One recent balmy evening had Delhi's high
society gathered at Teen Murti
Bhavan, watching the Prime Minister launch what may be one of the
last of its kind — a book of collected letters. It was a compilation of veteran
politician Karan Singh's correspondence with Indira Gandhi.
But, do Gen Now netas write letters?
It's a dying pastime — if not dead already — and
letter-writers are a dying breed. Obviously, books like Singh's — an exchange
of views between public figures through letters — are unlikely in the future.
Should we mourn the passing of an age? Yes, says psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar.
"The loss for historians , except for a vanishing breed that believes that
the public record is sufficient to fully explain the course of a historical
event, will be considerable. Without the intimate musings and private thoughts
of historical actors, the official record can be seriously misleading" .
It is indisputable that letters written by public
figures offer rare insight into their perception of contemporary events. Gandhi
and Nehru — both prolific letter-writers — have left a rich legacy for
historians and scholars.
What of tomorrow considering today's politicians
may be less inclined to take up pen and notepaper? BJP leader L K Advani
constantly writes letters to his daughter Pratibha, reportedly addressing
contemporary issues. "Even though they stay in the same house, Advaniji
writes detailed letters about various subjects to Pratibha . It is perhaps his
way of mentoring her," says a political analyst.
The Union cabinet can count at least one
meticulous correspondent — telecom and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal.
A senior official in the HRD ministry attributes this to Sibal's legal
background. She says that "he writes actively on issues he feels strongly
about. For instance , he wrote to a cross-section of people on the Right To
Education Act." Environment minister Jairam Ramesh is known
to have a penchant for dashing off letters to chief ministers on environmental
issues ranging from the Kutch grasslands to the policy on bamboo. A bureaucrat
who has worked with Ramesh says that "he has a keen chronicling sense.
Probably that's why he initiated the concept of 'speaking orders' that clearly
explain why certain decisions have been taken and puts them in the public
domain."
Politicians have often used letters as a political
tool. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee made a habit of writing long
open letters to the newspapers . Referred to as his musings, many saw them as
nothing but long rambling opinions, with lines from his poems or the odd
couplet thrown in. But they ostensibly served their purpose. Sudheendra
Kulkarni, Vajpayee's former aide, says that it was an inspirational way for the
poet prime minister to "reach out to people, put across his point and
silence critics”.
But, "inspirational" techniques are now
seen to be the preserve of wired and high-tech politicians. Most politicians
now confess they don't have the time — or the need — to write letters. Heavy
industries minister Praful Patel says he only writes official letters to other
politicians or bureaucrats. "I don't write letters to other businessmen
ever since I entered the public arena. As for personal letters, I don't write
them. I would rather pick up the phone and talk," he says.
Is there anything in that we didn't know? It is no
secret that changing forms of communication have eliminated the need for
politicians to use a pen and paper. Lyricist and Rajya Sabha member Javed
Akhtar says "there are a plethora of platforms to air opinions today. In
these times of social networking , instant messaging, blogs and 24-hour TV,
what chance does the humble letter stand?"
It may be easier than ever before to communicate,
but what of the content? Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of the Mahatma, says
quality has suffered ."Correspondence today is much more like
announcements than an exchange of ideas leading up to a development of
philosophies. There is very little meaningful correspondence like that between
Bapu and Tolstoy or Bapu and Shrimad Rajchandra."
In any case, letters have been all but replaced by
emails. Are politicians using electronic mail instead of the post to put across
their point? Hardly. A close associate of a minister says that "although
most netas have email IDs, they rarely use it for exchange of views. Perhaps,
the spectre of WikiLeaks or Radia tapes looms over their head. Or, they just
fear getting spammed." That said, emails don't have the same appeal as
letters. "By their very nature, emails are informational and less intimate
than letters which are more personal and reflective. One can scarcely imagine
readers queuing up to buy a book with the title 'The Collected E-mails of
...," says psychoanalyst Kakar.
Perhaps. But the jury is still out on that.
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