How Prime Ministers Decide by Neerja ChowdhuryMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hooter; Sharing the inner workings of every Indian PM till Manmohan Singh on the biggest challenges / wins attributed to them
The book is a pretty well researched collective of every Prime Minister till Manmohan Singh - the prevailing circumstances in which they came to power, the other players in the field, the run up to a major decision / event / win they had that has sorta defined them in the annals of history. This could have been extremely dry but she does a good job of setting the narrative through conversations and interviews which make you feel you are part of the conversation as the historical situation unravels in front of you. From Manmohan's camaraderie with George Bush and the tensions with Sonia Gandhi to Vajpayee's relationship with Narasimha Rao and L K Advani to the Pokhran tests and the fight for peace with Pakistan including how V P Singh's Mandal move and its impact that continues to resonate in India. The Gandhian family gets most of the coverage in this book from Nehru, Indira, Sonia, Rajiv, Sanjay and Rahul getting time as major movers and shakers in a lot of political decisions that took place whether in power or not.
History often gets painted black and white in our books but when viewed through the lens of the present - there are a lot more shades at play that lead to those outcomes and Neerja does a great job at delivering the same.
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