[PDF] 24 Akbar Road Revised And Updated eBook

Author : Rasheed Kidwai
Publisher : Hachette India
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 19,29 MB
Release : 2013-08-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9350093731

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Now updated with a new chapter on Rahul Gandhi The Congress party has always stayed one step ahead of the opposition by constantly reinventing and re-aligning itself to stay in sync with the political realities of the day. Its president, Sonia Gandhi, pulled off a master-coup in 2004 by declining the prime-ministership, while the incumbent Congress Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is the first prime minister since Nehru to lead the party into two Union government terms. In 2013, Rahul Gandhi was elevated to the post of Congress vice-president amid much fanfare and optimism. Tasked with reviving the grand old party, the young politician remains, in the minds of many, the best hope to lead the Congress into the next century, marking a new moment in the Congress’s concept of ‘continuity with change’. In his bestselling book 24 Akbar Road, seasoned journalist and veteran Congress watcher Rasheed Kidwai puts together an incisive and engaging account of the Congress’s shape-shifting nature and its tenuous hold at the Centre, providing a dispassionate observer’s glance at affairs within the Congress. Kidwai brilliantly tracks the story of the contemporary Congress in the years after the Emergency, using the Congress seat of power at 24 Akbar Road as his vantage to draw a compelling account of the Congress leadership from Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi to Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri, to the present- day trinity of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. In this revised and updated edition, Kidwai analyses Rahul Gandhi’s appointment to assess what the Congress needs to do to remain India’s nerve of power in the coming years, and whether the new vice- president can rally the party to a third consecutive victory at the Centre.'

Author : Rasheed Kidwai
Publisher : Hachette
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 39,32 MB
Release : 2011
Category : India
ISBN : 9789350090770

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24 Akbar Road needs no introduction in the political circles of Delhi. For the last three decades, this sprawling bungalow in Luyten's Delhi has housed the national headquarters of the grand old Indian National Congress. Hand-in-hand with contemporary history and politics, 24 Akbar Road enjoys a unique status. Many famous political personages such as Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesri, G.K. Moopanar, Meira Kumar, Kamlapati Tripathi, Arjun Singh, Ambika Soni to Manmohan Singh, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have spent countless hours at the party office. This work is aimed at presenting contemporary Congress politics with the party office serving as a base. Apart from a narration of the historic decisions and politics that took place here, the book looks at the changing façade and structure of the building as symbolic of the many shifts and changes in the outlook of the Congress party and its fluctuating fortunes.

Author : Rasheed Kidwai
Publisher : Penguin Books India
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 32,2 MB
Release : 2011
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0143416863

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Sonia Gandhi's transformation from an unsure Congress party president to the unchallenged political chief of the ruling United Progressive Alliance government happened with some speed in the aftermath of the Congress-led coalition's surprise victory in the 2004 general election. Her renunciation of the prime minister's post enhanced her moral stature in the public eye, but it is her skilled handling of the equation with the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, that indicates the emergence of a self-confident politician, secure in her position at the helm of national affairs. In this fully revised and updated biography, Rasheed Kidwai tracks the evolution of the new Sonia Gandhi against the backdrop of the Congress party's return to power after years in the Opposition. The last five years have witnessed the Congress president's growing assurance in her dealings with party stalwarts, with coalition partners and Opposition leaders. Drawing on his long experience as a political journalist, Kidwai chronicles how Rahul Gandhi's smooth passage into the front rank of the party's leadership was achieved and gives a vivid account of how Sonia Gandhi navigated such critical moments as the 'office of profit' crisis, the presidential election, the Indo-US nuclear deal and the vote of confidence. In Sonia, A Biography, Rasheed Kidwai tells the extraordinary story of one of India's most enigmatic women, whose journey from the small Italian town of Orbassano to 10 Janpath, New Delhi, is one of the most fascinating in contemporary India.

Author : Rasheed Kidwai
Publisher : Hachette India
Page : 112 pages
File Size : 26,61 MB
Release : 2022-01-25
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9351952274

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543 Lok Sabha seats. More than 4,000 state constituencies. Over 800 million voters. The world's largest democracy . . . From the time of its inception, democracy in India has been dubbed 'miraculous' by the world's media, and its elections as a spectacular exercise in human management. In Ballot, Rasheed Kidwai takes us through his pick of seminal elections that have shaped Indian democracy both at the centre and in select states. Highlighting the unique challenges faced by a country that adopted universal adult franchise at the very outset, profiling personalities who have triggered ground-shifts, and analysing the causes and consequences of key electoral episodes, he traces the very evolution of India's democratic process. Combining insightful commentary and colourful anecdotes, Ballot provides a brief, incisive examination of India's most momentous elections.

Author : Rasheed Kidwai
Publisher : Hachette India
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 20,81 MB
Release : 2018-09-05
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9350098032

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In a nation singularly obsessed with politics on the one hand and cinema on the other, the point where the two intersect arouses avid curiosity and interest. What draws the larger-than-life personalities who entertain us on screen to the world of governance and politics off-screen? Neta Abhineta: Bollywood Star Power in Indian Politics traces this phenomenon through intimate and compelling portrayals of some of the most popular actors in Hindi cinema who have, from the years leading up to India?s independence in 1947, entered Indian politics for reasons ranging from a sense of social commitment to a desperate quest for a second chance at fame when their star power dimmed. Dilip Kumar, Nargis and Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna, Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Mithun Chakraborty, Jaya Prada, Vinod Khanna, Govinda, Raj Babbar and Paresh Rawal are some of the more prominent names that feature in this engaging account involving film veterans, superstars and also-rans. Blending history with hard facts and entertaining anecdotes about personal and professional rivalries, clandestine romantic liaisons and cruel betrayals, Rasheed Kidwai?s latest offering presents a potent cocktail. With its clear-eyed perspective on the peculiar nature of Indian politics and its newfound addiction to social media, as well as fresh and fascinating insights into the power games that drive show business and politics, this book reveals what ensues when the two worlds ? as intensely alluring as they are dangerously fickle ? merge.

