Book Review

Rajdeep Sardesai, The Election That Changed India 2014, Penguin books
publication
The Indian general elections in 2014 were thought to be the most significant in
the country’s history since 1977. It saw the demise of the incumbent Congress
party, a stunning triumph for the BJP, and a novel campaigning strategy that
flouted all political conventions. Rajdeep Sardesai follows the major figures and
significant recent events as they relate to the history of these crucial elections.
He draws a comprehensive picture of the political dramas of an election year,
including Rahul Gandhi’s extraordinary gaffes, the scandals that crippled
Manmohan Singh and the UPA-II, and the state elections in Gujarat that
Narendra Modi won for the third time in 2012 but set his sights on a bigger
prize. He creates a broad panorama of the year that transformed India. The
book compromises of ten chapters including introduction and epilogue.
Every election has unique characteristics and makes a big difference in the
development of the democratic system. In the introduction, the author
compares the 2014 elections to those of 1952 and 1977 as major turning
points and highlights the causes of the transformation. He emphasises how the
poles symbolised the steady transformation of Indian politics, erasing long-
standing barriers based on cast and creed and brought significant changes in
voting patterns. The book begins with introducing Narendrabhai, the Man from
Gujarat and the pivotal event that reshaped the political landscape of the
nation: Narendra Modi’s participation in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. In
great detail, Sardesai explains how certain characteristics of the then-
karyakarta and current prime minister shone out even then. Sardesai claimed
that Modi was amiable and a wonderful host to the media. On the other hand,
“His smile could embrace you, the eyes would intimate.”
The early years of Sardesai’s journalism career, his initial encounters with
Narendrabhai, Gujarati politics, and Modi’s time in Delhi—which he refers to as
his period of political exile—are all discussed. Over kadhi-chawal lunches and
chats with a smattering of Gujarati, the journalist and Modi developed a
professional bond. But all of that changed following Sardesai’s reportage of the
Godhra riots. Despite the book’s suggestion that they always stayed in touch
via late-night conversations, their amicable friendship ended.
However, Sardesai’s opinion of Rahul Gandhi is far harsher and is explained in
“Prisoner of a Family Legacy”. He explains how Rahul failed to provide any
overarching vision in a number of off-the-record interactions and how his
string of errors leading up to the elections brought about the eventual
catastrophe. He provides an inside look at Team Rahul and how they were
frequently cut off from the grassroots leaders. “Conflicting chemistries make
for a great election battle” wrote author. While Modi spoke of the twenty- first
century belonging to India, Rahul would often talk of the past — of the
sacrifices. He did not offer a vision for the future.
Sardesai demonstrates how the 2014 elections were destined to have only one
outcome using a number of examples .
In addition, Sardesai is open about the infamous “cash-for-vote” scandal. He
says, “Where I badly erred was in failing to maintain a sufficient firewall
between the BJP politicians involved in the sting and our own reporting team,”
in a refreshingly open tone. We had knowingly permitted ourselves to be used
by a political party in its pursuit of power, in fact in desire for a huge story.
Later The book goes into great detail to illustrate how Modi's PR staff launched
a counter narrative in response to the backlash in 2002. The book also exposes
us to a number of significant figures who worked behind the scenes to weave
Modi's publicity machine in the run-up to the elections. Rajdeep, however,
disputes the common misconception that the Modi wave was started by the
media. According to Sardesai, the decisive factor was Rahul's slack leadership
as opposed to Modi's appearance of stability. Sardesai claimed that the media
merely followed the Modi wave.
Being free of ideological blinders while writing the book is one of the book’s
refreshing quality. As a result, the book makes fun of National Advisory Council
(NAC) members by calling them “jholawalas,” recounts Amit Shah’s unfriendly
call after Snoopgate, Ambika Soni’s angry tone following carpet coverage of
Anna’s march, death threats from Twitter trolls, and the alleged Jayanthi tax,
to name a few. Even his interpretation of the Muzzafarnagar riots departs from
the more ‘left-liberal’ account.
He also tells the now-famous tale of how Reliance Industries pressured
Sardesai’s earlier channel during the election campaign, once requesting that
he cancel a Google Hangout with the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind
Kejriwal (the channel carried out the programme). According to Sardesai, the
Ambanis’ unease with Kejriwal was “symptomatic of a growing belief within
corporate India that they were now under siege”. But he thinks the media

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today is even more corrupt, in his opinion. He claims that “studio talk is cheap;
solid ground reporting needs deep pockets” and that “breaking news is truly
broken.”
The book provides some in-depth information on each political party that has
worked with well-known advertising agencies on their campaigns. It was long
believed that a major political party’s door-to-door campaign is the only reason
it can win an election. The fact that each party has hired and spent millions of
dollars on advertisements and the makeover of the politicians was
immediately proven correct after reading the main advertising companies.
Several examples and instances in the book illustrates the same. The
campaigning has been a roller coaster for the BJP, the Congress, and the
newcomer AAP. Rajdeep goes so far as to write on the country’s top female
politicians, including Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, and Jayalalitha, Priyanka
Gandhi well as their planning and strategy for the 2014 elections. The big fight
Amethi and Varanasi is well covered with minute details. The story was
thorough and well-researched.
A number of startling data about the 2014 elections and how they compare to
the 2009 elections are presented at the book’s conclusion. Given the planning
and execution, the 2014 election was undoubtedly the most important one
ever. The book has numerous examples of politicians boasting about
themselves and political voids in India, yet readers are kept interested by the
book’s curious study of the reporter’s diary from well-known political events in
recent memory.

Swati Tyagi
BA Hons Political Science (Sem 3)
AISS, Amity University Madhya Pradesh