The Accidental Prime Minister Sub title: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh Author: Sanjaya Baru-penguin india
Manmohan has three daughters, no son; so he treats Sanjaya as a son.” - Sonia Gandhi, Outlook
In 2004 Sanjaya Baru left a successful career as chief editor of the Financial Express
to join Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as his media adviser in UPA 1.
Singh offered him the job with the words, ‘Sitting here, I know I will
be isolated from the outside world. I want you to be my eyes and ears.
Tell me what you think I should know, without fear or favour.’
The Accidental Prime Minister is Baru’s account of what it was
like to ‘manage’ public opinion for Singh while giving us a riveting
look at Indian politics as it happened behind the scenes. As Singh’s
spin doctor and trusted aide for four years, Baru observed up close
Singh’s often troubled relations with his ministers, his cautious
equation with Sonia Gandhi and how he handled the big crises from
managing the Left to pushing through the nuclear deal. In this book he
tells all and draws for the first time a revelatory picture of what it
was like for Singh to work in a government that had two centres of
power.
Insightful, acute and packed with political gossip, The Accidental Prime Minister is one of the great insider accounts of Indian political life and a superb portrait of the Manmohan Singh era.