Courage & Commitment: An Autobiography

Category Biographies & Memoirs
Format Hardback
Imprint Rupa
Price 500

ISBN: 978-81-291-3956-6
Pages: 380 pages
Date: July 2016

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Courage & Commitment—Margaret Alva’s unflinchingly honest autobiography—details her forty-year career under four Prime Ministers—Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, and her eventual transition from politician to Governor.

As the inheritor of a legacy—the Alvas have been associated with Indian Parliament for over half a century—Margaret Alva details her trials and triumphs, and confronts the controversies that have rocked her career—her 1979 expulsion from the Congress party; her spats with Sanjay Gandhi; her role in framing Rajiv Gandhi’s last campaign tour; her involvement with the Jain Hawala investigation when in charge of the CBI; her denunciation of the manipulation of seats by her own party; and the events leading to her resignation in 2008 from the post of the AICC General Secretary in charge of eight states. At the same time, she offers rare insights into the lives of national and international political luminaries.

Spanning Mangalore, Bangalore, New Delhi and the world at large; shedding light on family, friends and foes; and detailing politics and policies, manipulations and machinations—Courage & Commitment is the story of a simple life made remarkable, and is narrated with the author’s trademark candidness.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

As one of India’s youngest Rajya Sabha MPs at the age of thirty-two, and a Minister of State in Rajiv Gandhi’s Cabinet at forty-two, Margaret Alva is among India’s longest serving Parliamentarians. She has held several important positions in the Government of India and the Congress party, and served as Governor of four states. Over the years, she has been witness to several events that have played an important part in the political narrative of our times—among them the Emergency, Indira Gandhi’s Chikmagalur election, Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and Sonia Gandhi’s entry into politics. Margaret Alva now lives in Bangalore with her husband.