000			01790 a2200145 4500
999			_c25743 _d25743
020			_a9789353282981
082			_a370.973 _bVEN-R
100			_aVenkateshwar Rao, Parsa
245			_aRajiv Gandhi to Narendra Modi _b: broken polity, flickering reforms
260			_bSage Publications _c2019 _aNew Delhi
300			_a245p.
520			_aFor the first time, the political story of India from the mid-1980s to the second decade of the present century is reconstructed through the first-person narratives of political leaders, revealing their inmost thoughts in their public utterances, offering weak arguments for their unforgivable lapses, speaking in eloquent terms of their achievements and sometimes showing uncharacteristic humility in what they said in their public speeches, in the Lok Sabha, in their blogs. From Rajiv Gandhi’s confession about how and why he came into politics, Narendra Modi’s graphic description of his inner agony during the Gujarat riots, Vajpayee’s disarming confession about Nehru, Narasimha Rao’s stoic stance in a letter to his childhood friend, Advani’s confessions in the Lok Sabha about why television was pressed into service during the Kargil War, what emerges is a historical drama of Shakespearean range and an intensity which is more than what brilliant historians and acute political analysts can hope to achieve. The book shows that the first draft of history is found in the words of politicians in parliament and in the government. It captures the immediacy of history-in-the-making, and the palest platitudes of politicians that acquire rare poignancy.
650			_aPolitics and government _vPolitical and social views _vEducational change _vPrime ministers _vGandhi, Rajiv, 1944-1991 _vModī, Narendra, 1950- _zIndia
942			_2ddc _cBK