The fall of the mighty – Nixon, VP Singh and Satyam
As Frank Langella fills up the screen – the camera capturing every single twitch on his face, his upper lip speckled with tiny sweat droplets and his voice turns to a guttural rumble – he almost becomes Nixon. And, for once, you understand the man – his unfulfilled desire for greatness, his need for redemption. Not sympathize, just understand. Nixon’s rollercoaster ride is well chronicled – a modest beginning, serving the Navy during WW2, VP before he turned 40, a devastating, possibly undeserving, loss to JFK during the first televised Presidential debate since he looked shifty, years in political wilderness and then winning the presidential election twice. For many this would be a wildly successful life – a life to thank for. But not for Nixon. His own sense of insecurity, his view of his place in history, his enemies, real or imagined, didn’t allow him peace. For someone who rose on the back of political conservatism, he eventually seemed to be consumed by it.
“That’s our tragedy”, he says. “No matter how high we get, they still look down at us.”
And then, Watergate happened. Frost/Nixon, while an interesting study of Nixon, post-Watergate is more importantly a study of the fall of man. To Nixon, it’s almost incredible why others around him won’t see things they way he does.
It’s been interesting few months to ponder over the nature of greatness. During the days when the terrorists lay siege over South Mumbai, former PM V.P. Singh passed away. The news didn’t even register a blip on those days. Surprisingly, there was no further analysis or discussions on his legacy in the days that followed when things had calmed down. This was the most influential man in Indian politics in the last quarter of century. A man who was responsible for every single phenomenon that has dominated our polity since he arrived on the national scene when he broke the back of dacoit groups during his time as the CM of UP. A liberalization pioneer (his budget as the Finance Minister signaled the start of liberalization regime), a crusader against corruption in high places (Bofors, ongoing battle against a few corporates), social re-engineer (the Mandalization of politics), pitting his version of secularism against communalism (arresting Advani during his Rath Yatra) and engendering the era of coalition (development of regional and caste based combinations) – whether you are for or against these notions, you can’t deny their importance in our polity.
So, what does it signal when such a man dies almost unheralded – when there’s barely an acknowledgement of his impact, when those who he created pass over his demise without a reference? How does someone of his stature wallow in political wilderness and eventually be consumed by it? In a parallel to Nixon, V.P. Singh rose to national consciousness as a middle class hero and was finally dumped into political oblivion by the same class.
Nixon’s line would possibly resonate with V.P. Singh’s as well.
“That’s our tragedy”, he says. “No matter how high we get, they still look down at us.”
As the Satyam corporate saga played out last week and we found another instance of greatness being marred, I wondered how difficult it is for greatness to subdue its inner voices or manage its inner demons.
It’s impossible to explain – why did Nixon order the taping and later burn those tapes, why did V.P. Singh abandon his entire political base on a single throw of dice to neutralize Devi Lal or why did Rajus end up the way they did?
Regardless, the fall of the mighty makes for great drama.
Tags: Frost/Nixon, VP Singh
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Nice write up..public memory is very short..good or bad..I was quite surprised at the way V.P sngh banished himself into oblivion or was forced to..Sitaram Kesari..Narasimh Rao was another case.
Excellent write up.
“he almost becomes Nixon. And, for once, you understand the man – his unfulfilled desire for greatness, his need for redemption. Not sympathize, just understand.” ….absolutely…I agree with you.
Very interesting connections… Nixon and VP Singh I can see but Rajus… I am not sure…
add to the list, KIM WOO CHOO, the foundar of Dawoo group of south korea. His company was 45 on foortune 500 list, before his down fall began. He was also from a very humble background. He used to sell news papers on streets of Seol ,when he was a teen. His autobiography “every street is paved with gold” was so inspiring. But is quest to become great or number 1, ruined every thing.
I think v.p’s case is a little different. He has not been able to bask in the halo of lib realization because that story was re-written twice. First by BJP and later by congress when they reclaimed power and attributed it to Singh, Rao and all the way back to rajiv.
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Manfalization had a strong influence and combined with caste based politics and coalitions but no one would argue that these were positive influences. People don’t talk ill of the dead and are probably staying away from criticizing his legacy.
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Doesn’t explain why no one cared to do so all these years when he was in banvaas.