Tuhin Sinha's Of Love and Politics launched

Tuhin Sinha's latest book, Of Love and Politics, was launched in Delhi on July 2.

The novel, published by Hachette, is an unusual love triangle between three young Indian politicians.

The book was launched by BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and noted CNN-IBN's Bhupendra Chaubey. This is yet another addition to the rapidly growing number of popular fiction titles by Indians this summer.

Blurb
I’m a political journalist by profession and an eternal romantic at heart. I’m sure that is a scandalous and a rare combination.

Unlike the US, where elections are essentially personality centric and every citizen has a right to decide the next leader, Indian elections tend to be extra-democratic, often putting the very institution at peril. The Indian political scenario is largely tri-polar. There is the Congress and its allies called the UPA on the one hand, the BJP and its allies called the NDA on the other. And then there is the Third Front comprising Left Parties and others who come and leave the front on their convenience. A tri-polar contest carries a huge probability of a hung parliament, which in turn results in some rather hasty and volatile re-alignments to form government. Some of these alignments can be outright opportunistic. And having closely studied them over the last several years, I am in a position to deduce that Indian political parties are promiscuous by nature.

The other interesting point that I have noted is that the political ideology or thought of an individual does tend to percolate down to the individual’s personal demeanor and beliefs too. At least, my friendship with a host of politicos cutting across ideological affinities and my comprehension of them bears testimony to such a phenomenon.

What happens then, when the political drama that unfolds in the country’s corridors of powers, spills over to a complicated personal bond that the protagonists – Aditya Samar Singh, Brajesh Ranjan and Chaitali Sen share?

Aditya like the Congress party he belongs to, tends to be aristocratic while he stands for rationalism and prudence; he is a centrist and he’s accommodating. Brajesh Ranjan, like his party, the BJP, swears by an overtly nationalist agenda; his personal dignity, as well as his idea of the nation’s self dignity tend to be so inflated that they sometimes border on egocentricity; he is hard on himself and others alike. Chaitali Sen, like the CPI(M) she represents, does have some revolutionary crusader traits and instincts. It goes without saying, she is leftist at heart and swears by the underpowered.