TRYST WITH STRONG LEADER POPULISM

Description

Praisefor the book-

“comprehensive” -Christophe Jaffrelot

“well researched” -Shashi Tharoor

“this tells it all” -Julio Ribeiro

“first exhaustive journalistic account” -Ashutosh Varshney

“decodes the Modi regime like none other” -Sanjaya Baru

“goes a long way in enhancing our understanding of the Modi cult” -Rajdeep Sardesai

“perceptive and insightful” -Vir Sanghvi

“provide much food for thought” -Mahesh Rangarajan

“Raman is a quintessential political journalist” -Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

“an important contribution to contemporary history” -Irfan Habib

“interesting read to understand the great churn in Indian politics” -Zoya Hasan

“Raman has excellent qualifications as an eminent political analyst” -Swaminathan S. Aiyar

“commendable effort to put all the relentlessly gathered facts” -Mrinal Pande

“careful, footnoted writing” -Aakar Patel

“a rewarding read” -Harish Khare

“fact-based narrative reads like a thriller” -Kumar Ketkar

“hard hitting but factual style of reporting” -Manoj Joshi

“eye opening, revelational and very intense” -PDT Achary

“painstakingly researched and referenced” -Neerja Chowdhury

“a classic in the genre of political reportage” -John Dayal

“a wealth of detail and meticulous research” -Prabir Purkaysatha

About the Book & Author

Tryst with Strong Leader Populismoffers a rewarding read for those yearn to understand the Modi government’sfamed mystique, its working style, achievements and fault lines. Through its 11 chapters, the book provides a comprehensive record of the Modi dispensationvarious initiatives, its flagship programmes, demonetisation, the way the Modi-Shah duo successfully silenced the protesting RSS siblings, evisceration of the statutory watchdog bodies, and finally, how his trusted Chanakya staged a stunning return in 2019 Lok Sabha polls-all presented with utmost accuracy and supported by enormous authenticated data.

The strength of this fact-based narrative is its 500 plus end notes and citations which seek to testify the validity of its insightful inferences and interpretations. In the process,Strong Leader Populism decodes and pierces through the much exalted Modi Phenomenon. In the opening chapter, it sheds much light on how and why RSS boss Mohan Bhagwat put his full weight with Narendra Modi and made it the bedrock of his hybrid regime model. This book also poses many riddles of the Modi phenomenon and tries to unspool them. How come India most powerful prime minister with all powers at his command feels so powerless in tackling the economic decay? Read Strong Leader Populism to understand how the paradox of power works.

P. Raman belongs to a generation of journalists that continues to uphold the virtues of the old era ethos like fact-checked content and objective presentation. He began with V.K. Krishna Menon’s The Century weekly as sub-editor, and has worked with over a dozen English dailies and weeklies, including the once puissant Patriot daily and Link weekly. During the Emergency, he was sent to Ahmedabad as the Gujarat correspondent. Raman began covering politics for English dailies from 1978, has been the main political correspondent at The Indian Express in the 1980s and the political editor of The Economic Times and Business Standard in the 1990s. Both the economic dailies regularly carried his weekly political column Realpolitik. After retirement,Realpolitik was syndicated to a dozen dailies, including The Tribune, Amar Ujala, Navhind Times(Goa),Free Press Journal, Lokmat, the Enadugroup, Deshabhimani and India Press Agency. He wrote frequently for The Hindu Business Lineand the Vinod Mehta-era Outlook. He now writes doing occasional pieces for The Indian Express, The Wire and The Newsclick.

An octogenarian, his book Post-Truth Media Survival Sutra was published in 2018. He has just completed another manuscript The Fallen Messiahs. It is a per diem account of the political dynamics that worked behind five prime ministers from Narasimha Rao to Manmohan Singh during 23 years from 1991. He was a member of the Press Council of India for two terms.