Book Review: 'Durbar' by Tavleen Singh

I strongly recommend that one should read about Tavleen Singh before reading her book. In brief, Tavleen Singh is a veteran political columnist and one of the first female journalists to have covered the post-Indira era in detail. She had great access to the inner circles of political powerhouses in Delhi during the Rajiv Gandhi's era. One must also understand that very few female journalists existed during her time who had such privilege and access to Lutyens' evening parties.


The book claims to give a detailed inside account of what happens inside the power circles of Delhi. But sadly most of her claims cannot be verified. Sometimes she just comes across as a jealous old aunt who starts criticizing Sonia only after she gets thrown out of Rajiv's inner circle.  As one reads the book, Tavleen's animosity for Rajiv-Sonia becomes very visible and at times comes across as pretty undignified. For example she says:
By Rajiv's second year in power, stories about Sonia's shopping sprees began to circulate in Delhi's drawing rooms.. Then, from diplomatic sources in distant Moscow, where the prime minister and his wife made their first foreign visit, came the story of Sonia buying an expensive sable coat... According to the story I heard Sonia's tastes in fur coats was so refined that she was not satisfied with Soviet tailoring and had the coat sent to Rome to be redesigned by the Italian fashion house, Fendi... 


She even goes further and ends her book by describing the scene at Teen Murti House where people had gathered to pay their last respects for Rajiv Gandhi:
Sonia's dark brown hair was tied back and covered with her cotton sari and her face was carefully made up. Even the lower eyelashes she painted on to make her eyes look bigger were in place.. 

From tidbits of information I gleaned from these friends...when Sonia refused to become Congress President on the night Rajiv died, it was probably because she knew that if she took the job, she would be quickly exposed..


I expected a lot more from a veteran journalist like Tavleen Singh. She takes personal digs at Rajiv, Sonia, MJ Akbar and pretty much everyone she mentions in the book and also tries to ascertain her superiority over other journalists. Though I dont doubt her credibility, she just fails to provide any verifiable facts and just restricts her book to rumours one hears in Delhi's elite parties. But I must say her narrative about the Bhindranwale days, Sikh-riots and the Janata experiments are quite detailed and make a good read. In short, you should read this book if you are looking for a Bollywood-style narrative of India's contemporary history and India's most powerful political family.

Is There a Modi Wave in the Country?

Post-Ram Janmabhoomi Movement, no parliamentary election has been fought under any strong political wave. This is because of the rise in the number of regional parties under various charismatic leaders. Ironically, ‘national’ parties no longer have a presence throughout the nation and have been forced to make suitable alliances in different states.

The dominance of the Indian National Congress was broken for the first time in the general elections of 1977 and the Janata party came to power. There was a very strong anti-Indira wave in the country due to the excesses of the emergency period. People throughout the country were affected and they were determined to teach Mrs. Gandhi and her party a lesson.

Similarly, in 1984 Rajiv Gandhi won a huge mandate of 414 seats in a 533-seat parliament. Along with the sympathy wave that swept across the nation after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the nation as a whole was tired of the old Congress and the failed Janata experiment; the nation saw in Rajiv Gandhi a young, sophisticated leader who they thought will bring real prosperity to the nation.


The period between 1989 and 1991 was a very turbulent one in Indian politics. The rise of Hindu nationalistic politics and the Bofors scandal changed India’s political landscape forever. The Congress was completely wiped out from some of the states in Northern India. Congress has never been able to form a government in Delhi with a clear majority since 1984. Two poles were created in the national politics, one headed by the BJP and the other by the Congress.


In 2014 when the next parliamentary elections are due, Congress would have been in power for almost 10 years. The UPA government headed by Congress has failed on various fronts and there is a strong anti-incumbency wave in the country. The UPA under Manmohan Singh has literally taken the country back to the socialist era. Though the Congress faces many challenges today, its most difficult challenge comes from a man heading a state in the western part of India- NARENDRA MODI.

