April 6, 1998

An autobiography that reforms but fails to impress.

By Hiranmay Karlekar

STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
BY MAMATA BANERJEE
PRICE: RS 325

This is a poorly organised, meandering, sloppily written and shoddily edited book. Printing mistakes are innumerable. West Bengal politicians are introduced into the narrative as Pradipda and Subhasish. Who are they? Mamata Banerjee states with disarming honesty in the introductory chapter entitled "Explanations": "I am not a writer, so there may exist certain faults in the style of narration for which I seek forgiveness." She has reasons to be modest about her writing skills in English -- she is a competent writer in Bengali -- but a good book editor could have straightened things out.

One feels particularly sore about all this because, despite its numerous drawbacks, the book makes interesting reading. It provides sharp glimpses into the unsavoury, behind-the-scene goings on in the Congress both in Calcutta and Delhi. More important, though not meant to be autobiographical, it tells a great deal about the life of a firebrand woman leader who has emerged as the principal opponent of West Bengal's Left Front Government. The impression that comes through clearly is that of a woman who does not know fear, who is scrupulously honest and who is in politics not to feather her own nest but to do her best for the underprivileged. Profoundly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, both of whom are quoted a number of times, she has a sound political instinct and her ears are close to the ground.

Her major weakness, of course, is her well-known gusts of emotion which can cloud her objectivity. Thus the book is dedicated to the memory of Rajiv Gandhi who is described as "the greatest martyr of free India". One thought the description was more appropriate to the other Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand.

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