Watch: Setting the Record Straight on Subramanian Swamy

Roxna Swamy on how she channelled her anger at a censored interview into a tell-all book on her husband.

Roxna Swamy’s book Evolving with Subramanian Swamy - a roller coaster ride is out on Sunday, 17 September 2017.  

(Photo Courtesy: The Quint)

Roxna and Subramanian Swamy have been married for fifty years. Together, they’ve made a family, a political career and a legal practice. But regardless of the multiple controversies they’ve been in, they’ve never made an effort to set the record straight. Until now.

The idea of Roxna Swamy’s book came from the BBC’s decision to not publish an interview with her on the Emergency. She’d spoken about the circumstances that led to Subramanian Swamy’s estrangement with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Jan Sangh in the late 1970s.

After Swamy was expelled from the Rajya Sabha, I was shocked to find that the Jan Sangh was not prepared to support us in a writ petition challenging his expulsion. So I went across and met Vajpayee and I found that his whole attitude was that Swamy’s wrongdoing is so terrible that the entire Jan Sangh will suffer in reputation if we support him. 

“We were in Bangalore at the end of June. Naturally, Swamy came from Bangalore to Delhi. He was expecting to attend Parliament. But you know what happened, the Emergency was declared and Swamy did not attend Parliament. But I claimed the allowance on his behalf. It was Rs 400-500, I’m not sure which. Vajpayee made a big to-do about it and said this is corruption.”

‘How can the Jan Sangh support Swamy after he has taken the fruits of corruption?’ those were his exact words. I tried to explain to him, look at the language of the Act, it says if you travel to Delhi with the intention of attending Parliament, you are entitled to the TA (Travel Allowance) and the DA (Daily Allowance). That’s all I did. Swamy only signed the papers. It was I who drew them up.  

Also Read: Who Can Decode Subramanian Swamy Better Than His Wife in Her Book?

That it is an explosive revelation of several political figures, could explain why no publishing house was willing to be associated with the book.

I approached four very well-known publishers. And in each case, the editor who’d been given the book were all ladies. They all said they enjoyed the book, but that their Board of Management had made it clear that they would not publish it. So, one of them told me, ‘why don’t you self-publish?’. So that’s what I did. Because the elite in Delhi – that includes the Left and the Right – are not comfortable if somebody exposes the hypocrisy and if you read Swamy’s life, it is the exposure of the hypocrisy.  

Evolving with Subramanian Swamy - A roller coaster ride

Publisher: Roxna Swamy

Price: Rs 699