The Janata Story: An enigma of 30 years standing

The book, The Janata Enigma 30 out of 60, written by senior journalist Kumar Rajesh, covers the last three decades of Union politics in India, in a lucrative, informative and lucid manner.

New Delhi, June 2 : The book, The Janata Enigma 30 out of 60, written by senior journalist Kumar Rajesh, covers the last three decades of Union politics in India, in a lucrative, informative and lucid manner.

The book is based on exhaustive research done by the author, and recollects all the significant political events during the past 30 years. It provides a good understanding of the politics of the country and details the elections from 1952 to 2004.

The story begins in 1977 with formation of the first Non-Congress Government in New Delhi, when Morarji Desai, who had always wanted to be the Prime Minister, finally assumes power.

The story ends in 2007, when Dr. Manmohan Singh, who had hardly ever dreamt of being in politics, is the Prime Minister now. Transformation in country's socio-political arena from 1977 to 2007 is of tremendous significance in grasping the contemporary history and politics of India.

Like any other book on the Emergency, this book however doesn't stop at Emergency; but focuses on the Janata experiments since 1977. The book not only helps general readers, but also provides students and academicians a better understanding of contemporary history and politics of the country.

One of interesting and must read parts of the book is a series of interviews taken with a wide range of politicians across the entire spectrum of country's polity, who all have been significant figures in this era. This series of interviews provides the reader with a deep understanding of the period.

The writer predicts that no ex-Congressman will head future non-Congress governments.

"Not any of the non-Congress government after the emergency period completed its full term of five years except the BJP government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee," the author observes, citing the reason as "Vajpayee's non-Congress background."

According to the book, Lok Sabha Opposition leader L K Advani, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa are probables for the Prime Minister's post in next 20 years.

The other probable names for Prime Minister's post in the coming two decades mentioned in the book include Mulayam Singh, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, M K Stalin, Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar, Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, Sushma Swaraj, Ramvilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav.

This list in not exhaustive and does not include the names from the Congress or ex-Congressmen.

The turbulence in the Indian politics and how socio-economic changes have affected our political scenario, which inspired the writer to pen, down the book. The book covers Central Government and politics. Reference to state politics in this book is, at the best.

Needless to add that there have been more 'Janata Experiments' since then and the book covers all of them till date. The author also highlights factors responsible for the debacle of Janata leaders like Chandrasekhar, George Fernandes, Subramaniam Swamy, etc.

The author says that 1989 Janata experiment helped in deepening of democratic tradition in the country and led to the birth of leaders like Lalu Prasad and Mayawati in Indian politics.

The writer makes another interesting observation that the Janata movement of 1977 was restricted to the north India but the 1989 experiment had significant presence in the south, with NT Rama Rao as the convenor of the National Front.

The Janata Enigma 30 out of 60 has a very lucid style of narration that keeps the reader engrossed, and is a must read for people who want to have a better understanding of political situation of the country.

Kumar Rajesh's book provides a layman also a better insight of the functioning of the political system. Going through the book, will definitely inspire the readers, but also motivate them to take part in day to day functioning of the country. y Praful Kumar Singh

ANI