Book review : 2014 the election that changed India

Rajdeep Sardesai gives an informed and knowledgeable account of the events that shaped 2014 Indian general election. The book give a background account of all the major political players who were in the fray in 2014. In the process, the book brings into perspective almost antithetical upbringing, lifestyle, political ideas, working style, campaign management and decisiveness of two major contenders for the pivotal post of prime minister, Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. The content further covers the major happenings of the UPA-2 era in a news anchor’s perspective and views. The meta-parts about workings of indian journalism/news channels, the gossips/rumors a newsman gets to hear, the author’s relationship with politicians, both big and small, young and old and his views about them makes up the book’s interesting portions.

Rajdeep is a well-known and renowned news anchor/journalist. True to his anchoring style, his writing style is engaging, simple, fair and square, thus making this book a good page-turner. In these 500 odd pages, he tries to give a balanced view of the political happenings. The self-critical parts regarding the TRP hunger of our news channels and its discriminate reporting practices shrinks it’s credibility further. The title of the book is just an eye-catcher without much explanation.

Rating : 3/5. Great read for any politically-aware Indian.