Author Vivekanand Jha, on the left side of Member of Jharkhand Legislative Assembly Saryu Roy, Vice Chancellor of Birsa Agricultural University, Dr Onkarnath Singh and others during the launch of the book at Ranchi Press Club.
Book Launch: Narendra Damodardas Modi – No More Apologist
A new book on Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi hits the stalls on his birthday, September 17, 2023
Author: Vivekanand Jha
Publisher: Pilgrims Publishing House, Varanasi
Total Pages: 157
“Constructing an Ithihasa of Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi with a narrative that is sharply at odds with the conventional tradition of biography writing is a daunting experience. Vivekananda Jha has taken up this challenge and produced a work that incorporates all these facets. He incorporates all the political arguments that have dominated the political career of Modi through conversations involving representative characters. He has also not shied away from incorporating spiritual and mystical influences on Modi, additions that will undoubtedly invite ‘scholarly’ opprobrium.
I find the book interesting because its narrative style is unique, at least as far as writings in English are concerned. I am not a student of literature to judge its proximity to what is called magic realism, but it certainly corresponds to traditional Indian ways of telling a tale.”
– Swapan Dasgupta (journalist and politician, a former Rajya Sabha Member, in the Foreword of the book)
“The 5th of August, 2019 was the red-letter day for India and the world: biting the bullet, and picking up the gauntlet, the Modi government had abrogated Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution. The nation had erupted in joy as if Diwali was celebrated before its scheduled day, for it was almost unexpected, far less believed, that someone could dare look into the eyes of Jihadis who unleashed the ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Kashmir, to tell them in black and white, ‘Enough is enough, it is time for the national mainstreaming of Kashmiris. The doctrine of Ataljee of ‘Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat and Insaaniyat’ had passed its expiry date when Kashmiris felt alienated from the mainstream of the nation’. It was the time, the Prime Minister sincerely felt, for the complete integration of Kashmir with the Union of India was to be consecrated irreversibly.
Later in a televised speech, Narendra Damodardas Modi paid a glowing tribute to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, saying, ‘The dreams of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Ataljee had attained fruition, with the abrogation of Article 370. Indeed, I feel that their huge struggles for the removal of Article 370, have actualised today. Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee had laid down his life for this great mission of removing Article 370, which stands repealed today’. Significantly, the commendable role of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Ravi Shankar Prasad, the then Union Law Minister, apart from the other members of the Union Cabinet, the government machinery, along with the people of India, deserve the full credit for standing in solidarity with the decision of the government of India to nullify the aforementioned Articles.
Suddenly, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee chuckled from his Heavenly abode, as he watched the Prime Minister delivering a televised address to the nation, ‘Oh, my son, Narendra, you have done it, which I all along believed that someone would. Indeed, you have relieved me of my stupendous anxiety brought about by this Nehruvian albatross placed around the neck of Mother India. How tense I was, during my last days in a prison cell in Kashmir, gravely wondering that my crusade for the removal of Article 370 had gone astray. But no, you have proved me right; may your decision benefit the destabilized Kashmiri Hindus with their resettlement in Kashmir’. A teardrop glistened in the eyes of Shyama Prasad. Closeted with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at another place in Heaven, Jawaharlal Nehru had exclaimed, ‘Sardar, I have profusely apologized to you for not heeding your advice; in fact, I should never have approached the United Nations. However, I am happy that my successor from your state could dare to reverse my decision. Indeed, Article 370 and 35A were the result of my Himalayan blunder’. Sardar smiles as he said, ‘But Jawahar, your great-grandson, is hell-bent on bringing back Article 370 if he comes to
power?’
Jawahar: ‘I don’t think so, once repealed, the nation will not allow its resurrection’.
Sitting in meditation, in his lotus posture, Maha Avatar Babajee suddenly opens his eyes, ‘Oh, heartening news indeed! Damodar finally has done it. He has earned the blessings of Mother Bharati for this noble service to the nation. He has sincerely begun working on my mission. May he prove to be the harbinger of a new dawn for Sanatanis after a millennium of subjugation’.
Excerpts from the chapter: The Making of Narendra Modi, Unmaking of Jawaharlal
