Because India Comes First

Book excerpt: The essays in Because India Comes First discuss a range of issues that are at the heart of contemporary debates in India: democracy as the responsibility of the head of state, rule of law, peace and public order, Mahatma Gandhi and Gandhism, Ambedkar's ideals, empowerment of women, Indian judiciary, the Ram Janmabhoomi case, abrogation of Article 370, the legacies of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Arun Jaitley, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's learnings in governance. This book also delves into the decisions made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government over the last few years, diplomatic relations with India's neighbours and the confrontations with China. Madhav analyses India's history of policymaking and asserts that, going ahead, it must put India first. He calls out liberal fascism, deconstructs our understanding of terrorism in India, argues that opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is intellectually dishonest, explores how learnings from Black Lives Matter can be applied in the Indian sphere and explains why protests should be rooted in Martin Luther King Jr's non-violent approach and not anarchy. These essays weave a broad tapestry of India's growth into a soft power, and predict how it will shape up over the next few decades. A must-read for those who believe in the new idea of India, and for those who accept that there are two sides to every debate.