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Atal Bihari Vajpayee and India's Foreign Policy: 1977-2004: Initiatives, Policy Making and Achievements examines the life and work of a humanitarian, a visionary, an orator par excellence, a writer, a mass leader, and a Parliamentarian who is still revered by both members of his own party and by the opposition. Vajpayee's long political career won him accolades as well as honors. Being closely associated with the Indian political arena from a very young age, Vajpayee with his knowledge, experience and charismatic persona became the ‘Bhishma Pitamah'of Indian politics. He had achieved few major milestones during his long political tenure in the Parliament of India. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was unarguably one of the best and most influential Prime Ministers of India, serving the nation for a full term (five years) and two short terms, having impressive contributions to the development of India. He played a very significant role in shaping the foreign policies of India. Vajpayee's dedicated efforts to solve persistent and major issues in foreign policies are remarkable. His indomitable determination and spirit helped India to attain its justified place in international forum. Atal Bihari Vajpayee's legacy is preserved and reproduced by successive leaders of India honoring his accomplishments.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been known to be critical about India's policies in Kashmir. But when on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday in 2020, Merkel sent him a note wishing him with the words Liebe Narendra (Dear Narendra), written in hand, one knew that Modi had arrived on the world stage. Modi 2.0: Beyond the Ordinary is an objective analysis of the prime minister, his struggles and achievements, his spiritual journey, the men and the women in his life, and his friends and enemies. It also doesn't shy away from discussing the difficult questions surrounding Modi-Godhra and his relations with India's Muslims. Self-confessedly, author Sunil Sharan was once critical of Narendra Modi but after carefully observing him for years, he realised that Modi is indeed a transformational man. Today, India stands rejuvenated, its prestige around the world high, the spirit of its people uplifted.Once the question used to be: Who after Nehru? Now the question is: Who after Modi? Modi 2.0 debates the possibilities.

Who were the people who accompanied Narendra Modi in his baraat?Who introduced him to cricket, a sport he loved playing?What was his first responsibility after joining the RSS in Ahmedabad? Who imparted the first lessons in savings to Modi? What was the fate of the tape recorder that was gifted to him by his guru?Why did Modi never allow Shankersinh Vaghela to ride his scooter?What was the secret that stopped Modi from not being apprehended during the Indian Emergency?Peppered with anecdotes and personal interviews, The Real Modi narrates several aspects of Narendra Modi's life, which were hitherto unknown to the public at large. It reveals several stories related to the Indian Prime Minister's childhood days, the friends and mentors during his growing-up years, his initial struggles, his political education, the travails during Emergency, his entry into Indian politics and many more. A thrilling read, this is an account of Modi's life experiences before becoming the prime minister and the lessons and wisdom that he gathered on the way. Sales Points

For 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.

Introduces readers to the political career of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Engaging infographics, thought-provoking discussion questions, and eye-catching photos give the reader an invaluable look into India and the office of its current leader.

This book is a compendium of the speeches and interviews of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who reigned as Prime Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir from 1948 to 1953, and who was a large presence on the political landscape of India for fifty years. The volume is designed to enable a student of South Asian politics, and the politics of Kashmir in particular, to analyze the ways in which experiences have been constructed historically and have changed overtime.

When P.V. Narasimha Rao became the unlikely prime minister of India in 1991, he inherited economic catastrophe, violent insurgencies and a nation adrift. Yet because he was unloved by his people and mistrusted by his own party-a minority in Parliament and ruling under the shadow of Sonia Gandhi-Rao lacked the mandate to combat these crises. Yet, Rao was not just able to last a full five years as Prime Minister, he reinvented India, at home and abroad. Few world leaders have achieved so much with so little power. With exclusive access to Rao's never-before-seen personal papers as well as over a hundred interviews, Vinay Sitapati's definitive biography tells the story of India's makeover in the 1990s and the story of the Deng Xiaoping-like figure who did it. Assuming power over an ossified, quasi-socialist economy burdened by inefficient industrial behemoths, Rao was instrumental in driving through a broad set of liberalizing economic reforms that transformed India. Rao's career is the ideal window through which to understand how India became a force in the global economy almost overnight. Sitapati traces Rao's life from a village in Telangana through his years in power and-afterward-his humiliation in retirement. Yet the book never loses sight of the inner man-his difficult childhood, his corruptions and love affairs, and his lingering loneliness. Meticulously researched and honestly told, this landmark political biography is a must-read for anyone interested in the man responsible for transforming India.

From an acclaimed economist and politician, a unique, never-before-seen look at the life of one of India's most well-known prime ministers—Indira Gandhi—and her work to protect the environment and champion the preservation of nature and the climate.Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India for sixteen years, was as charismatic as she was controversial—both admired and criticized for her political judgments and actions. Yet what has never been fully revealed is her lifelong commitment and love for nature and how that defined her very being. Weaving personal, political, and environmental history, politician and scholar Jairam Ramesh presents a compelling portrait of an extraordinary public figure. He chronicles how and why she made a personal passion a public calling; how her views on the environment remained steadfast even as her political and economic stances evolved; how her friendships with conservationists led to far-reaching decisions to preserve India's biodiversity; how she urged, cajoled and persuaded her colleagues in making significant decisions regarding forests and wildlife; and how her own finely developed instincts and initiatives resulted in landmark policies, programs, and laws that have endured to this day. Drawing extensively from unpublished letters, notes, messages and memos, Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature is both a lively, engaging narrative about the little-known parts of Indira Gandhi's life, and also sheds important light on climate change and sustaining the environment—today's most pressing global issues.

