Great Indian Circus

I can’t picture you surviving in Indian politics. Let me tell you the reasons: you have morals, too, much integrity, and you lack an ego.

Debarghya Mukhopadhyay

I can’t picture you surviving in Indian politics. Let me tell you the reasons: you have morals, too, much integrity, and you lack an ego. These lines from political journalist Anirudh Bhattacharyya’s book The Candidate (Penguin; Rs 299) hints of a satire on Indian politics.

“The protagonist is like any other Indian, tired of politics and wants a change for good. He is an ‘armchair liberal’ who joins politics, and sees its dark shades,” says Bhattacharyya, “I have tried to take up thoughts of people who are not politicians but still think about the political scene in the country.”

The book launch at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Mathura Road, on Thursday evening included a panel discussion hosted by the founders of the news satire website The Unreal Times — Karthik Laxman and Chepuri Krishna. “The subject I have dealt with in my book will not be a soothing experience for a politician to go through,” says Bhattacharyya.

(The reporter is a student of EXIMS)

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