Rajdeep Sardesai has an envious position as a news man. The Right Wing and Bhakt Brigade think he is the spokesperson of the Liberal Left. Likewise, the Liberal Left is also suspicious about his loyalty, particularly because of his channel affiliation. Sad, as people have no stomach for balanced reporting, leave alone a balanced opinion.

In 2024: The Election That Surprised India, his third book on Indian elections to the Lok Sabha ( 2014, 2019 and 2024), Rajdeep has placed his thoughts without fear, while making critical — and at times, hard hitting comments — on the entire political system and all major political parties: BJP, Congress and the myriad regional parties, their leaders all being analyzed dispassionately.

Starting from the results of the 2019 elections, the book takes you through — chapter wise — the various incidents in the Modi 2.0 regime, which actually helped you refresh your memory. The narratives are well-detailed, with many insides and stories not known to us — leading up to the Chaar Sau Paar fiasco. Public memory they say is always short — and so is mine — but once you dive into the chapters, starting with the pathetic drama of Taali Bajao, Thali Bajao to declare a War on Covid. In fact, the way people all over India played to the synchronized cacophony, each household competing with the other, one would think they were welcoming this dreadful virus into their homes. The way the Government at the Centre handled it, maybe they actually did. 

Today, the re-run of migrant workers footing their way back with their luggage and families, bodies floating in the rivers, a Government sponsored festivity in Haridwar during peak Covid, lack of support service, and every family in India hit by Covid — mortally and/or financially — once again  brought back that sense of depression. 

It was depressing all the way. Prior to Covid we had the CAA Agitation, the JNU mayhem, and as we rolled into Modi 2.0, the events were simply negative. Negative for a democratic nation. The Farmers’ Agitation, Manipur, Bulldozers — and the mishandling of all these issues. The worst part of the despair was the way BJP was using their “washing machine” to buy out the Opposition, even people whom they had vowed to put in jail! Leaders who were publicly labeled as corrupt, like Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan, and many others, were bought out and rehabilitated. The mission was power — absolute power — and the BJP would even disregard the RSS norms just to grab more power. 

Sardesai has also been very dispassionate when recording his views about the Opposition parties. The big chunk is devoted to the Congress, on how they crumbled, their own mishandling of leaders and situations (Ghelot–Pilot) and Rahul Gandhi’s delayed decisions to find his mojo. However, when he did, he singularly became the game changer. As Sardesai rightly points out, the one time “Pappu” is now the face of the Opposition inside the Parliament and outside. The launch of the “Mohabbat ki Dukan” campaign was perhaps the biggest guarantee Indians were looking for. 

The role of Godi Media and the Gestapo style of social functioning has also been freely discussed.

The political class as  a whole is the most easily purchasable commodity and there are no such words like ideology, desh seva or wafadari in their lexicon. Everytime an Alliance is worked out, it splits within months due to seat-sharing arrangements. And of course, who will be the CM face, yours or ours! The disintegration of the INDIA alliance is a perfect example of the above! 

The only party spared by Sardesai is the CPM, or the entire Left for that matter. I guess they do not matter in Indian politics any more. It just runs on passion and social activism. Sad, as they might have the best minds even today, not necessarily as Party Members, but as a Marxist-oriented community. 

And then from politics to business — one word: Adani. As I write, he is a Wanted Man. We are all waiting for the drama to unfold to figure out if the BJP alliance at the center will continue to be “Adani Ki Sarkar”.   

The book has a chapter on issues like Why pollsters got 2024 wrong, to what changed between 2019 and 2024 for Team Modi–Shah. Another chapter has dwelled on very touchy issues like is the Modi Era drawing to a close (the Maharashtra assembly results are coming in right now and I heard some analysts say that the Mahayuti is doing well since they had asked Modi to stay out, while the RSS  took over the grassroot level contact programme.

Finally, has Rahul arrived and will democracy survive in the Modi Era? 

Sardesai has opined and now it is for us to do our mental math. My take is that while we can blame the Modi–Shah style of politics, BJP’s arrogance and what have we, much of their play book has leaves from Indira Gandhi’s style of functioning and the way the Congress operated during the Indira–Sanjay years. Puppet Governors, bulldozing public sentiment, to breaking popularly-elected State Governments. The dismissal of the Namboodiripad Ministry in Kerala in 1957 and the Left Front Ministry in Bengal in 1968, what with funding a non-descript party, PDF, led by Ashu Ghosh, and body snatching some of the Left Front Ministers!

How is the book to read? Really, it was unputdownable. The easy style, honest approach, full of data and statistics (there is a section on stats as well) — you will love the narrative. 

My only question at the end — can he get out of the India Today TV shows, sitting next to an anchor who has the God’s gift of irritating you, and instead, write?