Anticipating India

Collection of Shekhar Gupta s weekly columns in the Indian Express Indian politics, at the best of times, has always been a matter of complexity and opaque intentions. In November 1997, a particularly rudderless time in Indian politics, Shekhar Gupta began a column National Interest in the Indian Express that rapidly gained a wide, admiring readership for its ability to cut through the fluff and get to the heart of the issue of the day. The column began with a humorous but barbed dig at the ambitions of Sitaram Kesri. Seventeen years later, it is still going strong as it portrays an India that has changed in myriad ways since then to provide a ringside view of the dilemmas, crises and power plays of the last decade and more, as also the intricate interrelationships between politics,populism and economics. Featured here is a collection of these columns on a range of topics from the Ruchika Girhotra case to the December 2012 gang rape in Delhi, and from state of affairs under the Congress to the rise of Narendra Modi. This is history as it unfolds: direct, contemporary and riveting, a one-stop guide to understanding India in the new century.