A Napoleonic view of BJP

The book is conspicuous in its misstatements and suppression of facts

The Rise of the BJP: The Making of the World’s Largest Political Party

Author: Bhupender Yadav and Ila Patnaik

Publisher: Penguin 

Pages: 336

Price: Rs 699

In a country where swearing by the national movement is a prerequisite to wielding power, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) dramatic rise is paradoxical. The ease with which the party appropriated the freedom struggle and several of its nationalist stalwarts is at odds with the complete absence from that movement of the entire political fraternity to which the party is symbiotically connected. The BJP leadership may argue that the Sangh Parivar’s political wing came into existence after independence.