Table Of Content

ALSO BY SHASHI THAROOR NON-FICTION Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century (2012) Shadows Across the Playing Field: 60 Years of India-Pakistan Cricket (2009) The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century (2007) Bookless in Baghdad (2005) Nehru: The Invention of India (2003) Kerala: God's Own Country (2002) India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond (1997) Reasons of State (1982) FICTION Riot (2001) The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories (1993) Show Business (1991) The Great Indian Novel (1989) ALEPH BOOK COMPANY An independent publishing firm promoted by Rupa Publications India First published in India in 2014 by Aleph Book Company 7/16 Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110 002 Copyright © Shashi Tharoor 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from Aleph Book Company. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. As the Republic of India turns 65 This book is for my grandmother Mundarath Jayasankini Amma As she turns 98 And for my mother Lily Tharoor On her 78th birthday CONTENTS I. INDIA MODI-FIED 1. India’s Elections: a Process, not an Event 2. Is there a Modi 2.0? 3. Modi: Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose 4. The Modi Budget 5. The Hypocrisy of Modi’s 19 Commandments 6. Yes, Mr Javadekar, Let’s Lose this Job 7. Mr Modi Misses a Trick: Enlarged Council of Ministers is not about ‘Minimum Government’ 8. ‘Dis’appointing Governors 9. Modi’s Silence and the Sinister Revival of Communalism 10. Why the Hindi-First Order Threatens Efficiency 11. Madame Speaker, Just Say Yes: Why Parliament Needs a Leader of the Opposition 12. Modifying Sanitation: The ‘Clean India’ Campaign 13. Mr Modi, Aren’t You Forgetting Something? An Open Letter to the Prime Minister II. MODI’S INDIA AND THE WORLD 14. Modi and the Foreign Service 15. External Aptitudes: Time to Reform the IFS 16. Ab Ki Bar, Confused Sarkaar: The Foreign Policy U-turns 17. India and Afghanistan: Well Done, Sushmaji 18. President Xi or President Xxx? 19. Mr Modi Goes to Washington 20. Have We Forgotten Khobragade? 21. The Global Indian 22. India: The Unloved Giant? III. THE LEGACY 23. The Ravages of Colonialism 24. Forgotten Heroes: India in World War I 25. The 1940s: Where It All Began 26. The Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi 27. Sardar Patel and the Hijacking of India’s History 28. What Swami Vivekananda Stood For 29. The Mystique of Gurudev 30. The Original Anna: The Life and Times of C.N. Annadurai 31. The Manmohan Legacy 32. Food Security and Land Acquisition 33. Congress—The Way Forward 34. India’s Economic Miracle 35. The End of the Nehruvian Consensus? 36. The Fall of an Old Retainer 37. Saint Antony and Secularism IV. IDEAS OF INDIA 38. Democracy and Development: The Experience of India 39. Paradoxes of India 40. The Role of Civil Society in Law-Making 41. Politics and the Indian Middle-Class 42. The New Voter: From Khap to AAP? 43. India’s Disrupted Democracy 44. Time to Imagine a Presidential System? 45. India’s Obama Moment? 46. Preserving the Past V. THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE 47. The Quest for Quality 48. Education in India 49. Towards a Knowledge Society: Higher Education in India 50. Stephania: The Quest to Excel 51. The Intangible Kerala Heritage 52. Soaring to the Future: India’s Martian Chronicles 53. Go East (and West), Young Man! 54. India’s Youth: Building a Nation, Seizing the World 55. The Sun Also Rises: Solar Energy for India 56. The Frugal Answer to India’s Doldrums 57. India’s Twitter Revolution 58. My.gov, Your Gov, E-Gov 59. The Network Age VI. ISSUES OF CONTENTION 60. A Heart Divided: Ayodhya 61. India’s Free and Irresponsible Media 62. The Unwelcome Mat 63. Preserving Asylum in India 64. The Misfortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid 65. Concerned Authority, Concerned Populace 66. The Dark Truth about Black Money 67. The Unforgivable Horror of Torture 68. Kerala’s Economy: Emerging or Submerging? 69. Changing Bengal: The Way Forward VII. A SOCIETY IN FLUX 70. Astrology and the Aspiring Indian 71. Of Clubs and Colonial Dress Codes 72. Health Minister, our Kids Need Sex Ed 73. Is Caste Back, or did it ever Disappear? 74. Delhi University’s FYUP Fiasco 75. Filling Stomachs and Minds: The Mid-day Meal Scheme 76. India’s Missing and Abused Women 77. Empowering Indian Women 78. Prohibition in Kerala 79. Minorities and Policing 80. Terrorism and India VIII. INDIA BEYOND INDIA 81. Looking Back at 29 years as a UN official 82. Emerging Powers and Global Governance: India 83. Dilemmas of Global Governance 84. When Democracy is a Bad Idea: The ‘League of Democracies’ 85. Warring for Peace 86. How Relevant is Non-Alignment? 87. The Arab Spring, India and China 88. Globalization, Poverty and India 89. The Millennium Development Goals: Missing the Mark? 90. IMF: Insolvents May Flourish; India Must Fix! 91. Freedom of Expression and Communication Challenges in the Age of the Internet 92. Flying While Brown, and Other Joys of Airport Security 93. Cyber Security in Invasive Times 94. Losing our Heads to Kipling 95. Our Fondness for Fakes 96. How Proud Should We Be of Bobby Jindal? 97. The Politics of Energy 98. Kissing the Frog 99. Pandora’s Inbox 100. Birthdays: A Beastly Beatitude