As part of analyzing the reasons for the defeat and introducing correctives, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has instructed all Congress leaders to read recently published political satire bestseller, Unreal Elections. The novel presents an insider’s account of machinations in India’s Grand Old Party leading up to the General Elections, tracing the contours of the Congress campaign from October 2012 onward when the damaging allegations against Robert Vadra broke out.
Although slotted as a work of fiction in the humour genre, Sonia said the book was spot on and had got many of the behind the scenes machinations bang on target. “I casually began reading it after getting another one of those FB posts from The Unreal Times peddling the book and so ordered it off Flipkart. I must say, the writers have done a very good job of reconstructing events and key scenes within the Congress. I must also commend Chiki Sarkar for commissioning such a well researched, scholarly tome that will be of immense use to both students of political science and professional Congressmen,” Sonia said, before giving the book a five star rating on Amazon and Flipkart, using her online pseudonym, Maino_G.
Mani Shankar Aiyer also offered qualified praise, saying it was a good piece of literature but did not go the distance in detailing the level of sycophancy in the Congress. “This CS Krishna and Karthik Laxman are not Stephenians so I can understand they did not quite have the vocabulary or imagination to plumb the depths of Congress sycophancy. So their book will never, I repeat, never get critical acclaim. But haan, if they want to sell tea, that can be arranged,” he scoffed. Noted historian Ramchandra Guha said eager students of history can make do with the book until he comes up with his 10,000 page hardbound tome, “Mahatma Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi: the precipitous decline”.
Sonia hopes reading the book will help bring about rapprochement between those blaming Rahul’s advisors for the debacle and those blaming those blaming Rahul’s advisors. “Look, we are going nowhere with that kind of polemic. Fact is, all of us are wrapped in a cocoon of unreality. So it’s imperative that we dwell on true facts and draw the right inferences. Unreal Elections fills that need admirably,” Sonia said.
Penguin India head Chiki Sarkar has expressed satisfaction over Sonia giving the book a thumbs up. “I was very worried that Congress leaders may sue us for defamation after reading the book, especially after some of the editions failed to carry the ‘It’s a work of fiction’ disclaimer. So to now learn that it is part of the Congress’ ‘lessons learnt’ reading curriculum is a matter of immense pride, yaa,” she told The Unreal Times.