When Juggernaut commissioned me to write a biography of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, I was initially unsure, even reluctant. Would I, a professed liberal who has a visceral disagreement with politics based on religion, be too put-off by Vajpayee’s RSS-shaped worldview to tackle the subject properly? Today, under the Narendra Modi-led BJP dispensation, when India is hyper polarised, would I be “selling out” by writing on the first BJP prime minister?
Ironically, as I delved deep into Vajpayee’s life and thoughts, I found that my liberal viewpoint was actually my strength in coming to grips with the man. I came to my subject as a sceptic, devoid of adulation and had to work much harder at understanding him than I had to with Indira Gandhi, the subject of my first biography. Yet I found myself drawn to his charming, humorous persona, even as I was repelled by the communal politics he regularly played.
