A remarkable foray into contemporary India
Neerja Chowdhury's new book, "How Prime Ministers Decide," provides an inside account of India's power struggles over the past four decades.
Starting with my childhood – which came and went more than eight decades ago – circumstances brought me close to many of India’s best-known journalists, many of whom also wrote acclaimed books. Of the small number of journalists who wrote books on the history of events they previously reported as newspaper stories, the names of Durga Das and Kuldip Nayar come quickly to mind. Now, Neerja Chowdhury joins the short list. 
Her new book, How Prime Ministers Decide, is not only an inside account of India’s power struggles in the 40 or so years between the Emergency that lasted between 1975 and 1977, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 emergence. It seems a credible account, with its frequently earthy words supplied by the people directly involved or by evidently reliable witnesses. Much of the time, moreover, these words are corroborated by others in the know.
If the book smells of credibility, it also reads like a thriller, for power’s ascents and descents involve moves and countermoves, intrigues and counter-intrigues, unexpected gifts and bitter betrayals. These are dramas in which readers are bound to involve themselves on one side or the other.
The book’s title is deceptive. The processes of decision-making may be discernible in the text, but what holds the reader’s interest is the sequence of stories of how prime ministers were made and unmade. These stories start in the year 1980, when Indira Gandhi regained the premiership she had lost in 1977, and close with the end of Manmohan Singh’s second ministry, and focus also on Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, Narasimha Rao, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
How did Chowdhury obtain all the information that’s inside this book? That the author is a political reporter, analyst and commentator of high standing is certainly not the only reason. In the book, she supplies another. “[A]lmost as an article of faith, I jotted down conversations, formal or informal, to be used for the day’s story—or to be kept for a later date, in the hope that I would write a book. Countless notebooks stacked away in forgotten almirahs; thousands of pages of documents, studies, news reports and books; freed from the tyranny of the journalistic deadlines, I dived deep and resurfaced with treasures I was not even aware I had. To these, I added more interviews, and further study, to write this book.”
She made good use, also, of books by others. The liveliness of what was emerging was felt by the author. “During the Covid years, all the characters I have written about came to life and crowded my study. As I revisited my conversations, I rediscovered the excitement of a high decibel drama.”
Let me disclose that I have known Chowdhury’s strength of spirit for many decades. I can claim with pride that she was a star of the remarkable team that helped Himmat, the little Mumbai weekly I had a role in starting in 1964, become what it became (the journal only lasted until 1981). I should thank Chowdhury for acknowledging her Himmat years in this book. And I should add that, from the start, she was acutely sensitive to the vulnerability of the human condition.
Resolutions to make and preserve notes is one thing. Implementing the resolve takes incredible discipline. As every note-keeping writer also knows, retrieving the notes one has made is a fresh challenge.
However, notes are only one part of the story behind Chowdhury’s extraordinary book. A bigger part is the fact that she was trusted. Scores of powerful and influential people from opposing political parties gave the author the crucial titbits of information that make the book what it is. They were sure that the author would neither misuse the information being given nor reveal its source until it was completely safe to do so.
Since suspense is the book’s second greatest pull, credibility being the first, I should not be revealing its contents. Readers will learn of a host of unexpected things.
Because of the span of time, the range of issues, and the number of prime ministers covered by this book, and because of the author’s unmistakable probing for the real facts, I expect students, scholars, and writers to be turning to it for a long time to come. I see it becoming a volume of reference for political India from the 1970s to 2014.
Although providing a valuable background for understanding contemporary India, the book does not claim to unveil India’s most significant current realities. I do, however, expect that Chowdhury’s landmark book will inspire some to record the unrestricted storms of hate that today intimidate large sections of our population while causing other Indians to hang their heads in apparent helplessness. The author of How Prime Ministers Decide will be the first to agree that the dignity of India’s despised is as important a subject as the power-play of politicians.
Rajmohan Gandhi’s latest book is India After 1947: Reflections & Recollections. The views expressed are personal
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