By IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 08 Nov 2014: “My early memories of him (Narendra Modi) are hazy…But I do remember three aspects of his persona…The first was his eye for detail,” writes Rajdeep Sardesai in his just released book ‘2014 The Election That Changed India’.
Addressing an audience comprising of galaxy of politicians and journalists, the veteran TV anchor asked the august gathering at Teen Murti here “not to consider his book as…anti-Modi or pro-Modi”. Amid the presence of former union minister P Chidambaram and his successor Arun Jailtly, the book which was about Narendra Modi and also Rahul Gandhi was released.
Moderator Karan Thapar read out contents from the book from selected pages and sought the opinion of the two senior leaders – one from the Congress and the other from BJP – as senior Congress leaders Mani Sankar Aiyar and Jyotiraditya Scindhia watched along with veteran journalists Pranoy Roy and Vinod Mehta.
The session started with top Penguin official Chiki Sarkar mistakenly referring to Mr P. Chidambaram as India’s finance minister amid the presence of Arun Jaitley, prompting the audience to burst in laughter, while the suave and articulate lady smartly took the credit for making people laugh.
After both the leaders – Chidambaram and Jaitley – settled down on the dais, Rajdeep Sardesai took over and agreed that the central character of the book is Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the elections were fought on the issue of the personality of the Gujarat strongman.
“I am not running a campaign against Modi. This book is a not a campaign against Modi. This book is an honest appraisal of a remarkable election in which Modi is a central figure. 2002 is not the central aspect of the book,” he said.
Recalling about his 24 year old relationship with Modi, who was an RSS pracharak, Rajdeep talked about Modi in his book when he met him during the 1990 Rath Yatra. “Modi would personally ensure that the media was provided every facility to cover the yatra…,” he wrote.
Rajdeep observed that the Gujarat strongman had exhibited early traces of narcissism in his personality amid rumours that he used to spend half an hour before the mirror.
“Modi in those early days smiled and laughed a lot, but his eyes at times glared almost unblinkingly – stern, cold and distant. They were the eyes of someone playing for the highest possible stakes in the gamble of life. His smile could embrace you, the eyes would intimidate,” the writer-journalist wrote, who was reportedly forced to leave CNN-IBN news channel along with his wife and journalist Sagarika Ghose after the Gujarat strongman won the 2014 elections.
Setting aside the popular perception that he covered the 2002 riots in a way to lampoon the BJP and Modi, the journalist told Rediff in an interview: “I covered the ’92-’93 Mumbai riots with the same intensity but I was in print so nobody noticed it in the same way as television. Sharad Pawar threw me out of a press conference after the ’92-’93 riots saying you are reporting against our government. He was the defence minister then. He threw me out of the press conference because I was questioning the role of the Mumbai police and Pawar was not bringing the army speedily enough into Mumbai. Nobody remembers that.”
In his book, Rajdeep recalls the experience of covering the 2002 riots when a mob of sword wielding Hindus stopped his car and asked him to remove his pants to prove that he was not a Muslim. As the journalist is circumcised he was frightened.
Rajdeep told the audience that the book is about politicians “who are fascinating characters of the world. I dedicate my book to journalists. The relationship between the politicians and the journalists has become distraught and both sides can have working relationship.”
During the alleged complicity of Modi regime in 2002 riots Rajdeep was of the opinion that it was just five months that the leader had taken over the reins at Ahmedabad and at that time. “Togadia was the most powerful man in Gujarat in 2002. That I am convinced about now. Does that mean I am absolving Modi as a result? That is for you to decide,” he told the audience.