Narendra Modi is facing the toughest election of his life and all the exit polls say he’ll come out victorious with a huge mandate. That should easily catapult him into national politics. The man himself is in many ways bigger than his own party. He has cleverly combined development with soft Hindutva as an election issue and used it successfully against the Congress. He enjoys tremendous popularity throughout the nation. Many elected legislators from different parties privately say even their wives and children would vote for Modi if he is made the PM candidate in 2014. One can clearly see a huge Modi wave in the country from Delhi to Kanyakumari. The entire nation eagerly waits for him to take the centre stage in Delhi. In many ways 2014 elections will be a make or break one for India. Be sure to be on the right side because there is no middle ground when it comes to debate on Modi.

“Desh ka Pradhan Mantri kaisa ho, Narendra Modi jaisa ho”

Online Media- A Platform for Political Change

Online media tools, such as Facebook and Twitter have been in news all over the world for their ability to bring social change and mobilize people. They played a major role during the protests in the Middle East and North Africa. They have succeeded in providing a platform for ordinary men, women, and even children to stand up and demand for their rights and also air their discontent with the ruling regime. Social media with its mass reach has all the ingredients to become a perfect tool to organize a mass movement.

In India, the role of internet media in bringing political change has been more subtle. Narendra Modi is the only major politician to have used these tools to connect directly with common people, thus diluting the role of traditional media who have made some very uncharitable comments about him in the past. He gave a huge blow to the Delhi-based traditional English language media by interacting with lakhs and lakhs of his admirers on Google+ Hangout on August 31. It was a historic event because Modi was present there in person to interact with the common people and around 15 lakh people from 116 countries waited patiently; the event was delayed by an hour as Google’s servers could not handle the unprecedented traffic.

A Facebook application, called ‘Be Gujarat’s Brand Ambassador’, enables people to share stories and ideas on Gujarat’s development particularly in six areas- tourism, agriculture, tribal development, specialized education, power and women empowerment. The added incentive is four people will be selected to share their perspectives and ideas with Modi in person. Modi is the first Chief Minister to realize the global reach that these social media tools enjoy and thus use them for governance and also showcase Gujarat to a global audience.

Today, the youth of India is increasingly getting disenchanted with the sad state of affairs at the centre and Congress party’s increasing disconnect with the common people. Today's youth don’t blindly follow a political ideology; they are all well-read due to the sheer magnitude of free information available on the World Wide Web and debate on various issues. The left-leaning liberals that dominate the English media in India today brand them as ‘Internet Hindus’. These people have found a new platform in the form of social media to air their views. Youth activism on the internet is a movement; the effect of which will only be felt a couple of years from now. This is precisely the reason why Congress is ready to go the extra mile to impose restrictions on the internet media. Just the demography of the so called Internet Hindus reveals it all. According to an online survey:

• 88.9% identified themselves as ‘Internet Hindus’, indicating they attach no shame to the term.
• Of these, 4% are aged 20 years and below, 55% are aged 30 and below, 31% are 40 and below and only 10% are aged above 40. So, 90% of them are young Indians.
• 43% are graduates from top-notch engineering and medical colleges, 46% are post-graduates (a large number with an MBA degree), 11% have a PhD and 17.3% are studying. They represent the educated India.
• Of the 82.7% who are employed, 3.1% earn up to Rs 2 lakh a year, 18.4% earn up to Rs 6 lakh a year, 34.7% earn up to Rs 12 lakh a year and 26.5% earn more than Rs 24 lakh a year.

The survey data clearly indicates that these Internet Hindus represent well-educated, middle class section of India. These new age Hindus are very different from the Trishul wielding karsevaks of the Ayodhya era. But just like any other mass movement in history, the Internet Hindu movement also has a few abusive elements but most are open to new ideas and debate. When the rest of India slowly starts getting educated, increase their standard of living and start interacting with their peers on social media platforms and become politically aware, they will probably lean towards Modi and his brand of politics. By taking views of these Internet Hindus on-board  the BJP can hope to become a genuine right-wing party with a firm ideology, the kind the country requires the most today.

‘Let the tribe of Internet Hindus grow and let us create a nation of well informed voters’




COURTESY: NITI CENTRAL