This three series interview was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-133, a34 and 135, Jan-Feb 2003)
Mani Shankar Aiyar is a committed Congressman, a Member of Parliament from Kargudi constituency in Thanjavur District in Tamil Nadu, and a controversy loving columnist. This interview was tape recorded over three late night sessions of four hours each in the winter months of 2001. It has taken so long to appear in print because Mani spent more than a year checking the long typed transcript I sent him for accuracy before we did the editing.
I have enjoyed a very warm friendship with Mani for many years which has survived and strenghened despite differences over important issues. Mani was one of the early life subscribers to MANUSHI and has been very supportive of our endeavours even when they go against the politics of the Congress Party. It is often forgotten that Rajiv Gandhi and Mani Shankar Aiyar were in large part responsible for bringing the issue of women’s reservation to the center-stage of Indian politics. In the early years after the Women’s Reservation Bill was introduced in Parliament, Mani was among its most avid champions both within his Party as well as in Parliament. However, after he read MANUSHI’S critique of the existing Bill, he came out in open support of our position through his colum in India Today and endorsed the need for alternative ways of ensuring an enhanced participation of women in our legislatures. This open-mindedness has been the hall mark of Mani’s relation with MANUSHI. It was fun interviewing Mani because he does not come out with pious homilies and phony platitudes for self promotion. He freely admits mistakes, takes a critical look at himself and his Party and can even at times laugh at himself.
In the second part of his interview, to be carried in the next issue, Mani will talk on women in politics as well as what it takes for a politician to develop a political base in a situation where politics has become very venal and very corrupt…