Author : Mahendra Prasad Singh
Publisher : Orient Blackswan
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 17,93 MB
Release : 2003
Category : Cabinet system
ISBN : 9788125023289

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The Book Takes A Close Look At The Last Three Lok Sabha Elections Those Of 1996, 1998 And 1999. It Is A Study Of Why Elections Have Become More Frequent Since 1989. The Reason Given Is The Transformation Of The Party System From One Of Congress Dominance To A Multi-Party Configuration Reflecting The Instability Of Minority And/Or Coalition Governments And Hung Parliaments.

Author : Sunil Khilnani
Publisher : Random House India
Page : 551 pages
File Size : 27,95 MB
Release : 2017-01-12
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9385990950

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For all of India’s myths, stories and moral epics, Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. In Incarnations, Sunil Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world’s largest democracy came to be. His trenchant portraits of emperors, warriors, philosophers, film stars and corporate titans—some famous, some unjustly forgotten—bring feeling, wry humour and uncommon insight to dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own.

Author : Jairam Ramesh
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 491 pages
File Size : 30,19 MB
Release : 2018-06-19
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9386797275

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This is the first definitive biography of arguably India’s most influential and powerful civil servant: P.N. Haksar, Indira Gandhi’s alter ego during her period of glory. Educated in the sciences and trained in law, Haksar was a diplomat by profession and a communist-turned-democratic socialist by conviction. He had known Indira Gandhi from their student days in London in the late-1930s, even though family links predated this friendship. They kept in touch, and in May 1967, she plucked him out of his diplomatic career and appointed him secretary in the prime minister’s Secretariat. This is when he emerged as her ideological beacon and moral compass, playing a pivotal role in her much-heralded achievements including the nationalization of banks, abolition of privy purses and princely privileges, the Indo-Soviet Treaty, the creation of Bangladesh, rapprochement with Sheikh Abdullah, the Simla and New Delhi Agreements with Pakistan, the emergence of the country as an agricultural, space and nuclear power and, later, the integration of Sikkim with India. This power and influence notwithstanding, Haksar chose to walk away from Indira Gandhi in January 1973. She, however, persuaded him to soon return, first as her special envoy and later as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission where he left his distinctive imprint. Exiting government once and for all in May 1977, he then continued to be associated with a number of academic institutions and became the patron for various national causes like protecting India’s secular traditions, propagating of a scientific temper, strengthening the public sector and deepening technological self-reliance. Successive prime ministers sought his counsel and in May 1987, he initiated the reconstruction of India’s relations with China. He remained an unrepentant Marxist and one of India’s most respected elder statesman and leading public figures till his death in November 1998. Drawing on Haksar’s extensive archives of official papers, memos, notes and letters, Jairam Ramesh presents a compelling chronicle of the life and times of a truly remarkable personality who decisively shaped the nation’s political and economic history in the 1960s and 1970s that continues to have relevance for today’s India as well. Written in Ramesh’s inimitable style, this work of formidable scholarship brings to life a man who is fast becoming a victim of collective amnesia.

Author : Matt Groening
Publisher : HarperCollins (UK)
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 25,93 MB
Release : 2005-03-07
Category : Comic books, strips, etc
ISBN : 9780007191666

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A second bumper collection of the classic Life in Hell cartoon strips from the 80s and 90s which were the basis for The Simpsons.

Author : Vinay Sitapati
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 409 pages
File Size : 47,54 MB
Release : 2018-04-03
Category : History
ISBN : 0190692871

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When P.V. Narasimha Rao became the unlikely prime minister of India in 1991, he inherited economic catastrophe, violent insurgencies and a nation adrift. Yet because he was unloved by his people and mistrusted by his own party-a minority in Parliament and ruling under the shadow of Sonia Gandhi-Rao lacked the mandate to combat these crises. Yet, Rao was not just able to last a full five years as Prime Minister, he reinvented India, at home and abroad. Few world leaders have achieved so much with so little power. With exclusive access to Rao's never-before-seen personal papers as well as over a hundred interviews, Vinay Sitapati's definitive biography tells the story of India's makeover in the 1990s and the story of the Deng Xiaoping-like figure who did it. Assuming power over an ossified, quasi-socialist economy burdened by inefficient industrial behemoths, Rao was instrumental in driving through a broad set of liberalizing economic reforms that transformed India. Rao's career is the ideal window through which to understand how India became a force in the global economy almost overnight. Sitapati traces Rao's life from a village in Telangana through his years in power and-afterward-his humiliation in retirement. Yet the book never loses sight of the inner man-his difficult childhood, his corruptions and love affairs, and his lingering loneliness. Meticulously researched and honestly told, this landmark political biography is a must-read for anyone interested in the man responsible for transforming India.