New book on PM Modi to respond to criticism

Following the release of a book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor last month, a new book that reportedly defends Modi’s achievements is set to hit stands soon. It's a move that is seen as an attempt to garner more support for the prime minister with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on the horizon.

The book, titled ‘Narendra Modi: Creative Disruptor — The Maker of New India’, is written by R Balashankar, former editor of Organiser Weekly and former convener of the BJP’s Intellectual Cell. The book has reportedly secured the support of the BJP and is expected to be launched by Amit Shah in Delhi in the first week of December, the Indian Express reported on Saturday.

The 300-page book with 17 chapters and around 40 “rare and relevant photos” reportedly deals with “all the controversial issues that came up during the last four-and-a-half years”, according to the author and includes a chapter titled: ‘Award Wapsi: Intolerance scare in India’.

The book, which will be printed in English, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, covers various contentious issues like demonetisation, minority affairs, non-performing assets, the Rafale deal, foreign policy, the relationship between Shah and Modi and social empowerment. Around one lakh copies are to be published before the polls.

“The biggest transformation that has happened after 2014 is that the government is a click, a phone call, a tweet away from the citizen. The era of power brokers which Rajiv Gandhi had promised to end in 1984, finally ended in 2014,” the author says in the first chapter “Another tryst with Destiny”, according to IE.

The book slams Modi critics, saying “detractors tried to pick up isolated issues like a stray incident of a theft or stone-pelting in a church, a ruckus over cattle smuggling or a stray lynching incident in some state over alleged child lifting, cow slaughter or even heinous crimes like child rapes to paint them as all India phenomena that are orchestrated and happening because of Modi. Suddenly, India has become intolerant, they say”.

Besides Tharoor’s recent book titled 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister,' which criticises Modi, several other books have been written on him in recent years, including 'Narendra Modi: A Political Biography' by Andy Marino, 'The Modi Effect: Inside Narendra Modi’s campaign to transform India' by Lance Price and 'Narendra Modi: The Man, the Times' by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.