A book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, believed to have the backing of the ruling BJP, is set to hit the stands in multiple languages, an attempt seen as a part of the BJP’s exercise to cash in on Modi’s image extensively ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
A book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, believed to have the backing of the ruling BJP, is set to hit the stands in multiple languages, an attempt seen as a part of the BJP’s exercise to cash in on Modi’s image extensively ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Narendra Modi: A Political Biography by Andy Marino and The Modi Effect: Inside Narendra Modi’s campaign to transform India by Lance Price gave a glimpse into Modi’s life and the secret of his success on the campaign trail.
The upcoming book, Narendra Modi: Creative Disruptor — The Maker of New India by R Balashankar, former editor of the Organiser weekly and former convener of BJP’s Intellectual Cell, would give “responses to the criticism against Modi and the answers to the questions raised against his moves as Prime Minister,” according to the author.
The book will be launched in the first week of December in the national capital. BJP president Amit Shah is expected to release it. While Shah has written the foreword for the book, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has penned the introduction. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari too has written his views on the book.
The book’s English version will be launched in December and it will also be printed in Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. At least one lakh copies are expected to be out before the 2019 polls.
Balashankar told The Indian Express that the 300-page book has 17 chapters and around 40 “rare and relevant photos”. He added that it deals with “all the controversial issues that came up during the last four-and-a-half years”.
There are chapters on national security, ‘Award Wapsi: Intolerance scare in India’, demonetisation, minority affairs, non-performing assets, Rafale deal, foreign policy, relationship between Shah and Modi and social empowerment, among others.
The idea behind the book is clear — Modi is the best bet, USP and the unequivocal leader of the BJP in its all electoral tests and the party is heavily relying on him as it battles criticism over joblessness, fuel price increase, gloom in the market and overall failure to deliver on its promises.
If the books on Modi that came around the BJP’s victory in 2014 explained how the “chaiwala” became Prime Minister and explained the “enigma” he was, Balashankar is making a bid to keep that image intact, to shake off the dust and fix the dent on it as the party gets ready for another crucial battle.
“The biggest transformation that has happened after 2014 is that the government is a click, a phone call, a tweet away from the citizen. The era of power brokers which Rajiv Gandhi had promised to end in 1984, finally ended in 2014,” the author says in the first chapter “Another tryst with Destiny”.
He adds, “People are impatient. They want quick and visible results. Modi has understood this urge and urgency for change.”
According to the book, Modi has been able to carry the nation together intact, but “detractors tried to pick up isolated issues like a stray incident of a theft or stone-pelting in a church, a ruckus over cattle smuggling, or a stray lynching incident in some state over alleged child lifting, cow slaughter or even heinous crimes like child rapes to paint them as all India phenomena that is orchestrated and happening because of Modi. Suddenly, India has become intolerant, they say”.
Claiming that the intolerance debate was whipped by “people who had been pampered by the (former) government largesse, with awards, bungalows, position and nominations to various national and international bodies”, the author writes that the government that was “caught in a trap” took time to react. “It is the social media, in a sense the conscience of the society, which waged the war for the Indian state and government.”
But, he writes, “the damage has been done. They can draw satisfaction from the fact that they have repaid to the Congress, their original benefactors, their gratitude.”
Narendra Modi: A Political Biography by Andy Marino and The Modi Effect: Inside Narendra Modi’s campaign to transform India by Lance Price gave a glimpse into Modi’s life and the secret of his success on the campaign trail.
The upcoming book, Narendra Modi: Creative Disruptor — The Maker of New India by R Balashankar, former editor of the Organiser weekly and former convener of BJP’s Intellectual Cell, would give “responses to the criticism against Modi and the answers to the questions raised against his moves as Prime Minister,” according to the author.
The book will be launched in the first week of December in the national capital. BJP president Amit Shah is expected to release it. While Shah has written the foreword for the book, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has penned the introduction. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari too has written his views on the book.
The book’s English version will be launched in December and it will also be printed in Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. At least one lakh copies are expected to be out before the 2019 polls.
Balashankar told The Indian Express that the 300-page book has 17 chapters and around 40 “rare and relevant photos”. He added that it deals with “all the controversial issues that came up during the last four-and-a-half years”.
There are chapters on national security, ‘Award Wapsi: Intolerance scare in India’, demonetisation, minority affairs, non-performing assets, Rafale deal, foreign policy, relationship between Shah and Modi and social empowerment, among others.
The idea behind the book is clear — Modi is the best bet, USP and the unequivocal leader of the BJP in its all electoral tests and the party is heavily relying on him as it battles criticism over joblessness, fuel price increase, gloom in the market and overall failure to deliver on its promises.
If the books on Modi that came around the BJP’s victory in 2014 explained how the “chaiwala” became Prime Minister and explained the “enigma” he was, Balashankar is making a bid to keep that image intact, to shake off the dust and fix the dent on it as the party gets ready for another crucial battle.
“The biggest transformation that has happened after 2014 is that the government is a click, a phone call, a tweet away from the citizen. The era of power brokers which Rajiv Gandhi had promised to end in 1984, finally ended in 2014,” the author says in the first chapter “Another tryst with Destiny”.
He adds, “People are impatient. They want quick and visible results. Modi has understood this urge and urgency for change.”
According to the book, Modi has been able to carry the nation together intact, but “detractors tried to pick up isolated issues like a stray incident of a theft or stone-pelting in a church, a ruckus over cattle smuggling, or a stray lynching incident in some state over alleged child lifting, cow slaughter or even heinous crimes like child rapes to paint them as all India phenomena that is orchestrated and happening because of Modi. Suddenly, India has become intolerant, they say”.
Claiming that the intolerance debate was whipped by “people who had been pampered by the (former) government largesse, with awards, bungalows, position and nominations to various national and international bodies”, the author writes that the government that was “caught in a trap” took time to react. “It is the social media, in a sense the conscience of the society, which waged the war for the Indian state and government.”
But, he writes, “the damage has been done. They can draw satisfaction from the fact that they have repaid to the Congress, their original benefactors, their gratitude.”