Having spent two lifetimes in advertising, I know that a good advertising campaign is the result of comprehensive research, and then a good team working on it will examine and analyse the data before drawing up the strategy. Good campaigns don’t stand out just because of good creativity; it is the digging that leads you to the creative route.
In the book, Derek has done just that. Even though the book is subtitled Views from the Front Row of the Parliament, politics and policies are a result of solid research, and his team must be recognised for the work they have done. What Derek has done is present the issues based on data published from the Government’s own records, without any twists, and leave it to you to assess for yourself which way the nation is going. (Even though he thinks NDA will soon stand for No Data Available!)
The book talks about the role of Governors in the NDA regime, their meagre allocation on education, how India is failing its young. He has substantiated the Basket of Empty Promises in no uncertain terms, but one stark statistic that stands out is the spending on education. In 2023–24, the Union allotted 0.44% of GDP to education, which was reduced to 0.37% in the 2025 Union Budget.
No, his book does not make for social media stuff, with nasty, open and filthy hate stuff going around (today is the 12th of October, 2026, so you know what I am talking about), but it is a serious insight into the way the country is running, or rather, the way we are being made to believe that it is running. I would be happy if people who swear by “Modiji the Messiah” read this too. You will do your motherland a good service.
On the lighter side, on page 193 he has quoted a song by Billy Joel. Sometime in the early nineties, Derek and I would walk across to our friends Gyan and Jayashree’s house and sit through their rehearsals, and despite years in politics, Billy is still there. Another is from his section on Predictions (no, I am not playing the Shastrijis who appear on YouTube and say everything but say nothing). One of his twelve selections of people he thinks we should watch out for in the future is Sayoni Ghosh. Guess his list was made before May 4, and I wonder if it stands!!!