New Delhi, Jan 12 (TIWN) It's very easy to judge V.K. Krishna with his long record of pluses and minuses; on what he accomplished he commands plaudits, on what he blotched up, he deserves strictures, writes former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh in his meticulously researched biography of the former Defence Minister, who emerges as a larger than life figure in spite of his greatest setback, the Chinese invasion of 1962.

"Krishna Menon''s achievements were gigantic, his failures monumental. His intellectual strengths were awesome, his emotional equilibrium pathetic. He was the delight of his crisis, the despair of his admirers. He reached dizzying heights of fame, plumbed to depths of notoriety. It is very easy to judge Krishna Menon. He has a long record of pluses and minuses. On what he accomplished, he commands plaudits. On what he blotched up, he deserves strictures," Ramesh, a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha, writes in "A Chequered Brilliance - The Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon" (Penguin-Viking/pp725/Rs999).  More than the Chinese debacle that cost him his job, what Krishna will be remembered for, other things apart, was his special relationship with India''s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. 

"That Nehru opened up to him like no one else was evident. He went out of his way to protect Krishna Menon from his own foibles and ultimately paid the price for it. This is part of Indian political history. But why Nehru continued to be loyal after accounting for their remarkable and intense friendship of almost thirty years is puzzling," Ramesh writes.  What many have perhaps forgotten is that for almost two decades, Krishna Menon was singularly responsible for creating and sustaining a climate of opinion in favour of Indian independence in various sections of British society. 

"That he almost single-handedly kept the flame of Indian freedom burning across the UK in the 1930s and 1940s is without question. That he played a crucial role in the transfer-of-power negotiations in the months leading up to the end of British rule in India is evident," the book says.  "That he was a hugely impactful envoy for India in the UK between 1947 and 1950 can stand up to scrutiny. That he unravelled many knotty issues at the UN especially between 1952 and 1957 is also clear," Ramesh writes.  He also notes that Krishna Menon did India proud at the height of the Cold War. "He argued India''s case with passion and eloquence. At a time when the Western powers were ruling the roost, he had the temerity and courage to take them on on his terms. But after 1957 or so, his tongue and his manner, barring occasional flashes of constructive engagement, created a negative global image for Nehru and India.  For years thereafter, the ghost of Krishna Menon lingered over both the substance and style of Indian democracy - needlessly argumentative and combative. And that ghost still lingers," the book says.  What also lingers is the ghost of 1962 and this overshadows two key contributions of Krishna Menon during his tenure as Defence Minister.