Taking India by storm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been one of the most talked about figures all around the world. His enigmatic persona and his forceful leadership have created a polarized world where some idolize him, while others question his motives and methods. In an attempt to break the myths around who Narendra Modi really is, the author attempts to take us through a journey of the leader's life, his political aspirations, his growth within the party, his remarkable stint in Gujarat and his performance over the last two years in Delhi. The author identifies the many formidable challenges Modi faces as the leader of the world's largest democracy that is in the midst of a complex transition and recommends measures that Modi must implement to deliver on his promises, thereby enabling India to realize its true potential.

Judith Brown explores Nehru as a figure of power and provides an assessment of his leadership at the head of a newly independent India with no tradition of democratic politics.

This volume traces the course of development of Charan Singh′s discontent in the Congress, which aided by the antagonism on the part of Nehru and his daughter towards him, and the decline of the Congress as the dominant party in Uttar Pradesh, led ultimately to his defection to form a new political party and, at last, to achieve his goal of becoming chief minister of UP. Like the earlier volume, this book is based primarily on the author′s personal relationship with Charan Singh during his political career and early access to his massive political files and the author′s own personal interviews with politicians, other public persons, peasants, and others over 50 years, up to the present. It also provides an account of the chief ministership of Sucheta Kripalani—a political outsider catapulted to the top by the power struggles of fractious factions—and at the same time explores against the backdrop of regionalism in UP the considerable yet little-known role played by Charan Singh in issues of states reorganization for northern India. This book is the second volume of a multi-volume work on The Politics of Northern India: 1937 to 1987.

An Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, 1937 to 1961 focuses on the role of Charan Singh in the politics of the period while providing a broader perspective on the major issues, controversies, and developments of the time. The book is the result of a careful study of Charan Singh′s personal collection of political files coupled with a series of extensive interviews with politicians, public personalities, and local people. It provides an account of the principal issues and events of the period, including Hindu-Muslim relations, the conflict between the Nehruvian goal of rapid industrialization and the desires of those favoring primary attention to agriculture, issues of law and order, the rise of corruption and criminality in politics, the place of caste and status in a modernizing society, and the pervasive factional politics characteristic of the era. This work is much more than the biography of an important politician; it is also an analysis of issues, movements, and political conflicts that marked the late pre-Independence and early post-Independence era. This book is the first volume of a multi-volume work on The Politics of Northern India: 1937 to 1987.

The first-ever autobiography written by an Indian prime minister. Only once in a lifetime comes a book that simply must be read! An absorbing, authentic and definitive account, by a former prime minister, of crucial events that had a significant impact on the nation's destiny after independence. I K Gujral has penned his life story in a forthright and candid manner. He entered the political fray as a freedom fighter in the British era, and after the tumultuous events that rocked the Indian subcontinent in the wake of the partition in August 1947, crossed over from Pakistan to India, where he had to begin life from scratch. Despite facing tremendous odds, on the basis of his perseverance, resilience and never-say-die attitude, Gujral's achievements allowed him to witness and shape India's contemporary history. Gujral joined Congress Party and was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1964. He was the Information and Broadcasting Minister when emergency was imposed, which entailed arbitrary press censorship. Since he refused to bow down to the de facto powers, he was unceremoniously replaced and later sent by Indira Gandhi as India's ambassador to the USSR, a post he handled with commendable tact and finesse. After his stint in Moscow, he returned to India and re-entered the ‘political whirlpool'by joining the Janata Dal. He became minister for external affairs under V P Singh (1989) and Deve Gowda (1996). Gujral reached the pinnacle of his career when he became the prime minister on 1997. During his priministership, despite the exigencies and pressures of running a coalition government, he endeavoured to achieve progress in many spheres. The Gujral Doctrine (a set of five principles to guide the conduct of foreign relations with India's immediate neighbours) was widely acclaimed in both India and the West. This volume, a valuable addition to the literature on contemporary history, provides a deep insight into the political scene as it unfolded after independence and delineates the roles played by a wide spectrum of politicians, bureaucrats, and many others.

Shashi Tharoor delivers an incisive biography of the great secularist who—alongside his spiritual father, Mahatma Gandhi—led the movement for India's independence from British rule and ushered his newly independent country into the modern world. The man who would one day help topple British rule and become India's first prime minister started out as a surprisingly unremarkable student. Born into a wealthy, politically influential Indian family in the waning years of the Raj, Jawaharlal Nehru was raised on Western secularism and the humanist ideas of the Enlightenment. Once he met Gandhi in 1916, Nehru threw himself into the nonviolent struggle for India's independence, a struggle that wasn't won until 1947. India had found a perfect political complement to her more spiritual advocate, but neither Nehru nor Gandhi could prevent the horrific price for independence: partition. This fascinating biography casts an unflinching eye on Nehru's heroic efforts for, and stewardship of, independent India and gives us a careful appraisal of his legacy to the world.

Charan Singh and Congress Politics, 1967 to 1987, the third and final volume in the trilogy of The Politics of Northern India, begins with the dramatic political event of the fall of the Congress in the most critical state of UP and the formation of the first non-Congress government. This event was of the utmost concern to Indira Gandhi, for she could not rule the country without a firm political base in the most populous state of the country. Insofar as Charan Singh was concerned, it marked the beginning of his rise to power in the state and the beginning also of the dramatic and complicated struggle between him and Indira Gandhi. The current volume, like the previous volumes, is based upon the author's access to all the critical documents in Charan Singh's political life, an access that was provided to him by Charan Singh personally, and which he has used specifically for this work on his political life.