“Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important”

Eugene Mc Carthy (1916-2005), American Democratic Politician

Recently, when Rahul Gandhi travelled abroad just before the foundation day of the Indian National Congress(INC), there was a hue and cry in the media and other social media platforms criticizing him for not being serious about Indian politics. But seriously, he also needs a holiday break. In fact, in this book he tells the authors that he goes abroad to have some personal space as he is constantly surrounded by security and the people in India. Reading the interviews of these young political leaders makes you feel that they are also common people just that they are in the business of politics which is one of the most demanding jobs in the country.

The book is about the prominent young political leaders who will shape the destiny of India in the coming years. The authors interviewed 20 young political leaders below the age of 50 from across the country and compiled those interviews as it is in their original voices. The interviews include those from Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Akhilesh Yadav, Poonam Mahajan, Varun Gandhi, Omar Abdullah, Aditya Thakeray, Smriti Irani, Jignesh Mevani, Sushmita Dev, Kalikesh Singh Deo, etc. All these interviews were conducted in person. These young political leaders come from different political parties and with a completely different background. Conversations here show their perspectives on important issues of the country. What is their thinking, inspiration, and passion that motivates them to be part of the Indian political system. As Chhibber and Shah added in the introduction that the idea behind this book is to give readers a ‘snapshot of contemporary Indian politics and its future; through the stories of 20 of the country’s most prominent next-generation politicians’.

The interesting thing about this book is that these conversations are free-flowing, and authors have posed the questions as they seemed okay without any hesitation. The book attempts to unravel the personalities, aspirations, ideologies, interests, passions, and motivations of these young political leaders. The idea is that we know the names of these leaders and frequently read or see them in the newspapers or televisions, but we have no idea what happens in their life. Reading this book makes me realize that these young politicians have done a lot of hard work to achieve whatever they have achieved in their political careers despite coming from political families. For most of them, political career had come with a big personal cost. Not only this, as authors of the book add, ‘Politics in India is a full-time job’ and the political leaders can’t maintain a healthy work-life balance.

However, the authors have missed many other important young political leaders who are already contributing in a significant way in shaping the destiny of Indian republic. For instance- Arvind Kejriwal, the current chief minister of Delhi and also the founder of the Aam Aadmi Party is a major miss in this book. However, the authors also added that the list of leaders interviewed in this book is not exhaustive and many other prominent young leaders have not been added in this book.

The interesting thing is that we get to know the personal sides of these young leaders. How there is also dissonance in their political posturing and their personal views on issues related to the Indian political system. For instance- Varun Gandhi has a liberal outlook towards society & economy despite being part of the right-wing Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). Aaditya Thakeray belongs to Shiv Sena, known for its extremist views, has a more liberal outlook than most other leaders on many different issues. Jignesh Mevani has an activist political attitude as compared to people like Sachin Pilot & Jyotiraditya Scindia who have been trained in politics from an early age.

In this book, all women political leaders, across party lines, stated the presence of gender based challenges they faced in their profession. While interviewing these young leaders, the authors have explored the issues and tensions prevailing in Indian politics. The authors discussed the issues of caste and religion, institutional decline, federalism & center-state relations, integration of J& K, dynastic politics, and women empowerment.

Though authors covered all issues related to length and breath of the country, they did not mention young regional political leaders to know their personalities, aspirations, ideologies and interests. Currently, the book has leaders who are more prominent and popular than those who are grassroots workers and who are making a difference at ground level.