Shades of Saffron : From Vajpayee To Modi

– JAYANTA MADHAV |

The rise and rise of BJP

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Author : Saba Naqvi

Publisher : Westland 

Price : Rs 599/-

From just two seats in 1984 to a resounding three hundred and three in 2019 ! How could a party once considered “untouchable” manage to turn around and convert itself into a near invincible colossus ? What all did the party go through to bring about this meteoric rise from an inconsequential off-shoot of the Jana Sangh to one that now boasts the largest primary membership in the world ?

A chronicle of events since its formation in 1984 right upto the 2014 General elections that catapulted Narendra Modi to the national turf as Prime Minister , Shades of Saffron: From Vajpayee To Modi by Saba Naqvi – a familiar face on national TV debates is a well researched book on the enigma called BJP that also provides a peep inside India’s political eco-system and the working of the Govt and it’s bureaucracy in the world’s largest democracy.

A hard-nosed reporter deft in penetrating the webs around powers that be, the author has inserted scores of anecdotes and profusely quoted from her interviews that she did – gleaning bits and pieces of information from inside the corridors of power . Some interesting accounts also find mention in the book – like the one on how PM Vajpayee once managed to pull off a smart maneuver to duck off intense US pressure on India to deploy it’s military in Iraq .

The book also recounts how Narendra Modi worked his way from Gujarat to Delhi surmounting all odds and insinuations – riding roughshod over his political opponents at times and how he had his arithmetic and chemistry work in tandem to create a Modi – wave that eventually saw him rise to helm the country in 2014 .

The reader also gets an insight into the working of our political parties, their clashes of ideology and the power plays of political funding that play out to influence public opinion around India’s electoral politics. Overall, it is the  brilliant narration punctuated with political jokes and innuendo that makes the book quite pleasurable to read !