Why our politicians don’t write memoirs

Politicians become statesmen only after they write their memoirs. Not aphorisms, not a compilation of their speeches or life lessons, not a glorified photo album, but an autobiography. Unlike a biography-which in this country is almost always hagiography-an autobiography gives us a politician’s PoV. Or more accurately, how he or she wants us to see his or her legacy. Two memoirs have been released this month. First, Bill Clinton‘s Citizen: My Life After the White House-his second after his 2004 My Life. Second, Angela Merkel‘s Freedom. Both ex-US president and ex-German chancellor, as you must have noticed, are retired from politics. And that should provide a clue why our politicians almost never write memoirs. Because Indian politicians never retire.

Leaving the political stage and writing about your life gives the impression-a neat illusion, really-that with no more skin in the game, you will tell your story as faithfully as possible, even as the whole point is to share your PoVs and biases. Without that distancing, any ‘memoir’ jolly well becomes a blatant PR exercise, even a campaign tool. This perception makes a potential readership, already averse to reading, less enthused to know more about the public figure. In the process, what happens is we get to know far more about foreign politicians than our own lot. Ironic, no?