'Indians Need To Be Unsentimental'

With Dead On Time (HarperCollins India), Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus of the London School of Economics (LSE), has entered the world of thriller and fiction. Simply put, the novel is a day in the life of Harry White, Britain’s charismatic and politically-savvy prime minister. Desai speaks to Sanjitha Rao Chaini on his views on India's new government the UPA’s immediate tasks, learnings for an economist from the slowdown and his latest book. Excerpts:

Why did you decided to write a fiction now?
Curiosity, I guess. I used to write plays when I was in college. I translated Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House into Gujarati when I was 16. We staged it. I then translated The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. And then I did a thriller Dial M For Murder — which was turned into a play. I sort of had an inclination towards theatre when I was studying in Bombay. I went abroad, got into a career in Economics and didn't really have time to do theatre or plays. I became active in politics and then had less time for other things. So, when I retired, I began to think about writing this novel.

So, I thought about writing it and I lost the manuscript. This was around 1999. I used to write it by long hand. I was travelling and in Brussels railway station, before getting on to the train, I saw this store selling chocolates and so on, and I left my suitcase and it was gone. The manuscript was inside. But I have a very good memory, so I wasn't really worried. And then after retiring, I resumed writing.

You normally don't associate an economist writing fiction and with creativity...
I don't care whether anybody else does it, I will do it. I don't have to think, ‘oh I am an economist I cannot write novels. I was interested in these things before I became an economist. So, I am going back to my early interests. At 68, you don't write autobiographical novels that nobody is interested in... I wanted to write a thriller.

Did you choose this storyline because you knew a lot about it?
Yes, I knew a lot about this. Nobody has shot a UK Prime Minister. I could think of a variety of conspiracies and political controversies since I knew London and I have been in the Parliament.

Do you find writing for fiction tiresome as opposed to non-fiction? What is the kind of research you did for this book?
I find writing fiction exciting. For non-fiction, most of the work is done before you start writing. In writing thrillers, some people do research if they have to write on some historical period... like Dan Brown. For me, this particular thriller, I could start writing immediately. For the football match, there is a friend of mine in House Of Lords — a Scottish Lawyer who had written a report on football riots. And then the rest of the book is quite straight forward and didn't require 'data gathering'.

Everyone is talking about Obama's performance. Do you think he will live up to people's expectations?
Obama has just completed about 100 days as President. I think these deadlines generate a false sense of pressure. He has four years. Some of these problems are not going to be sorted out soon. I think what people are waiting for is: is Obama trying to solve the problems, and whether he actually cares or can he avoid making a big mistake. All those three things: Yes. He got to action quickly. By and large, it's an enormous problem and he is dealing with it. And in politics, there is never a time for the perfect solution. He has done all right so far.

Obama's problem is that a lot of people think that because he is black he is radical. But he's not. Obama is Centrist politician. He is immensely smart. He is probably the smartest US President since Woodrow Wilson. But he has limited political experience, he has a lot to learn. But because he is black, people attribute to him — he must have been very poor and struggling... But he was never that.

His father is not Afro-American Black and his father is an African — with no memory of slavery, which American Blacks have. Obama is free of all that. The boy has enough untypical upbringing but throughout there is no dire poverty. He has managed not put off people by being an intellectual — Americans are very anti-intellectual. No white person would have been able to do this.

Talking about Indian political scenario, the election results are out. Congress is not answerable to any allies and they are on their own now. Do you think the new government at the Centre will be under more pressure now to deliver?
The public will demand more of them. But they will not be diverted by  coalition partners. The coalition partners are by and large not interested in national issues and are small minded. They have no national perspective. Congress is now free to make decisions. They are not under any pressure to make bad decisions. Now, the Congress is more confident.

In 2004, they were surprised they won. And they began to build the coalition after they won and they gave away too much to the Left. But this time Manmohan is very angry, not so much Sonia. Sonia would still have the Left in. She always wants to have an even-sided bet. She is a risk averse person, she wants to play to both sides, just in case.

Does Sonia Gandhi's risk-averse nature arises from the fact that she has to make way for Rahul Gandhi some day to lead the country?
No, Sonia has always been an astute politician. She thinks long term. And her main purpose was to revive the Congress and make it once again National Union Party and be around when Rahul becomes the PM. And within 10 years of joining politics she has accomplished all three. What an ability!