here is the book review of much 'publicised' Advani's book - *My Country, My life* done by one of our member Meena Kandasamy published in Indian Express.
http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SEB20080412155908&eTitle=Books+%26+Literature&rLink=0 *A short cut to the ballot box* ** Those who claim that Advani's biography is a calculated effort to shed his Hindu hardliner image haven't read his 986-page book. He maintains that the Babri Masjid demolition is synonymous with Hindu awakening and the Ram Rath Yatra is the "most transformational event of his political journey." He labels December 6, 1992, "the saddest day of his life," yet rejoices that no Indian politician has vowed to reconstruct the demolished structure. Likewise, his sympathy lies with Narendra Modi whom he feels is a 'victim' of vilification. He pins down the state-sponsored carnage against Muslims and dismisses all accusations of genocide. This isn't surprising, given that his first lesson in secularism, at the ripe old age of 21, was "not all Muslims are disloyal to India." To appreciate the book one should suspend judgment and memory, and offer ourselves the consolation that its intended audience is the ballot box. He rakes up the oh-so-emotive issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins, condemns the cross border terrorism, beams with pride about our nuclear weapons arsenal and Kargil. He is honest when he admits that the India Shining campaign proved to be disastrous, and courageous when he stands up for Jinnah's secular credentials. Advani is an Emergency-produced hero, so the sections targeting the dynastic leadership and flawed foreign policies of the Congress have an authenticity lacking in the rest of the biography. This book shows Hindutva's efforts to appropriate Dr Ambedkar — the fiery leader who authored Riddles of Hinduism — and reduce him to a poster boy of the Sangh Parivar; so Advani (with all eyes on the Dalit vote bank) quotes him to drive home a point against the Partition, to describe Ghazni's raids on the Somnath temple, and to conveniently indicate that Dr Ambedkar's didn't convert to Islam or Christianity because it "meant going away from the cultural soil of India." This biography has a multi-personality disorder, so it often assumes the role of a breathless catalogue of important names. Sometimes, it reads like a manifesto for the forthcoming elections. For a man waiting for the people's mandate to become Prime Minister, the epilogue sadly doesn't throw up his vision for the nation. It paints the picture of an eighty-year-old man finding directions for the future from Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekananda. Read this book. It is lavish with words and economic with truth, so remember to read the newspapers too where you will find the rebuttals. Dr Farooq Abdullah has disagreed that he traded power for Kashmir's autonomy, Robert Blackwill has said he was at Harvard during the IC814 hijack rubbishing Advani's claims of having called him. It isn't free of gaffes either: It is not just the reference to a living. Amritsar-based CPI leader as the late Satyapal Dang. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were awarded capital punishment for killing J P Saunders, but the book tells us that it was because they bombed Delhi Assembly. The monotonous narrative, devoid of the distancing that makes political biographies work, ensures that at end of the exercise the Loh Purush (Iron Man) has rusted away. http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SEB20080412155908&eTitle=Books+%26+Literature&rLink=0 -- Ranjit --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
