Mandate: Will of the People by Vir Sanghvi, one of India’s respected journalist, began its life as a television series, called Mandate With Destiny. The motivation to write this book is Vir Shanghvi’s discovery of, during his travels for the TV series, lack of awareness amongst educated Indians on emergency or Punjab insurgency; in general, a lack of awareness of India’s political journey that has shaped today’s India. The book is a distilled version of the TV series (Note: I am yet to see all the episodes of the TV series).
This book is a journalist’s observations along with his personal prejudices about events, leaders & their actions.
Amish Tripathi, a best seller author, writes the foreword; a very nice note of his learnings of the economic parameter.
The book travels through the Indian elections held from 1971 till 2014. It discusses the mandates received, leaders & their actions and the events between that shaped each election. 1971 till up-to, say, 2000 are more detailed than the subsequent periods. The details during the periods 2001/2 till 2014 appear to be based more on second information than the preceding periods. Clearly, the author was ‘more’ in the thick of things between 1971 till 1998/2000. The book will influence your existing beliefs about the leaders and you need to decide if these are personal & subjective conclusions of the author or not. Notwithstanding, you will develop a profile of some of India’s political leaders & the people in their close circle.
Mandate: Will of the People is a quick read and meets the purpose for which it has been written i.e. give a quick awareness story. It is a good story book read for people with interests in the political events & political leaders that shaped India. Even if you are a politically aware Indian, the book is a very good refresh & you might some new information.