Book Review: Rajdeep Sardesai's '2014: The Election that Changed India' is a must read for all news junkies

Book: 2014: The Election that Changed India
Author: Rajdeep Sardesai
Publishing House: Penguin Viking, 2014
Price: Rs 599; 372 pages

To read a book on India's Lok Sabha elections written by one of the country's top journalists is always fraught with pleasure and risk. The pleasure to finally know the 'unbiased' opinion of the journalist about the big players in the elections away from the journalistic necessity of being objective and balanced during primetime broadcasts. The risk, however, is that the book may get monotonous as most of the events are well known and still relatively fresh in mind. 

Rajdeep Sardesai in his book 2014 - The Election that Changed India wriggles out of this problem by keeping the narrative short and to the point, replete with political and personal anecdotes (like the fact that he double dated with Salman Khan once) that are enough to keep the reader hooked for 372 pages. 

The book starts with where it all began: Narendra Modi's involvement in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, which changed the political firmament of the country. Sardesai describes in great detail how certain traits of then karyakarta and now prime minister stood out even then. According to Sardesai, Modi was affable and a great host to the journalists. But, "His smile could embrace you, the eyes would intimate."

Sardesai describes Modi's days in Delhi, which he brands as his days of political exile. The journalist struck up a professional friendship with Modi over meals of kadhi-chawal and conversations with a smattering of Gujarati. But all those changed after Sardesai's post-Godhra riots coverage. The friendly relationship was ruptured, although the book suggests that the two always kept in touch, via late night calls. The reference to late night phone calls are repeated often, which prompts the question about why Modi refused to give an interview in run up to the polls. 

Sardesai takes a relatively kind view of then chief minister's ability or the lack of it during the Gujarat riots. He says that although Modi was CM, the real mantle was with hardliner Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Praveen Togadia. 

Sardesai's view of Rahul Gandhi though is much more scathing. He describes how in several off record interactions, Rahul failed to give any overarching vision and how his series of missteps leading to the elections brought about the ultimate disaster. He gives a sneak-peak into Team Rahul and how they were often cut off from the leaders working at the grassroots. Sardesai is magnanimous to concede that Rahul's interview with Arnab Goswami was one of the greatest embarrassing moments for the Congress from a PR point of view. He also shares the information that Rahul cancelled interviews with NDTV four times!

Sardesai opens up quite a bit about his relationship with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Arvind Kejriwal, conceding that he (Rajdeep) was the one to give the original idea of Tahirir Square-like movement to the 'India against Corruption' leadership. In hindsight, he believes that the media went overboard in its coverage of Anna's movement. Sardesai even acknowledges that he was offered to join the AAP, but preferred to be on the other side of the fence.

In the book, an overarching theme is how deeply Rajdeep cared for his own channel, CNN IBN and the people associated with it. Thus, it is commendable that Sardesai is amazingly restrained about the Ambanis. There is hardly any rancour in his writing. However, he shares that the first signs of a rift came when he interviewed Arvind Kejriwal for a Google hangout, much to the displeasure of the Ambanis. 

Sardesai is quite critical of his ilk, calling many of the prime time debates inane and a lazy journalistic exercise where court martials replace solid ground reporting. He also concedes to couple of personal errors. He says that giving Rahul Gandhi 'CNN IBN Indian of the Year' in 2009 was a mistake, as Manmohan Singh was the real man of the match. There is an interesting story of how Rahul failed to turn up for the show despite Priyanka Gandhi's insistence and the presence of Manmohan Singh as the guest. 

Using several such anecdotes, Sardesai shows how the 2014 elections were destined to go only one way. 

Sardesai also comes clean about the infamous cash-for-vote sting. In a refreshingly candid manner, he writes, "Where I badly erred was in not maintaining a sufficient firewall between the BJP politicians involved in the sting and our own reporting team. We had willfully allowed ourselves to be used by a political party in their quest for power and my constant reporter's search, indeed hunger, for a big story."

The book goes into great detail to explain how a counter narrative was unleashed by Modi's PR team after the backlash in 2002. The book also introduces us to various key individuals who remained in the backdrop but played key role in weaving Modi's publicity machinery in the run up to the polls. But according to Rajdeep, the media didn't create the Modi wave as many tend to believe. Sardesai believes it was the lackadaisical leadership of Rahul vs. the impression of solidity given by Modi which made all the difference. The media merely rode the Modi wave, according to Sardesai. 

One of the refreshing features (aspects) of the book is that Sardesai hasn't been prisoner of ideological blinkers while writing it. So, the book pokes fun at National Advisory Council (NAC) members as jholawalas, tells about Amit Shah's not so friendly call post Snoopgate , Ambika Soni's indignant tone after carpet coverage of Anna's movement, death threats from Twitter trolls, perceived Jayanthi tax, to name a few. Even his take on the Muzzafarnagar riots is different from the usual 'left-liberal' narrative. 

The book is a pacy read but stops short of being outstanding due to a couple of reasons. Sardesai never looks to delve into analysing the hypothesis that Modi's position as a Hindu Hriday Samrat was the most important and credible factor to emerge as the first among equals in the galaxy of successful BJP chief ministers. 

Also, the title of the book is never quite justified. It was perhaps an afterthought, a big bang title to grab eyeballs. If the elections indeed changed India, the books make no serious effort to critically examine that. However, Sardesai had already hedged himself from this criticism in the introduction where he says, "As pen-pushers or sound bite warriors we perhaps lack the conceptual base of academics or the number-crunching skills of a pollster." 

However, what Sardesai brings in oodles is perspective about the big moments of the elections, where it was won and lost successfully. Coming from one of India's most credible journalists, this is a book no news junkie can afford to miss.