Anticipating India: The best of National Interest is a collection Shekhar Gupta's news and current affairs column. pic.twitter.com/wdVT00pPoE
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) April 28, 2014
Leadership is about having a big heart, says Shekhar Gupta at his book launch. pic.twitter.com/U0k3eyUVjR
— nonita kalra (@nonitakalra) May 6, 2014
About The Book:
I am a shameless, old-style reporter type. I never stop talking to anybody my writing may have torn into, or not answer phone calls from anybody whomsoever. Generally, Indian politicians have that quality as well ... I have not just argued, but even fought, with the three who so remarkably personify the shift in our politics that is generational as well as political and philosophical: Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi ... All three will evolve in the months to come: Modi towards mainstream moderation, Kejriwal towards a little establishmentarian calm and Rahul will shed some diffidence and risk avoidance. Together, the trio will lead a brilliant cast of political characters who—and I say this with absolute certainty and unbounded gratitude—will never leave me short of an idea when I sit down to write the next National Interest. - Shekhar Gupta
How many, in a Mumbai room full of Hermes ties and finance whizkids, are Dalit? What if Mahesh Bhatt’s son, David Headley’s friend, had been a Muslim? Why is Delhi getting better as a city and Mumbai going downhill?
When did the Congress first start shrinking its prime minister? When did it become clear that Narendra Modi would take over his party? Who are the HMTs? And what does an angry Arvind Kejriwal say about us?
Raising such questions is the hallmark of Shekhar Gupta’s National Interest, the most eagerly awaited news and current affairs column in Indian journalism. Informed by three decades and more of formidable reporting and a credibility that gives Gupta unrivalled access to decision makers in government, politics and business, the best of these columns in Anticipating India explain and interpret, provoke and predict change for more than a billion people.
A riveting first draft of modern Indian history, Anticipating India interprets everything from the successes and failings of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh to the ascent of Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal, from the forces that have deepened Indian federalism and constitutionalism to the public mood that keeps a check on excesses in the use of political power.
Each chapter in Anticipating India, in its questioning of power, its use and abuse, carries within it ideas of India that challenge conventional wisdom, shatter stereotypes and, in the end, question our long-held assumptions of who we are as a nation and a people.
About the Author:
With over three decades of seminal reporting from the political and social frontlines of a changing India, Shekhar Gupta’s byline is today synonymous with unparalleled credibility, independence and influence. His work includes some of the most significant investigations in contemporary journalism in the region: from Indira Gandhi’s Operation Blue Star to the disastrous Indian intervention in Sri Lanka, from tracking Pakistan’s politics and military to the first Afghan jihad and its effect in Kashmir.
A recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 2009, India’s third highest civilian honour, Gupta is Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express newspaper. Under his leadership, The Indian Express has thrice won the Vienna-based International Press Institute’s Award for Excellence in Journalism. He joined the newspaper as a reporter in 1977 and then spent a decade in India Today as a reporter and editor.
A regular speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos and its India summits, Gupta is the author of Assam: A Valley Divided (1984) and a monograph, ‘India Redefines Its Role’ (1995), for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, where he is a member of the Council. He also anchors Walk the Talk, a weekly conversation on NDTV with newsmakers from across the world. A collection of these interviews will be published soon.
A proud father of a pastry chef in Delhi and a mathematical economist in London, Gupta lives in New Delhi with his wife—and the company of an adorable family of dogs and cats whom you would call stray at your own peril.
