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The Chinar Leaves: A Political Memoir
Memoir of one of Indira Gandhi's closest confidantsOne day, soon after M.L. Fotedar had joined Indira Gandhi as political secretary in July 1980, she told him to sit at 1 Akbar Road. This would enable him to meet the people who came to her with various requests. She suggested a small room to serve as his workspace. But it was one she was emotionally attached to -- it was used by her son Sanjay, who had recently died in an air crash.For the rest of Indira Gandhi's final term in office, this room would be the nerve centre of Fotedar's work. Ordinary people and senior party leaders would come there for him to filter their requests and complaints. From assessing future leaders -- be it V.P. Singh, Pranab Mukherjee or Ahmed Patel -- with remarkable foresight, to straightening up those who were being difficult, he did it all. The Chinar Leaves paints a portrait of a six-decade-long political career that began in Kashmir and gives insights into the murky world of national politics. Here are the stories of many careers that were made and unmade in the Congress. Among these are the saga of Narasimha Rao's no-holds-barred effort to stay in power, Amitabh Bachchan's falling out of favour with the Gandhi family, the machinations of succession after Indira Gandhi's death, Giani Zail Singh's tiff with Rajiv, and many more. Fotedar, for long the voice of political wisdom in the party, also passes his verdict on the current crop of Congress leadership and searches Indira Gandhi's will, to which he was a signatory, for the true successor to her legacy.As a record of Indian politics at a time of momentous events, this is a frank and sometimes shocking look at recent history from the man who exercised immense influence from behind the scenes and whose impact continues to this day.
371 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 13, 2016
M L Fotedar is a known crisis manager and been man Friday for Indira all the years. He has been in more or less same role with Rajiv/Sonia but his importance was reduced with them.
Ignore the fact that book has some self-glorification and less critical evaluation of Mrs. Gandhi, the book reveals some lesser-known facts about congress and its leaders. There is hardly a thing about Indira Gandhi which we don't know.
The best bits of the book are towards the end where Fotedar critically evaluates the leadership crisis in
Congress and fears the path it is being lead to. You need to have balls of brass to say that about current leadership being a member of CWC and Election Committee of Congress :-).
To me, Fotedar saheb been a great political secretary. All over the world, this kind of role gets your image sullen once the leadership has changed, you are portraited as a villain, and so on. But good thing about Fotedar saheb is that his name never came up in any controversial kick-back allegations or improper conduct.
Ignore the fact that book has some self-glorification and less critical evaluation of Mrs. Gandhi, the book reveals some lesser-known facts about congress and its leaders. There is hardly a thing about Indira Gandhi which we don't know.
The best bits of the book are towards the end where Fotedar critically evaluates the leadership crisis in
Congress and fears the path it is being lead to. You need to have balls of brass to say that about current leadership being a member of CWC and Election Committee of Congress :-).
To me, Fotedar saheb been a great political secretary. All over the world, this kind of role gets your image sullen once the leadership has changed, you are portraited as a villain, and so on. But good thing about Fotedar saheb is that his name never came up in any controversial kick-back allegations or improper conduct.
February 5, 2017
Interesting read because the author tries to recount from his experience close to the Nehru gandhi family since early 1960s when he started working with Jawahar Lal Nehru and subsequently came in contact with Indira Gandhi, and orchestrated the rise of Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narsimharao and Sonia Gandhi. Googling him we can find many articles calling him the Political Chanakya and the story in the book is no less. The years on India politics from 1980 to 2004 can be called as Fotedar years because he was behind the scene man part and parcel in every major decisons and the book covers much of those behind the scenes beautifully.
In between quotes, inter party rivalries, issues with PV Narsimharao, with Venkatraman during VP Singh government, Arun Nehru and the Bofors Scam, the killings of Rajiv and Indira gandhi, the humane side of INdira are some the key take aways. The author also spends lot of time on SOnia Gandhi and how he was instrumental in bringing her in the cente stage and keep a jai jai Sonia tune towards the end of the book while upholding his kashmiri humility.
However to be true and clear the book is a disaster for an honest reader for various reasons. One, it is absolutely one sided account. Nehru Gandhi family is probably worshipped in the book and events like the Emergency have been downplayed. I was aghast to see that the entire event of Sikh riots was deleted of whose blame the COngress leadership has to own up till the end of its existence. ON the other hand the Babri Masjid incident has been detailed second by second to discredit PV Narsimharao. Every bit of analysis has been presented to discredit him which is quite contrary to many authors because he was probably the COngress leader who tried to break this NEhru Gandhi nexus by AICC democratic elections etc.
