JAYA JAITLY

Life Among The Scorpions by Jaya Jaitly-- Memoirs of a Woman in Indian Politics ; Published by  Rupa ; Pages 308 ; Price Rs.505/-

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The title of this autobiography of the former Samata Party President Jaya Jaitly is quite intriguing!

It recalls the story of a Malaysian woman who stayed in a glass cage with 2,000 scorpions for a month . Jaya  felt this experience was similar to what a woman in public life faces when she wants to serve society. This memoir is her own experience of what women face in India’s politics.

Jaya Jaitly was born on 14 June 1942. Her father  K. K. Chettur from Kerala was the first Indian ambassador to Japan.  She  got a scholarship to study in Smith College, US and she met Ashok Jaitly there. They got married in 1965. They have two children, Akshay and Aditi (who later married cricketer Ajay Jadeja).

 On George Fernandes' request, she joined the Socialist Trade Union. After the 1984 Sikh riots, she became active in politics; she calls Fernandes and Madhu Limaye as her "Mentors".

After Tehelka's Operation West End scandal broke out in 2002, she was accused of accepting a bribe and she stepped down as Party President. 

“My childhood was a funny mix of the matrilineal society in Kerala, international influences from an early age living in Japan, Burma, Belgium, England and the U.S, and going through some interesting times. I have  focussed on culture, society, international issues and discovering freedom, literature and independence."

Jaya has to her credit a number of books---  Craft Traditions of India , Crafts of Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh , A Podium on the Pavement , Biju Spins Some Magic , Crafting Nature , Crafts Atlas of India , Woven Textiles of Varanasi , The Artistry Of Handwork  and Vishvakarma’s Children: Stories of India’s Craftspeople .

Jaya  writes  about her transformation  from the world of politics to championing the cause of artisans.

 She devoted herself to work for India’s many crafts and textiles through her Dastkari Haat Samiti founded in 1986. Her recent publication "Crafting Indian Scripts" is based on a major project called "Akshara" combining literacy, craft and calligraphy. Some of her other current efforts include revival of the gamcha and pathedu anchu sarees. She continues to edit and publish “The Other Side”, a monthly journal of democratic socialist thought and action.

Her work brings together rural artisans within India,  with those of Pakistan, Vietnam, Iran, Eygpt and many other countries. These programs have often been supported by the Indian Government as an instrument in diplomacy.

"Life among the Scorpions" recalls the harrowing events that dotted three decades  of Jaya’s political wanderings. During this period ,India had a variety of  governments and it was an era full of trial and tribulation.

Jaya undertook providing  relief for victims of the 1984 Sikh riots and then  joined politics under the mercurial George Fernandes. She became the President of Samata Party—a key ally in the erstwhile NDA Government. But all was not well. Trouble sprang   with George Fernandes dismissing  Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat in 1998. Jaya ,who became  the target  was soon attacked  by Tehelka’s stings—first concerning her son-in-law-to-be Ajay Jadeja and then herself in an alleged bribery case.

 Fernandes was forced  to resign as India’s Defence Minister and Jaya quit as the Samata Party President. However , she spiritedly fought booth capturing in Bihar as well as fellow party men’s egos, intervened and ensured the installation of the Samata government in Manipur. All this, even as she continued her parallel fight for the livelihood of craftsmen on the one hand, and conceptualised and ensured establishment of the first Dilli Haat.

Recalling spiritedly all the highlights of  Indian politics for three decades , including her tryst  with the Commission of Inquiry and courts regarding the Tehelka stings makes  absorbing  read. A no-holds barred  memoir that presents a perspective on the functioning of Indian politics from a woman’s point of view.

Jaya has accused the Congress of having a hand in the Tehelka sting 'Operation West End', which led to Fernandes' resignation and that was when UPA was in power. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had asked then Finance Minister  Chidambaram to ensure that Tehelka's alleged financiers are not treated in an "unfair" or "unjust" manner. While L K Advani and Jaswant Singh advised George not to resign, message was received that the  PM had  agreed to accept George’s resignation following pressure from few other party leaders.

The author writes, “Apart from the message of PM accepting George Fernandes’s resignation, Jaswant Singh conveyed that Vajpayee had also wanted me to resign from the post of the President of the Samata Party since the BJP President, Bangaru Laxman, had resigned. I found it very odd that the request for my resignation should come from the leader of another party, however senior and important he may be.”

Jaya  recounts her experiences during the investigations under the Commission of Inquiry, instituted after the Tehelka sting. When the matter was suddenly and arbitrarily sent to a court, she says she feared that the judge, who convicted former BJP president Bangaru Laxman of bribery and was hearing her case too, would eventually convict her irrespective of her arguments.

In the book, Jaya further recollects her meeting with alleged arms middleman Christian Michel, and how he bragged about helping prime minister PV Narasimha Rao to spy on Sonia Gandhi and then went on to offer her an opportunity to make a "huge pile of money" for her party.

In the context of her revelations on how defence deals are done in India, Jaya mentions a meeting with an unnamed senior Congressman where he informed her that people were willing to pay "twenty lakh rupees to have a cup of tea" with her. When she asked him why he explained that "it cuts the competition".This event  was during the first NDA government and when Fernandes was the defence minister.

She  blames Lalu Prasad for protecting the attackers of Bhagalpur riots of October 1989. "It was clear to me that it was the large Muslim population that had been attacked and many of those who joined in doing so were part of Lalu Prasad Yadav's caste. It was because of his interest in protecting the attackers that even though some eye-wash commissions were set up later to get to the truth of these riots, they never got off the ground,"

Jaya also accuses Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of having given the Rajya Sabha seat, earlier promised to her, to a businessman in 2005."On the morning of the very last day for filing nominations, just after the last flight had left Delhi for Patna, George Sahib received a call from the Chief Minister saying he could not give me the seat as he had decided to give it to 'King Mahendra' (Mahendra Prasad), a businessman who had moved from Congress to RJD to Congress and now JD(U). He said he had helped the Party in the elections."

 Jaya is happy that she and her  team of artists, designers and researchers  created a vast amount of artistic documentation through maps of all the crafts, arts and textiles we could find over a long period of 15 years. The maps and the book that came out of it, "The Crafts Atlas of India ", are still going strong and used in many institutions.

We have lovely pen portraits of  Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Pupul Jayakar. "Kamaladevi  was a true icon for me. She was one of those personalities I genuinely admired, respected and considered the best person to guide my vision and work among crafts people. She also reassured me that creative work in the world of art and culture could be integrated with electoral politics, writing and other forms of public activism. Pupul Jayakar had fine aesthetic sensibilities and was very kind to me but I felt she came from Indira Gandhi’s darbar and had some unfair advantages because of that.

The book is an eminently  readable autobiography packed with information and delightful anecdotes.

P.P.Ramachandran.

08 / 04 / 2018