The Lotus Years

Ashwini Bhatnagar

'He was their Next Big Hope, after the first one had been dashed to the ground...' When Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister in 1984 his landslide win proved to be a baptism of fire. The years that followed were tumultuous and witnessed the beginnings of economic reform and the stemming of regional insurgency on the one hand, and the drama of the Shah Bano case and the Bofors scandal on the other - events that sent tremors through the nation and its political establishment. As a journalist on the political beat from the time of Indira Gandhi's reign, Ashwini Bhatnagar observed at close quarters the consequences of the transition from iron-handed control to earnest naivety, the calculations of the country's foremost political players, dramatic election campaigns and the unwieldy workings of dynastic politics. Bringing together his notes from the field, The Lotus Years is a remarkable chronicle of the life of a reluctant prime minister, the inner workings of his powerful family and the story of a maturing democratic nation that lays bare the intricacies and dissonances of political life in India.