FORMER ENVIRONMENT Minister Jairam Ramesh has come up with ‘Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature’, a new “unconventional” biography of the former Prime Minister, in which he explores her personality only as a nature lover.
You call her a nature lover in your book, not really an environmentalist.
She loved nature, wildlife, forests, mountains.
Yes, PMs do often get credit for things that happen through the system, but in her case, there is overwhelming evidence to show that she actively pushed for these initiatives.
Her own chief ministers, Shyama Charan Shukla, Arjun Singh, Barkatullah Khan, Hari Deo Joshi, V P Naik could openly defy her.
She wanted the central government to take over Bharatpur and Sariska national parks but both Hari Deo Joshi and Barkatullah Khan (chief ministers of Rajasthan at different times), who were her appointees, basically told her to go take a walk.
There were jobs at stake, local level demands, sometimes strategic interests to be taken care of.
Did you come across any evidence that would indicate which side she herself was leaning?
Ripley had directly written to Gandhi about this.
Bowles told him that Haksar had suggested that the complexities of the cow be best left to the Indian government.