Book review- Dynasty to Democracy by Anant Vijay

I was surfing the net a few days back just aimlessly looking for a good book to read. Yes, finding a good book to read is an exercise in itself!  Anyway I continued with my quest.

I am a fan of Amish and decided to visit his page. This book was recommended so I chose to buy the book after reading a sample.

The book blew me away.  There is no other way I can say it. It's about how Smriti Irani fought and won the Amethi seat in 2019. I had watched the events unfold on TV and it was a thrilling ride by itself. I did not know what to expect in the book.The book clearly details everything that led to the victory of Smriti Irani in that election. An election that freed Amethi from the clutches of unending servitude and unquestioning loyalty to a party that had used it as a milch cow.

Smriti lost the election in Amethi in 2014. But she did not leave Amethi. She fulfilled her promise of staying there and being there for the people of Amethi. When I read the book I was appalled to know the condition of Amethi even after having been the chosen seat of the Congress for so many years!! Can you imagine a place where the local eatery makes only five doses a day! Or a place where there is not a single decent lodging forget hotels. And this was the star constituency of Rahul Gandhi! I am not even talking about the sorry state of hospitals there.

Smriti worked relentlessly to remedy several problems the locals faced. You will know more once you read the book. It was an eye opener for me. 

You would perhaps ask why did not the people choose somebody else over the Gandhis? The answer to the riddle lies in two parts, first there was no viable option and second and more important the people were actually terrorised to vote for the Congress. 

What left me stunned was the realization that Amethi was a microcosm. The situation was no different in the country as a whole. The signature style of the Nehru Gandhi family to come once every five years, dazzle the locals with their fair skin and lineage, keeping them poor and lowly so they would obviously look up to them as nothing less than Gods.This had been happening all over the country all these years!

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what led up to the final and decisive victory of Smriti Irani over Rahul Gandhi. And to everyone so they will also be able to savor how it feels when democracy truly overturns dynasty!