Interest of the reader goes further down when he compares the 2014 COngress defeat due to Telangana division and just forgets the 10 years of scams that captured headlines every day. There are manny similr incidents wherein the justifications and arguements of the author are too raw to believe, made just to please SOniaji or probably what not. Fotedar might have achieved much during the 1980s but today the level to which he has been sidelined is visible from his wikipedia page which contains a small reference of 2-5 lines for such a famous leader. Today he is sidelines and I think that is the political reality of how things work. This book is seems like a part biography and part means to create self relevence in India todya.
In between quotes, inter party rivalries, issues with PV Narsimharao, with Venkatraman during VP Singh government, Arun Nehru and the Bofors Scam, the killings of Rajiv and Indira gandhi, the humane side of INdira are some the key take aways. The author also spends lot of time on SOnia Gandhi and how he was instrumental in bringing her in the cente stage and keep a jai jai Sonia tune towards the end of the book while upholding his kashmiri humility.
However to be true and clear the book is a disaster for an honest reader for various reasons. One, it is absolutely one sided account. Nehru Gandhi family is probably worshipped in the book and events like the Emergency have been downplayed. I was aghast to see that the entire event of Sikh riots was deleted of whose blame the COngress leadership has to own up till the end of its existence. ON the other hand the Babri Masjid incident has been detailed second by second to discredit PV Narsimharao. Every bit of analysis has been presented to discredit him which is quite contrary to many authors because he was probably the COngress leader who tried to break this NEhru Gandhi nexus by AICC democratic elections etc.
Interest of the reader goes further down when he compares the 2014 COngress defeat due to Telangana division and just forgets the 10 years of scams that captured headlines every day. There are manny similr incidents wherein the justifications and arguements of the author are too raw to believe, made just to please SOniaji or probably what not. Fotedar might have achieved much during the 1980s but today the level to which he has been sidelined is visible from his wikipedia page which contains a small reference of 2-5 lines for such a famous leader. Today he is sidelines and I think that is the political reality of how things work. This book is seems like a part biography and part means to create self relevence in India todya.
September 12, 2020
Interested reading by a devout Gandhi family man Mr Fotedar. His in-depth analysis and his worries for Congress Party reflect his pain and concern for the organization with which he remained associated his whole life.
April 28, 2019
Painful to read this sychphantic account of the Nehru=Gandhi durbar, reminds one of the all the drawbacks of the dynastic regime that repel so many people to this day.
November 6, 2015
Pointless book. Purpose is primarily to paint himself into critical times/decisions of AICC & countries history. Also an attempt to whitewash Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi eras, and show that UPA suffered as he was sidelined.
May 18, 2025
The memoirs of an unapologetic family retainer who wears his sycophancy on his sleeves. This book is important for it details in no uncertain terms how India was run by the Nehru-Gandhi family as their personal fiefdom- how the Presidential candidate ran over each other to prove their allegiance to the family and how political largesse was doled out to loyalists with no nationalistic ideals or love for the nation. The country is fortunate that we are not ruled by them anymore
July 4, 2017
Am no fan of Nehru / Gandhi family and the book is full of self-glorification by Fotedarji but somehow he manages to keep the reader interested. In spite of book being a chronology of political incidents or events the story telling is a high point of the book.
June 15, 2020
From someone who was a self-professed confidant of the Gandhi Family - yet another narrative!
October 29, 2018
A darbari's (servant) tribute to his master (nehru- feroz gandhi clan)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Fotedar written his political memoir as a tribute to Nehru-feroz gandhi family and it is very sad that such type of humans still present in 21st century who behaved and acts like a slave to serve his/her master faithfully and mr.fotedar proved in his book that he is a slave of this family and he can do anything to please his master's.
In this book The reader will not get an iota of information other than the glorification of Indira Gandhi, rajiv gandhi, and sonia gandhi. Though he described about himself who born in kashmir and how he meet pandit Nehru and his early days in politics and later as an MLA in the State of J&K .
Mr.fotedar served as a political secretary to indira gandhi ,rajiv gandhi and later served faithfully soniaji
He foolishly supported the emergency, and according to him it was very good for the nation because it reduced the corruption and the indiscipline which is prevailing in India at that time. According to him those who opposed Indira feroz gandhi (no connection with mahatma gandhi) are capitalists and anti-poor, and the so called policies of indira like socialism,license,permit and quota raj was very good because it is pro-poor. How fool he is .He tells us about emergency but didn't included a single reference to the acts committed by the youth Congress workers like forced sterilization of people under the guidance of Sanjay gandhi.
