Go Tell It In A Bazaar

When a common or garden rev­iewer is confronted with a book that is laden with the most lavish commendations, the dilemma of how to review it bec­o­mes manifest. If one praises it, one runs the risk of being accused of just paraphrasing the blurbs: 바카라�thoughtful, stylistic, perceptive바카라� (Jagdish Bhagwati); 바카라�must read바카라�to understand the critical intersections of politics and public policy바카라� (Manish Tewari) etc. If, on the other hand, the reviewer carps and criticises, one runs the risk of crossing a galaxy of distinguished persons. Nevertheless, here goes.

My first huge disappointment was that this is not the autobiography I thought it would be. It is a collection of columns. When I first took a bunch of my columns to Penguin in 1990바카라�a year after I had started writing them­바카라�the sage David Davidar shook his head and said, 바카라�Books of columns do not work바카라�. As I have since discovered, David was spot on: books of columns do not work, for they are written in the spirit of the moment. Both writer and reader are caught up바카라�albeit sometimes on opposite sides바카라�in that moment of time when nothing else seems as imp­ortant, but time is cruel and what seemed overwhelming then is consigned to the trivia of the past.    

Thus we have 바카라�Jay바카라� Panda pronouncing judgements that must now embarrass him. Writing in the immediate aftermath of the March 2017 UP assembly polls (pp.77-80), Panda holds that the BJP is 바카라�is now looking unassailable바카라�. Judging the Congress to be 바카라�decimated바카라� and 바카라�outmanoeuvred바카라�, he proclaims, 바카라�the Congress today suffers from apolitical, out-of-touch and wrong instincts at its highest level바카라�.  The BJP he asses­ses as 바카라�having once again secured the pole position바카라�, its success in UP being both 바카라�resounding바카라� and 바카라�whopping바카라�, its victory in 바카라�heavily Muslim-dominated constituencies바카라� constituting 바카라�an unp­recedented breakthrough바카라�. Why? All because 바카라�the PM succeeded in marketing his all-aboard strategy바카라� through his 바카라�aspirational development message바카라�.

Surely, Panda must now concede, that the 2018 parliamentary by-elections in Gorakhpur (the Yogi constituency: Gorakhpur mein rehna hai to/Yogi, Yogi kehna hai), Phulpur (his deputy CM바카라�s fortress), and Kairana has shown that neither is Modi 바카라�unassailable바카라�, nor is the Congress sclerotic. Indeed, the SP-BSP alliance that Panda, to his credit, foresees (바카라�desperation is the mother of invention바카라�) foretells the collapse of the 바카라�pole position바카라� of the BJP from 71 out of 80 seats in 2014 in UP to eight in 2019 if the Congress is taken on board. (Wanna bet?) Modi바카라�s victory in UP was the result of a division of the votes of the non-BJP parties, not the high rhetoric invoked by Panda after the March 2017 results.

As for Modi바카라�s 바카라�aspirational development message바카라�, it is interesting to find Panda saying little about the demonetisation disaster other than renaming it as 바카라�rem­onetisation바카라� and suggesting that GST should be levied at a single rate of 15 per cent for 90 per cent of goods and services바카라�without acknowledging that this, in substance, is what the Congress note of dissent to the Rajya Sabha바카라�s select committee report had stressed. Panda바카라�s unf­linching support to Modi바카라�at least at the time his former party, the Biju Janata Dal, was a supporter of the BJP in Delhi바카라�shows that Haseeb Drabu (in the blurb) notwithstanding, the 바카라�pragmatism of a practitioner바카라� sometimes overwhelms the 바카라�rigour of a researcher바카라�.

But once Panda moves beyond the topical, converting his writing from 바카라�columns바카라� to 바카라�essays바카라�, his writing is insi­ghtful. His formidable team of resea­rchers바카라�some of the 바카라�best and the brightest바카라�, plus his own assiduous add­iction to web-finding and web-checking바카라�gives us extremely inf­ormative, deeply mined facts, figures and assessments that are thought-provoking on a diverse number of issues ranging from the ideological to the political, to the economic and the social, foreign policy and the institutions of our democracy. These insights more than justify the enc­omiums in the blurbs. Many suggestions commend themselves to serious attention, even if, as a practitioner myself, I wonder how the system and its vested interests can be pushed in the direction of good sense. There is also a celebratory tinge바카라�the glory of our dem­ocracy, the strides towards economic development, the challenges we are addressing in promoting social justice. These are non-partisan observations and imbued with greater credibility.

Now that Jay has quit the Biju Janata Dal (without telling us, in this book, why?) and acquired the 'pole position' of an eminently electable Independent, I expect him to emerge as a towering mem­­ber of our political intelligentsia, much in the manner of a Minoo Masani, if not of a Jai Prakash Narain. And please, Jay, do get on with the autobiography.