Book Review: India Positive, Chetan Bhagat

The 2019 general elections have spawned a new literary genre in which experts fix what is wrong with India via a book. India Positive: New Essays and Selected Columns by Chetan Bhagat is timely though, more, I suspect, of the inclination to collect for posterity various essays by the country’s most popular writer. The book is peppered with actual tweets that make it a perfect political tool for the millennial reader.

The collection covers a range of topics from on-going discussions in the public domain, and it is to the author’s credit that he does not flinch from voicing an unpopular opinion. For example: “Blind fans, who will agree to a national emergency if Modi declares it, and are ready to abuse and bully anyone who says anything remotely critical of their idol, are frankly useless— to Modi as well as to the nation-building process.”

In case anyone laboured under the popular misconception that Bhagat is a bhakt, his hilarious definition of what makes a bhakt is all the clarification needed. Here is an excerpt from the essay, Anatomy of an Internet Troll: “Hence any inferiority-complex-ridden Indian male who is sexually frustrated, ashamed of his background and has poor ability to communicate in English is liable to transform into a true bhakt. And that’s why confident English-speaking women who oppose Modi hit a raw nerve on all counts, getting the worst of the true bhakt treatment.”

Of course it is natural to viscerally disagree with certain viewpoints in the book. Politics does polarise people, after all. On the subject of beef, there seems this grudging admission that the Hindu majority ought to let go of the anti-cow-slaughter sentiment while linking this to the triple talaq issue.

Despite being tenuously linked to the need for a uniform civil code, this negotiation is the worst kind of communal rhetoric. Besides, in reality, triple talaq has been declared criminal whereas lynching over the consumption of beef is still going strong and, moreover, unpunished.

Another grassroot sentiment of ‘mandir wahin banayenge’ is reiterated by the author here. The opinion voiced has the disputed site willingly handed over to Hindus, while Muslims can rebuild their grand mosque further away.

Muslims must concede in India — seems a recurring theme. I can understand politicians taking virulent stances on this issue because they need to win elections. Ordinary citizens don’t seem to care Indian (Yes, ancient Hindu) heritage temples are in a grievous state of disrepair all over the country, thousands of them.

As a political party, AAP has its usual quota of detractors and critics. Still, it is stunning to find a first-class ticket to London by a chief minister grudged in an essay while there is simply no mention of the number of helicopters that ferried guests to Nitin Gadkari’s daughter’s wedding in the thick of demonetisation, or PM Narendra Modi’s billion-dollar travel budgets. Rs 4 lakh is a deal-breaker, really? It is incumbent on an essayist to be both honest and thorough for his words to hold.

One tweet brought back a pleasant memory. It was so well said and I quote verbatim. “The Sikh police officer who saved the Muslim man. I don’t care who’s in power and what is your politics. That is the India I want and ever will want. Even if I am the only one left wanting it.”

Despite his immense popularity as a writer, in my analysis, Bhagat is one of the most acute managerial and financial minds in India. And he puts it into play by proposing that a “professionally managed Olympics fund, supported by the Indian public, will guarantee at least a dozen golds for India at the next event.”

Another example of that analytical acumen at work is this tweet: “Petrol, diesel prices too high. Said it before saying it now. Taxation on fuel needs to be revisited. People are suffering. Inflation will rise. Why not just simply bring it under GST?”

The nonfiction counterpart to the author’s runaway success as a writer of popular fiction may not be far better, but it’s certainly braver. Bhagat does rush in where most would fear to tread, voicing his opinions with unambiguity, if not rounded, reasoned argument. While this may not be the finest in the crop of recent Indian politics-centric offerings in nonfiction, it comes with its own vast readership.

To millions of Bhagat acolytes, this may still be his most pertinent and powerful work. Ever controversial, this book will surely spark both debates and introspection.