Vice-president Hamid Ansari lamented the fact that modern Indian history lacks the autobiographies of public figures. He made this observation while addressing an audience of legislators and diplomats during the launch of a book by former Lok Sabha Speaker and NCP leader P.A. Sangma on Tuesday.
Dr Ansari called it a “bane” of Indian public life that leaders do not write autobiographies to give citizens a glimpse of their innermost thoughts, also adding that it is only autobiographies of the public figures that can narrate the “story behind exciting periods” in Indian history.
The vice-president called Mr Sangma’s book an “important” work. The book, A Life in Politics: Selected Speeches and Lectures 1979-2004 presents the vision of a leader who rose from a small tribal village to a coveted position in Parliament, that of the Speaker.
“One aspect of the modern Indian history which is not sufficiently filled up is the innermost thoughts of those who had been players on the public stage,” Dr Ansari said, adding that this gap was even more acute when compared to the experience of other parliamentary democracies.
He, however, praised the work of those “actors on the public stage” who did manage to write their diaries years after they quit.
He cherished the work of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao who wrote “in a slightly fictionalised fashion”, apart from the pieces of work by Jawaharlal Nehru, L.K. Advani, I.K. Gujral and Somnath Chatterjee.
Mr Sangma, who was the first Lok Sabha Speaker to be elected from the Opposition, said that his book offered his vision for the country.