which is what makes these glimpses of her thought so much the more valuable. This generation lives with a historical record not rich in Dalit empowerment; as a BSP acolyte has remarked,the letters will stand as a “historic record” for “future generations”. Much like the statues built for a similar purpose,but with little burden to the state exchequer.