Journalist Saba Naqvi’s new book ‘Shades of Saffron: From Vajpayee To Modi’ has nothing new to offer
From the outside, Saba Naqvi’s book looks very promising. It is after all, the work of a journalist who has been a keen observer of the Bharatiya Janata Party for almost all of her career. She also covered the PMO when the party was in power in 1998-2004.
In a country where the art of political memoirs or autobiographies is nearly absent, the burden on the shoulders of beat journalists is too high. Books from them are expected to provide the inside account of the workings of the parties and their leaders. That’s a test Naqvi fails.
One keeps turning page after page in the hope of finding an ‘Achhe page’. As one nears the end of 264-odd pages, one realizes that it’s a mirage, just like ‘Achhe Din’.
Does one really need to read this book to know that the BJP of Modi is very different from the BJP of Vajpayee? Not really, that’s a bygone conclusion.
There is not a single revelation in the book that has not already been discussed to death. The only plausible explanation is that the author has been writing so profusely that she is hardly left with anything new to say.
The BJP has metamorphosed in the last two decades. The changes have been so vast and diverse that Naqvi barely manages to skim through the surface. The major events are superficially explored without offering an in-depth analysis or insight.
The BJP prime ministers discussed in the book, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi, faced huge challenges in the beginning of their political-administrative careers. For Vajpayee, the challenge was Kargil and IC-814 hijacking, and for Modi, the Godhra riots. The author could have benefitted from exploring the approach of these two leaders in handling these crises.
There are about 14 crore young voters who will be voting for the first time in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. For most of them, nearly every line will be a revelation. If the book was written keeping them in mind, then the exercise was worth it.
Otherwise, it’s a better idea to just read Naqvi’s magazine pieces from Outlook and India Today.
I wish reviewer had shared with us some of the contents of the book without passing his own opinions and judgements on us. What does she say? As a potential buyer I look for skillful, objective glimpse of the story in a few sharp passages which would inspire my curiousity about the book. But this review fails that usual expectation and goes on to suggest to author of what she should have written which sounds, highly patronising. Why should she write ‘your’ book?