Decoding A Decade: The politics of Policy Making

lawyer Politician Manish Tewari in his book Decoding a Decade articulates his personal point of view on a range of controversies that cropped up during the UPA and later the NDA years from 2006-16. Tewari’s questions are incendiary and the analysis incisive and provocative. He shines a light on the opaque underbelly of Indian politics. Being a victim of terror—he repeatedly questions as to why India is a wimp state when it comes to dealing with terrorism? Would the recent operations be able to deal with a problem called Pakistan, he asks? Was President Pratibha Patil who commuted the death sentence of 19 prisoners and rejected the mercy petitions of only three diffident about capital punishment for religious reasons? Was President Kalam right in saying that there is a socio-economic bias in the award of death penalty? Tewari points out to the lack of consistency in the highest echelons of the Indian state when it comes to deciding and disposing of mercy petitions. What would make the ruling dispensation see red is the scathing critique of the NDA-BJP governments track record over the past more than two years. He explains as to how Corporate India defeated the Congress party in 2014. He drills deep into the business of the media and questions the recent Indo-US agreement on nuclear accident compensation that would make Indian money pay for the negligence of Foreign Suppliers. Tewari’s articles reflect upon various trends in domestic and international politics and need to be located in context of the period they were written in and pertain to. His pieces go beyond party, partisan and geographical boundaries. Here is the Tewari that you would want to know beyond the TV screens