Book Review: Rajneeti - A great insight into one of the most underrated politicians in India

The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference

My heart was getting heavier with each line, as I was reading through the plight of a 24 year old Physics teacher and a district level leader from Mirzapur. He was arrested on 12th July 1975, because he was organizing many meetings to campaign against the dreaded emergency imposed on the country by Indira Gandhi. Both his mother and wife had come to a railway station through which his train was passing, to catch a glimpse of him but couldn’t get to speak of him because of the police presence there.

The mother waited and waited for her son to come back home. The mother had told him in no uncertain terms not to compromise on the truth. With uncertainty looming, the mother had suffered a stroke and eventually passed away. The son chose not to apply for special permission to visit his ailing mother. The son completed post-death rituals in the jail itself. Yet the son stood like a rock, making his mother very proud.

This poignant story made my think about the stories of many such mothers and sons which have been kept away from us for many years. Those who today loosely use the word “emergency” today have truly not felt an iota of what an actual emergency looks like. For starters, can they even imagine the commitment and strength of a 24 year old well established Physics teacher to have braved an arrest, not knowing when he will be released or if he will even be released from jail? 

The son and the Physics teacher we are talking about is today India’s Defense Minister, Rajnath Singh. Despite the volume of information available on him, this was for the first time that I got to read about his exemplary commitment during such harrowing times. And for that, we have to thank Gautam Chintamani for writing the book “Rajneeti – A biography of Rajnath Singh”.

I actually have to thank Aashish Chandorkar for writing about this book, because only after reading the review on Indic Today, I went ahead and purchased it. Ashish is indeed right – “Contemporary History is a rare genre in Indian History”. Perhaps it is rare because it has so far been focused on very few individuals. Students of political history would be yearning for books like Rajneeti, to get more insights into the functioning of leaders who have been instrumental in the shaping of many historical events.

The initial chapters of the book focus less on Rajnath Singh and more on events that have led to the birth and rise of the Jan Sangh and later the BJP. Intertwined in these narratives is the rise of Rajnath Singh too, from being the son of a farmer (who resisted massive pressure to contest election) to becoming the education minister of Uttar Pradesh.

And from these chapters onwards, the book is a fascinating read that gives great details on the many good things Rajnath Singh had implemented. For example, today’s media would have highlighted Rajnath Singh’s short tenure as UP’s education minister with a dramatic headline - “Pass percentage dips in UP from 57% to 15%”. They would have never told us that this drop was because of a stringent Anti-Copying Act that Rajnath Singh had implemented, despite huge pressure on him not to do so! Imagine – we’ve had to wait till 1992 to have a minister stand up and tell that rampant copying is actually spoiling the future of children!

The further rise of BJP and internal politics in UP meant that Rajnath Singh will take up a ministerial post in Vajpayee-led NDA government. After detailing some of his achievements here, the book gives us very fascinating details on how he went on to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2000. The intrigue and mystery of politics is ever so evident in how the events unfolded and more importantly, were superbly captured in the book. Rajnath Singh’s short tenure as UP CM ended in the year 2002. He became India’s Agriculture Minister later during that year and that short tenure ended in 2004! I’d strongly recommend reading the book to understand the work he has done in various capacities in the short tenures he helmed them.

Up until this point of time, every single tenure of Rajnath Singh’s office was a short one! Until he became the President of the BJP for a full term, he actually never completed a full term in any office. Rajnath Singh was the President of the party through one of its most turbulent phase – 2005 to 2009. Whilst the party was able to recuperate and win some state elections, it took a severe beating at the hustings in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. However, Rajnath Singh came back as Party President in 2012, and was yet again leading the party through another turbulent yet assertive phase. The book details extremely well the happenings in the BJP during both these phases, and especially the 2012 to 2014 phase, where Rajnath Singh’s political acumen ensured that Narendra Modi was declared the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate.

The turbulent UPA years of 2004 to 2014 saw many terrorist attacks in the country. So when the Modi government took charge in 2014, the most pressing issue facing the country was internal security. 2014 to 2019 was also the phase when India’s internal security saw its biggest overhaul. The result - not a single terrorist attack on civilians in the entire country (except J&K). Rajnath Singh was the Home Minister of India during this phase, and it befits his stature that his exemplary work has been documented in such an exemplary fashion.

One of the most iconic images in the aftermath of the dastardly Pulwama attack is the Home Minister of India, Rajnath Singh, holding the coffin of one of the martyrs. This poignant action told the world how serious we are about this attack and rightfully forms the back cover of the book too.

Physics Teacher. UP Education Minister. UP Chief Minister. Agricultural Minister of India. President of BJP. Home Minister of India. Defense Minister of India. This is a resume that many politicians would die for. Gautam Chintamani’s book “Rajneeti” describes in great detail how difficult it is to build such an impressive resume. For all those interested in politics, policy, and public affairs, this book is a great read indeed.