Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister

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HarperCollins Publishers India, Jun 26, 2014 - Political Science - 264 pages
3,00,000 km. 5,200 events. 10 million volunteers. 814 million voters. 282 seats. The 2014 elections will be remembered for a campaign that captured the public imagination as never before. At its heart was Narendra Modi, 63, the feisty chief minister of Gujarat for thirteen years, bidding to be prime minister. By the end of the campaign, there was scarcely anyone who had not-on television, radio, social media or at one of his rallies-heard his message. He too seemed to have grown from a regional satrap to a leader with a national stature. Long before the results were out, the outcome seemed a foregone conclusion. Behind the ascent to prime minister, though, is a story of tough politics and hard strategy. In spite of his achievements, minorities are wary of his Hindu nationalist background, and bureaucrats and party colleagues are jittery about his reputation as an autocrat. Most of all, he has never fully been able to exorcize the ghosts of the riots that took place on his watch in Gujarat in 2002, leading to doubts among his critics about how India's social fabric will fare during his term. As he gets down to write a fresh chapter in the country's history, Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister takes a close-up look at his rollercoaster ride to power. In the process, senior journalist Ramesh Menon reveals a man of many dimensions who will lead this diverse nation.

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About the author (2014)

Ramesh Menon is a journalist with thirty-six years of experience in print, television and new media. He began his career with the Times of India as a reporter based in Ahmedabad in 1978. He was later India Today's correspondent in Gujarat until 1987 and, among other things, extensively reported on the state's frequent and long periods of rioting. As an Associate Editor at the magazine, he moved from Gujarat to the Northeast, Kerala and New Delhi. He has since been Executive Producer at Business India Television and TV Today, Roving Editor at rediff.com and a columnist with DNA. As a freelance journalist, he won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2005 for a report on how the overuse of pesticides was turning Punjab into a poison field. He is presently Managing Editor of India Legal, the country's first politico-legal magazine. He is also an educator, filmmaker, corporate trainer and author. His earlier books were Caste and Communal Timebomb (1985) on the caste and communal violence in Gujarat; Whatever the Odds: The Incredible Story behind DLF (2011); Night Sparkle: Fascinating Stories of Indian Lighthouses (2013) and Carbon Footprint: Reducing It for a Better Tomorrow (2014). He lives in Noida with his wife Geeta. Their son Vijay works in Dubai.

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