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🎙️ Welcome to another episode of Revise and Resubmit – your weekend detour into books that shake, stir, and seriously expand the way we see the world. 📚✨ This is our Weekend Book Review episode, and oh boy, this one's political, personal, and packed with power plays.
Let me take you into the thick of Delhi’s corridors of power — where silence is strategic, smiles are deceptive, and every decision hides a storm underneath. That's the world Neerja Chowdhury invites us into with her incredible book, "How Prime Ministers Decide".
🇮🇳 If you've ever wondered what really happened before a prime minister picked up the pen to sign a historic order or went radio silent before an earth-shattering announcement — this is that story.
Neerja isn’t just a fly on the wall — she’s been the voice behind the headlines for over forty years. A legendary political journalist and columnist, she’s watched eight prime ministers up close, covered ten Lok Sabha elections, and spoken to everyone from babus to bigwigs — even the PMs themselves. With awards like the Chameli Devi Jain and Prem Bhatia under her belt, she doesn’t just report politics — she dissects it, decodes it, and delivers it with remarkable clarity.
🕵️♀️ In this book, she takes six turning points in modern Indian political history and shows us how they really happened. Not what we were told. Not what the press releases claimed. But the real, messy, human decision-making behind Indira Gandhi’s comeback, Rajiv Gandhi’s Shah Bano blunder, V.P. Singh’s Mandal moment, Rao’s Babri calculations, Vajpayee’s nuclear gamble, and Manmohan Singh’s quiet defiance.
These aren’t just policy decisions. They’re dramas of ego, ideology, and immense isolation.
So, what makes a prime minister flinch? And what makes them defy the odds? 😯
🧠 A massive thank you to Neerja Chowdhury and Aleph Book Company for making this gem open access and available to all of us who love to peek behind the curtain of power.
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast right here on Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, Apple Podcast, and of course, our YouTube channel – Weekend Researcher. 🔔📺
And here's the big question: In a democracy, we vote for our leaders — but do we really know how they make decisions once the spotlight fades? 🧐
Reference
Chowdhury, N. (2023). How prime ministers decide. Aleph Book Company. ISBN 978-9390652457 https://www.amazon.in/Prime-Ministers-Decide-Neerja-Chowdhury/dp/9390652456
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