Book Review #69: 2014 The Election That Changed India By Rajdeep Sardesai

Title: 2014: The Election That Changed India

Author: Rajdeep Sardesai

Publishers: Penguin India

Genre: Non-Fiction

Pages: 370+

Source: Personal Copy

2002 Gujarat Riots, Narendra Modi, BJP, Congress, Hinduism, RSS, VHP, Minorities, Moral Compass, etc... These are the main highlights of a book that was being titled “2014: Election that changed India”. As it may sound odd at sometimes, but, Rajdeep a debutant in book writing, has written a well-researched book. His journalistic background has given him an exclusive access to some of the insider information that was accounted in this book in a detailed manner. As one of the controversial figure in the journalists arena in India, Rajdeep has took great care while airing his opinion. At times, one may feel like he is being biased and it seems very true in few chapters. His hatred towards some section of the politician, and his love and care towards other politicians is almost evident in this book.

The book covers everything from post UPA-2 government times and of course he begins his journey with his favorite topic “2002 Gujarat Riots”. I somehow felt, this has been written out of proportion. Rajdeep doesn’t follow the rule of “forget and move on”. Anyways, that’s what made him the man today. He constantly nitpicks about Modi and his Chief ministerial day’s right from the days of 2002 till the 2012 elections where Modi scored convincing 3^rd time win. He writes about his encounters during riot days and also writes his journey as a beginner journalist to his newsroom editor job.

While writing about Modi versus Rahul part, Rajdeep has shown his affinity towards the later one by being apologetic. He was constantly writing about how Rahul Gandhi missed an opportunity to conquer the vacant spot rather than writing about Rahul’s quality as a politician. He has expressed his prejudiced opinion about Narendra Modi and doesn't even care to write about the dumbness of Rahul. All he wanted to showcase was his loyal support towards a much hyped secularism at the cost of being righteous.

What was more fascinating about the book is its detailed explanation of the various strategies that was used by every political party during the 2014 elections, the mother of all elections as he puts it. He constantly reminds us about the unwillingness of Rahul Gandhi to take up the leads of his party and how he remained as a shadow and never shown up his face in the time of crisis and stuff. He goes on mentioning about the various corporate heads that turned and poured their money towards the BJP and Modi. He also writes about the amount of money being spent by each party during election without giving concrete evidence. All he writes about “a close associate from the BJP has said that” or “a senior politician from the party has told me” or “a bureaucrat has updated me on the request on anonymity” and so on. So, it’s understood that he wrote many things just by going with the information leaked. He equated the BJP as cash-rich party of 2014 and congress as a sinking ship.

The book accounts some of the greater details about each political party that has recruited some of the major advertising agencies for their campaign. This is good information from the book that can be taken away. I always suspected that, no major political party could win any election only because of their foot soldiers door to door campaign. It was proved right on the spot after reading the major advertising companies that each party has recruited and spent crores of money on ads and make over of the politicians. The BJP, The Congress and the new entrant AAP has been in this roller coaster ride of campaigning. Rajdeep even writes about the major women politicians of the country such as Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and Jayalalitha and their strategy and planning in the 2014 elections. It was a detailed, well researched story.

At the end of the book, several astonishing statistics about this 2014 elections juxtaposed with the 2009 elections is quite fascinating. Surely, this 2014 election was mother of all elections considering the preparations and execution. A simple, no nonsense book that can be read easily. However, it seemed like, Rajdeep hasn't left his one liners, mocking high profile people and their political inclinations. Anyways, a good book to learn about the 2014 elections.

My Rating:

3/5

Book Review #17: A Suitable Boy By Vikram Seth

This book is a complete challenge for the readers. Massive in its appearance and thousands of pages makes this book as the longest novel ever written by an Indian author in the 20th century in a single volume. Story ranging from activities of political parties from the post-independence time in India, the Zamindari abolition bill in the parliament, the shoe manufacturing process, cricket, poetry, triangular love stories, family sentiments, etc., etc, etc,.. you name it, you will have it in this book.

Vikram Seth, the author of this book A Suitable Boy, made his readers spellbound with this amazing book. Spread across 1500+ pages, it is difficult for any readers to keep track of the story. Personally, I felt, this is challenging for me to read. I often felt like stopping reading this book because I was getting bored at times. Nevertheless, It kept me going page after page and it took me almost 3 weeks to complete this book.

As the title of the book says, the story of the book is about finding A Suitable Boy (or groom) for the heroine of our novel Lata Mehra. This is one side of the novel, which never loses track of the readers. Apart from this, there are stories about the political activities of all political parties especially congress after the Indian Independence. There is also stories of Poetry, Spirituality, Cricket, Shoe manufacturing process, University proceedings, Court drama, Parliament meetings, Hindu-Muslim riots, love, revenge, sex, songs etc..

It is a lifetime experience to read such books. It is a tedious job to write a review even. It is always good if you read the physical copy of this book rather than going for a digital copy. The joy in reading this book by holding it in your hands is priceless. Going page after page will give you immense pleasure and a sense of satisfaction that you are bound to achieve something.

Before setting the plot for the novel, Author had given an introduction of the all the characters and the family tree of the characters. Since, the novel involves around 40 characters and almost 5 families which intertwined in the novel deeply. It is certainly expected of the readers to forget some of the family connection at the beginning of the novel. Readers can always go back and refer to the family tree to keep track of the persons and their relationship with another person in the novel.

The plot opens when Mrs. Rupa Mehra is conducting the marriage ceremony of her elder daughter Savita Mehra with Pran Kapoor, the son of Mr. Mahesh Kapoor, the then revenue minister of Purva Pradesh.

As the story further reveals in further sections, various characters unfolds in front of us. It is best not to mention those characters in this review, otherwise the review itself will go to many number of pages.

As the novel progresses, Mrs. Rupa Mehra is in a search of a suitable boy for her younger daughter Lata Mehra. But, Lata was already in love with a Muslim boy called Kabir Durrani, the university cricket player, the son of Dr. Durrani, the mathematician. Reluctantly, Lata agrees to see all the boys that her mother proposes in front of her. Among these, Amit Chaterjee from the Chaterjee family, a successful poet, but always moody. Another person, is Haresh Khanna, a confident young man, who is a foreman in a shoe manufacturing company. The story revolves around these 3 people and the book keeps the surprising part of who will Lata agree to marry.

As we go deep into the novel, Author introduces us to a lot various sub stories, which includes politics, riots, Hindu-Muslim fights, Abolition of Zamindari Bill, Friendship, Murder, love interests, prostitutes, shoe manufacturing process, cricket match, parliament sessions, animal hunting, general elections, Nehru's resignation from Congress and rejoining phase, Poetry, deaths, pilgrimage, spirituality and what not. One must not skip even a single page from this novel. Sometimes, readers may feel like, this is a never ending book, but, you will cherish every minute you spend on reading this book.

Whatever can be written about this book is still very less according to me. This is simply the magnum-opus of Indian fiction literature in English. Recommended for everyone who is keen to read such novels.

My Rating: 5/5