Now updated with a new chapter on Rahul Gandhi The Congress party has always stayed one step ahead of the opposition by constantly reinventing and re-aligning itself to stay in sync with the political realities of the day. Its president, Sonia Gandhi, pulled off a master-coup in 2004 by declining the prime-ministership, while the incumbent Congress Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is the first prime minister since Nehru to lead the party into two Union government terms. In 2013, Rahul Gandhi was elevated to the post of Congress vice-president amid much fanfare and optimism. Tasked with reviving the grand old party, the young politician remains, in the minds of many, the best hope to lead the Congress into the next century, marking a new moment in the Congress’s concept of ‘continuity with change’. In his bestselling book 24 Akbar Road, seasoned journalist and veteran Congress watcher Rasheed Kidwai puts together an incisive and engaging account of the Congress’s shape-shifting nature and its tenuous hold at the Centre, providing a dispassionate observer’s glance at affairs within the Congress. Kidwai brilliantly tracks the story of the contemporary Congress in the years after the Emergency, using the Congress seat of power at 24 Akbar Road as his vantage to draw a compelling account of the Congress leadership from Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi to Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri, to the present- day trinity of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. In this revised and updated edition, Kidwai analyses Rahul Gandhi’s appointment to assess what the Congress needs to do to remain India’s nerve of power in the coming years, and whether the new vice- president can rally the party to a third consecutive victory at the Centre.'

The Book Takes A Close Look At The Last Three Lok Sabha Elections Those Of 1996, 1998 And 1999. It Is A Study Of Why Elections Have Become More Frequent Since 1989. The Reason Given Is The Transformation Of The Party System From One Of Congress Dominance To A Multi-Party Configuration Reflecting The Instability Of Minority And/Or Coalition Governments And Hung Parliaments.

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.

It is nothing but the Inborn Right [Inalienable Natural Right] established as Fundamental Right of our Children under UNCRC and RTE Act – 2009 (India) to receive Equal & Opposite Apriori Framework of Natural Science and Un-contradicted Facts of this Manifested Nature at school [educational institution] without any Broken Bar. It is nothing but our duty for duty's sake as per Mandates of UN UDHR - 1948 to protect and to promote Inalienable Natural Rights established as Fundamental Rights of our Children. The book “One Unarmed Soldier” [All-in-One: Part – II] speaks about Equal & Opposite Identified “Global Education and Children in Conflict with Laws” and Searched out Guaranteed Child Rights & Uncompromising Constitutional Rights of our Children. The book “One Unarmed Soldier” [All-in-One: Part – II] also speaks about duty for duty’s sake of both Nodal Agencies and Nodal Ministries. The book “One Unarmed Soldier” [All-in-One: Part – II] also speaks about Fundamental Duties & Moral Responsibilities of both Teachers and Parents.

The INC (Indian National Congress) by SK Nigam (Notion Press) The book unravels the various aspects of the Indian National Congress since its formation. Particularly after 2014, the Congress experienced significant organizational and structural setbacks. The book places us in the middle of a sizable tent of ideologies and convictions of one of the oldest political parties in the history of the world, the Congress, which spearheaded a massive mass movement for freedom against the colonial regime and also established the framework for a democratic, secular party in the nation, which is unquestionably currently in serious crisis. Working in a small wing of UPCC (NGO Cell, which is worthless as told by Mr. Sachin Naik, Secretary AICC at Salempur 2019 LS Candidate’s interview) of its vast organization, I deciphered the history of congress . I was deeply impressed by the power of thought, the political language of its leaders specially Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru that was behind this party. Now that the memories of the Congress fight for the country's independence are fading and the new generation specially millennials, who are being misled by modern communication technology with deep fake electoral strategies, my reaction to the Congress party may be seem sentimental to it. However, like other political parties, I do not imagine the Congress party too idealistically, and as far as possible, I avoid thinking of it even in my dreams. I would like to think of it not as an old political party, but as a nurturer of independent ideas.

Study conducted in Lohit District of Arunachal Pradesh, India.

In October 1947, two months after Independence, TJS George arrived in Bombay. He was nineteen years old, with a degree in English Literature. He sent out job applications––to the Air Force and to the city's English-language newspapers. Only one organization cared to reply, The Free Press Journal. The editor was known to hire anyone who asked for a job, but most new hires were sacked in a fortnight. George was put on the news desk as a sub-editor and eventually became an assistant editor. In Patna, as editor of The Searchlight, he was arrested by the chief minister for sedition. He spent three weeks in Hazaribagh Central Jail. In Hong Kong, he worked for the Far Eastern Economic Review as regional editor; in New York he was a writer for the United Nations population division; and, back in Hong Kong, in 1975, he founded Asiaweek. Six years later, he returned to India and settled in Bangalore. He began a column for Indian Express that ran without a break for twenty-five years, until 2022. His seventy-five years of journalism, concurrent with India's development as an independent nation, make for a unique understanding of events and personalities. Acclaimed for his widely historical, pan-Asian vision, George brings this far-flung experience to a compulsively readable new book, The Dismantling of India. It is the story of India told in 35 concise biographies, beginning with Jamsetji Tata and ending with Narendra Modi.

If right-populists have had enough of establishment experts, how do they replace them, with whom, and to what effect? Presenting the first in-depth analysis of India's new intellectual elite in the wake of a Hindu supremacist government, The New Experts investigates the power of appointed experts in normalising ideologies of governance, beyond party rhetoric. The New Experts presents an accessible narrative of how and why particular ideas gain prominence in elite policy and political discourse. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic research with national and international policy makers, politicians, bureaucrats, consultants, and journalists, this book analyses how political leaders in India strategically use modes of populist spectacle and established technocratic institutions to produce shared visions of glorified technological and hyper-nationalist futures. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available open access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

In June 1975 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a 'State of Emergency', resulting in a 21-month suspension of democracy. Jaffrelot and Anil explore this black page in India's history, a constitutional dictatorship of unequal impact, with South India largely spared thanks to the resilience of Indian federalism. India's First Dictatorship focuses on Mrs Gandhi and her son, Sanjay, who was largely responsible for the mass sterilisation programmes and deportation of urban slum-dwellers. However, it equally exposes the facilitation of authoritarian rule by Congressmen, Communists, trade unions, businessmen and the urban middle class, as well as the complacency of the judiciary and media. While opposition leaders eventually closed ranks in jail, many of them collaborated with the new regime--including the RSS. Those who resisted the Emergency, in the media or on the streets, were few in number. This episode was an acid test for India's political culture. While a tiny minority of citizens fought for democracy during the Emergency, in large numbers the people bowed to a strong woman, even worshipped her. Equally importantly, Hindu nationalists were endowed with a new legitimacy. The Emergency was not a parenthesis, but a turning point; its legacy is very much alive today.