Artha Global hosted a closed-door conversation with Vinay Sitapati, author and associate professor at Ashoka University, for a discussion on his latest book ‘Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi’ in conversation with Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Resident Senior Fellow and Research Director on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, from 4:30-6:00 pm IST. This was an in-person event hosted at the Artha Global office in Khar West, Mumbai.
About the event:
Vinay analysed how Narendra Modi has been a hundred years in the making, and how the book provides the backstory to his current dominance of Indian politics. The journey is narrated through the lives of its founding jugalbandi: Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani.
About the speaker:
Vinay Sitapati is associate professor of political science and legal studies at Ashoka University. He has degrees from National Law School Bangalore and Harvard University, and a PhD in politics from Princeton University. He has written for publications as diverse as the Economic & Political Weekly, International New York Times, The Indian Express, Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal, The Hindu, Harvard Crimson, Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, and Seminar.
His first book was a best-selling biography of Indian prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao: ‘Half-Lion’. It was published in India by Penguin Books and in the United States by Oxford University Press-USA. The book was also translated into Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. The Economist magazine termed it a ‘Book of the Year’; it is part of Amazon.com’s ‘100 books to read in a lifetime’.
His second book, on the BJP Before Modi, was published in late 2020 by Penguin Books in India, and by Hurst in the United States and the United Kingdom in late 2020. It has been translated into Hindi and Telugu.