Human history is replete with men and women known for their tragicomic behaviour. Among these are many who have been kings and leaders of nations. In India we have the classic example of Muhammed – Bin - Tughlaq, whom the historians call the wisest fool and indeed he was an odd mixture of wisdom and foolishness. It was he who shifted the capital of his empire from Delhi to Aurangabad (Dhavalagiri) now in Maharashtra, as it is the centre of his empire. However, soon it was shifted back as there was no infrastructure and also due to the problems of logistics. It was he who introduced the leather currency replacing gold coins. He was also given to sudden fits of tantrums and was peevish.
In the present history, Mr. Idi Amin, the deposed Dictator of Uganda, has no peers in being a tragicomic hero. Of course, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya did try to excel Idi Amin in political gimmickry and personal antics. However, being more religious than Mr. Amin, Colonel Gaddafi found himself far behind Dada. No wonder Gaddafi gave the fugitive Amin refuge in his country Libya probably more as a fan of Amin than to help his political rehabilitation. Ironically, today, Gaddafi too is faced with the same problem as Idi Amin did with the ongoing peoples' uprising to throw him out of office and if possible, out of the country. Nemesis may soon catch up with him.
For a long time since the overthrow of Dada, the world was poorer for want of a replacement to humour the grim - faced newspaper readers. But Amin surfaced to give an interview to a French Magazine from his hideout in Libya. The interview makes an interesting reading which I enjoyed thoroughly and I would like to share the same with those of my readers who have missed it. But only the interesting part of it.
Mr. Amin said he managed to escape the country as Tanzanian forces and Ugandan rebels were closing in on him by dressing himself as a Tanzanian Sergeant and fleeing in a Tanzanian army jeep. "I asked some Tanzanian officers what Idi Amin Dada looked like. They answered that I was two meters tall and weighed 150 kilograms. The exaggerations of the Western Press saved my life because my enemies were mistaken with regard to my physique," he said.
The Western Press has the habit of exaggerating everything. "These magazines select the worst photos which show me like an overfed monkey," Mr. Amin said.
Asked if he was a cannibal, Mr. Amin said he was not, but he said he once was forced to eat human flesh.
"When I was a sergeant in the English army and my mission was to infiltrate the Mau Mau organisation in Uganda and the Belgian Congo, I was captured by cannibals of a Mau Mau tribe and was forced to eat human flesh with other English soldiers. We risked death if we refused."
This reminds me of what our former Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon said about a soldier being court - martialled and shot dead for the "offence" of refusing to drink rum during the early days of British Raj.
Asked if he had money put away in Switzerland, Mr. Amin said: "Yes, that's true, but much less than the Press has written."
Well, every dictator, President or leading politician has lots of money stashed away in secret Swiss Bank accounts for the rainy day, as it were, being faced by them as is happening to Libyan leader Gaddafi now or Mubarak of Egypt. Same as our politicians. According to Swiss Banking Association report of 2006, the Indian nationals have $ 1,456 billion in secret accounts. This is the highest among all the countries in the world, the second being Russia with $ 470 billion.
