“The New BJP: Modi and the Making of the World’s Largest Party” by Nalin Mehta
A little before the covid pandemic hit us hard, Nalin and I met to discuss his new manuscript. He mentioned that he was writing it on the Bharatiya Janata Party that was at the time, in its first term in office in the Indian government. We discussed the pros and cons of writing this book. Both of us knew that it had to be entirely factual, accurate, non-partisan, data rich, and with a detailed analysis. Nalin, as he well documents in his book, stuck to facts, empirical evidence, archival research, incredible number of interviews, on-the-road conversations and much much more. All the information collated for the purposes of this text were in the public domain. Nothing was gleaned from off-the-record documentation or conversations. The manuscript went through many iterations. Once completed, then it was legally vetted, not once, but twice by a team of lawyers. The legal team issued a letter on their official letterhead confirming that everything was accurate and above board. It was an exercise that kept both of us, Nalin and me, busy through the pandemic. Many times we were confronted by what we encountered in terms of data and research analysis, but after many checks, if the evidence still stood as is, we accepted. This was not easy to do given that the surround noise would always point to something else. After a while, it was only a matter of belief in the work that we were doing that propelled us forward. The New BJP was published on 3 Jan 2022. Since then, it continues to sell by all accounts. The number of people who have met Nalin and told him that his book is superb is impossible to tell. The book has been published in English ( Westland Books), Punjabi (Rethink Publishers) and Marathi (Mehta Publishing House).
The audio version, released by KUKU FM, is available in English and Hindi. In fact, today, while checking the KUKU FM website, I discovered to my delight, three and a half years on since the book was first published, there are literally thousands of listeners plugged in to the Hindi and English audio books. Quite remarkable! Here are the screenshots from today (12 May 2025).
This book has changed the political discourse in India. Moreover, if reports are to be believed, it is now an essential read for all diplomats and international journalists being sent to India. Even amongst politicians, across the spectrum, it is a must read. Apart from this, lay readers, journalists, academics, researchers, students et al are reading it. As a backhand compliment, we have even come across sections of it being pirated and circulated on WhatsApp. There is a story before a book comes into existence and there is a story afterwards. The New BJP has many anecdotes around it that continue to grow with every passing year.
Meanwhile, I am sharing the very kind and generous words Nalin had to say in his acknowledgement:
The indomitable and erudite Jaya Bhattacharji Rose formally my literary agent but, in practice, she was also this book’s editor who reshaped it in fundamental ways. Endless daily conversatrions, round-the-clock WhatsApp messages and her constant questions became such a way of life that halfway through it, she became the voice in my head, the person I was writing the whole thing for. Though she was deeply confronted by what this book was finding, she believed in the project and its method wholeheartedly. Jaya threw herself totally into this as an intellectual sparring partner and entire sections were born in our daily conversations as I sought to make sense of it all. It was V. K. Karthika who had first suggested writing a chapter on how the BJP sees women but when I dithered while writing, Jaya insisted, ‘you cannot write a book on the BJP without writing about women.’ She became my tutor on the world of gender studies and her refusal to take no for an answer forced me out of my usual comfort zone and turned what was orignally a 500-word section intoa 20,000-word chapter. Similiarly, though I was reluctant to insert myself into the narrative and write about personal histories in the Introduction, she persisted for a week, simply refusing to relent until I finally agreed and wrote them in. Despite the lockdown, she also conducted the riveting auction with India’s top six publishers that led to this book being published. I have been lucky to have her as a partner in this project.
The New BJP is an extraordinary book and it is worth reading, whether you agree with the party’s ideologies or not. It is seminal. It will be talked about and referred to for a long, long time to come.
12 May 2025
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