He tells us the sacrifices made by indira gandhi and how the latter was killed because of this.This man didn't uttered a single word in his book on the 1984 sikh riots in which Uncountable Numbers of sikhs were brutally murdered by the mob led by Congress party politicians. He glorify the acts of rajiv gandhi and how the latter was a visionary leader. He defamed the former Prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and indirectly called him as the first BJP (Bhartiya Janta party) PM . The PM he is defaming is the same man who opened the indian economy for the entire world and because of his vision and policies and efforts India became the 7th largest economy in the entire world. Mr. Fotedar also blamed P.V for the demolition of babari masjid.
He tells us how he tried to convince Sonia to take over as PM after the death of her husband Rajiv, because according to fotedar she belongs to Nehru-feroz gandhi family.
He also revealed that indira gandhi wanted priyanka Vadra as her political heir not rahul gandhi, one thing which fotedar rightly said that the leadership of Rahul Gandhi is not acceptable to the people of Hindustan (india).
At last I will recommend to reader if you get this book at a good discount only then go for this book, otherwise just wait for the right deal.Although Mr.fotedar glorified the slave mentality and the loyalty towards a particular family rather than towards one's own nation but he also exposed the hypocrisy of our political system and those who are running it in the name of democracy.
I hope you like the review, thanks for reading, Jai Hind.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Fotedar written his political memoir as a tribute to Nehru-feroz gandhi family and it is very sad that such type of humans still present in 21st century who behaved and acts like a slave to serve his/her master faithfully and mr.fotedar proved in his book that he is a slave of this family and he can do anything to please his master's.
In this book The reader will not get an iota of information other than the glorification of Indira Gandhi, rajiv gandhi, and sonia gandhi. Though he described about himself who born in kashmir and how he meet pandit Nehru and his early days in politics and later as an MLA in the State of J&K .
Mr.fotedar served as a political secretary to indira gandhi ,rajiv gandhi and later served faithfully soniaji
He foolishly supported the emergency, and according to him it was very good for the nation because it reduced the corruption and the indiscipline which is prevailing in India at that time. According to him those who opposed Indira feroz gandhi (no connection with mahatma gandhi) are capitalists and anti-poor, and the so called policies of indira like socialism,license,permit and quota raj was very good because it is pro-poor. How fool he is .He tells us about emergency but didn't included a single reference to the acts committed by the youth Congress workers like forced sterilization of people under the guidance of Sanjay gandhi.
He tells us the sacrifices made by indira gandhi and how the latter was killed because of this.This man didn't uttered a single word in his book on the 1984 sikh riots in which Uncountable Numbers of sikhs were brutally murdered by the mob led by Congress party politicians. He glorify the acts of rajiv gandhi and how the latter was a visionary leader. He defamed the former Prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and indirectly called him as the first BJP (Bhartiya Janta party) PM . The PM he is defaming is the same man who opened the indian economy for the entire world and because of his vision and policies and efforts India became the 7th largest economy in the entire world. Mr. Fotedar also blamed P.V for the demolition of babari masjid.
He tells us how he tried to convince Sonia to take over as PM after the death of her husband Rajiv, because according to fotedar she belongs to Nehru-feroz gandhi family.
He also revealed that indira gandhi wanted priyanka Vadra as her political heir not rahul gandhi, one thing which fotedar rightly said that the leadership of Rahul Gandhi is not acceptable to the people of Hindustan (india).
At last I will recommend to reader if you get this book at a good discount only then go for this book, otherwise just wait for the right deal.Although Mr.fotedar glorified the slave mentality and the loyalty towards a particular family rather than towards one's own nation but he also exposed the hypocrisy of our political system and those who are running it in the name of democracy.
I hope you like the review, thanks for reading, Jai Hind.
August 9, 2016
A tale of rising through the ranks of a family business called Indian National Congress by utter sycophancy. The author has placed Indira Gandhi at a pedestal higher than most people would imagine she deserved, almost making a demigod of her. The narrative is quite superficial, lacking details as well as literary flair, further worsened by blots of direct translation from Kashmiri to English.
December 1, 2015
Just a collection of incidents in chronological order from Fotedar saheb's life without much structure or depth. This book really needed a ghost writer. Atleast Fotedar does not shy away from pretending that the Congress party is anything more than the royal court of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
November 17, 2015
A glorified account of Indira Gandhi by a sycophant!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews