Kingshuk Nags political treatise The NA MO Story: A Political Life is a vivid, stark, relevant, bipartisan, telling and vibrant portrayal of one of the most controversial, enigmatic and divisive personalities who have strode like a colossus across the contemporary Indian political canvas........ Like him, hate him, venerate him or berate him but there is certainly no ignoring incumbent Gujarat chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi who has all but annexed the political pedestal of prime minister despite his humble and rather nondescript beginnings as a tea vendor....... Modi has assiduously worked his way up from his ordinary status of a RSS pracharak, assiduously circumnavigated his way through the maze like Hindutva ranks and effortlessly donned the mantle of his partys master strategist as well as immensely popular though eternally controversial chief ministers and Nag has stalked him every step of the way......... Putting the cart before the horse, Nag: one time resident editor of the Times Of Indias Ahmedabad edition turns all the laid down diktats of conventional wisdom on its head and begins his semi-autobiographical effort by making a sterling effort towards answering todays burning question about Modis prime ministerial ambitions and whether or not he can occupy Delhis seat of glory in the near future to begin with........ Thankfully, he does not take sides remains bipartisan, clinical and hugely objective in his insightful analysis of the same and largely lets you draw your own conclusions from his exhaustive analysis of the Modi phenomenon and persona rather than shoving his conclusions down your throat......... He then proceeds to wend his way through the various stages, destinations and milestones of Narendra Modis chequered political life and gives his opinion on each of these phases varying from a favourite and fawned upon son of the RSS to BJPs master planner, the most hated, vilified, disliked and lampooned figure in the nations recent political history in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots and to his immense credit more than makes a fist of it.......... Three chapters in the book are almost exclusively devoted to: the Sadbhavana experiment that saw Modi make a conscious though somewhat belated effort to reach out to the minorities and mend fences with them, Modis seeming appreciation and obsession with all things Chinese as well as the creation and further progression of the brand MAHATMA MODI: the statesman and nation and nation builder......... Yes, Modi does emerge as a man of many parts, dimensions, vicissitudes, hues and vibrant colours at various stages and phases of his rather chequered and if one may dare to call it inglorious life; yet the sceptre of the 2002 communal riots always hangs over his head like the proverbial Damocles sword and gives one the sense that he has not been able to completely erase the taint of the same despite numerous and timely efforts towards the same......... Priced at an extremely pocket friendly Rs. 295 by the publishers Lotus Roli (the same is available at a hefty 25-30% discounted price through Flipkart, Homeshop18, Infibeam and such notable others), the book is certainly an adornement to the shelves of every discerning reader and a must have in the case of legions of fawning and doting Modi fans........ As to whether the book has managed to make a convert out of me and make me a founding member of the Modi acolytes club; well let me say that I still continue to harbour my long standing doubts about Modi being a unifying and mollifying figure who can carry all sections of our highly communalised and fractured society with him as well as his ability to lead a coalition government with quiet dignity, decorum and the spirit of give and take that the same entails........ ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kingshuk Nag manfully donned the burden of being the TImes Of Indias Ahmedabad editions Resident Editor between May 2000 and July 2005 a decisive, divisive and eventful period in Gujarats history what with a major earthquake and deadly communal riots........ He also went on to win the Prem Bhatia memorial award (Indian equivalent of the much coveted Pulitzer Prize) for repeatedly demonstrating restraint, excellence and equanimity in rather trying and testing times as well as unmatched standards of excellence in political reporting and analysis....... Currently the Editor of the Times of Indias Hyderabad edition; this is Nags third published work........
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 06:15:01 +0000