Election fever has gripped the country and it is inevitable to talk about the contribution of the social media in political campaigns, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, and the bureaucracy. IANS picks up something from these varied topics. Take a look.
1. Book: Narendra Modi: The Game Changer; Author: Sudesh Verma; Publisher: Vitasta; Pages: 430; Price: Rs. 399
Narendra Modi’s journey from a tea-seller to becoming the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been one of struggle, dedication, determination, hard work and perseverance. Since his childhood, Modi has been an early riser. He does not go to bed until he has finished his work. The average Indian finds his own reflection in Modi’s struggle. Like Modi, he can dream big. Yes, he can.
The book reflects the changing opinion of Modi’s critics after his recent exoneration by an Ahmedabad court in a case relating to the 2002 riots. Despite this, he continues to be vilified for the 2002 riots. It is an attempt to bust the myths being
cultivated around him.
It represents Modi as a game changer who knows how to impress people with his work and turn the tables on his adversaries. It remains to be seen whether or not the BJP will succeed in converting the massive support for him into votes for the party.
2. Book: The Big Connect: Politics in the age of Social Media; Author: Shaili Chopra; Publisher: Random House; Pages: 224; Price: Rs. 250
The author traces the advent of social media in India and how politics and lobbying has now shifted to the virtual floor.
With comparisons to the Obama campaign of 2008 and 2012 and analysis of the social media campaigns of political bigwigs like Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, and Arvind
Kejriwal, the book discusses the role of the digital community in Indian politics.
3. Book: Neta, Babu and Subsidy; Author: Sandip Sen; Publisher: Vitasta; Pages: 232; Price: Rs. 390
This is a story of our times. It is a graphical story, a book you could browse through in just 15 minutes by looking at the charts, or take months to read and evaluate the implications of the data. It is the statical evidence of our economic decline in the last decade. The data is not new but when analysed properly, have a gripping story to tell.
It is true that sector after sector – be it energy, oil, coal, mining, fertilisers, food or the trade balance – the performance of the UPA has been well below par all the way. What is worrying is that the trends in every sector have been strikingly
similar and repetitive. This exercise will be repeated after five years and regularly thereafter to improve efficient governance in India.
4. Book: India Unic; Author: R. Vaidyanathan; Publisher: Westland; Pages: 344; Price: Rs. 395
While the nation’s newspapers, journals, business magazines, TV channels and the internet continue to churn out reams of paper, airtime and gigabytes of information about India’s business houses, this book delves deep into India Unic, and presents a persuasive case for why any growth story about India is incomplete if that real engine of our growth is ignored.
The author argues that the real India story, over generations, lies with the many proprietorship and partnership firms, small manufacturing units, kirana stores, single entrepreneurs and household enterprises.