24 Akbar Road [Revised and Updated]

24 Akbar Road [Revised and Updated] PDF

Author: Rasheed Kidwai

Publisher: Hachette India

Published: 2013-08-30

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9350093731

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Now updated with a new chapter on Rahul Gandhi The Congress party has always stayed one step ahead of the opposition by constantly reinventing and re-aligning itself to stay in sync with the political realities of the day. Its president, Sonia Gandhi, pulled off a master-coup in 2004 by declining the prime-ministership, while the incumbent Congress Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is the first prime minister since Nehru to lead the party into two Union government terms. In 2013, Rahul Gandhi was elevated to the post of Congress vice-president amid much fanfare and optimism. Tasked with reviving the grand old party, the young politician remains, in the minds of many, the best hope to lead the Congress into the next century, marking a new moment in the Congress’s concept of ‘continuity with change’. In his bestselling book 24 Akbar Road, seasoned journalist and veteran Congress watcher Rasheed Kidwai puts together an incisive and engaging account of the Congress’s shape-shifting nature and its tenuous hold at the Centre, providing a dispassionate observer’s glance at affairs within the Congress. Kidwai brilliantly tracks the story of the contemporary Congress in the years after the Emergency, using the Congress seat of power at 24 Akbar Road as his vantage to draw a compelling account of the Congress leadership from Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi to Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri, to the present- day trinity of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. In this revised and updated edition, Kidwai analyses Rahul Gandhi’s appointment to assess what the Congress needs to do to remain India’s nerve of power in the coming years, and whether the new vice- president can rally the party to a third consecutive victory at the Centre.'

24 Akbar Road

24 Akbar Road PDF

Author: Rasheed Kidwai

Publisher: Hachette

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 9789350090770

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24 Akbar Road needs no introduction in the political circles of Delhi. For the last three decades, this sprawling bungalow in Luyten's Delhi has housed the national headquarters of the grand old Indian National Congress. Hand-in-hand with contemporary history and politics, 24 Akbar Road enjoys a unique status. Many famous political personages such as Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesri, G.K. Moopanar, Meira Kumar, Kamlapati Tripathi, Arjun Singh, Ambika Soni to Manmohan Singh, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have spent countless hours at the party office. This work is aimed at presenting contemporary Congress politics with the party office serving as a base. Apart from a narration of the historic decisions and politics that took place here, the book looks at the changing façade and structure of the building as symbolic of the many shifts and changes in the outlook of the Congress party and its fluctuating fortunes.

The Chinar Leaves

The Chinar Leaves PDF

Author: M.L. Fotedar

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2015-10-15

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9351774775

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Memoir of one of Indira Gandhi's closest confidants One day, soon after M.L. Fotedar had joined Indira Gandhi as political secretary in July 1980, she told him to sit at 1 Akbar Road. This would enable him to meet the people who came to her with various requests. She suggested a small room to serve as his workspace. But it was one she was emotionally attached to -- it was used by her son Sanjay, who had recently died in an air crash.For the rest of Indira Gandhi's final term in office, this room would be the nerve centre of Fotedar's work. Ordinary people and senior party leaders would come there for him to filter their requests and complaints. From assessing future leaders -- be it V.P. Singh, Pranab Mukherjee or Ahmed Patel -- with remarkable foresight, to straightening up those who were being difficult, he did it all. The Chinar Leaves paints a portrait of a six-decade-long political career that began in Kashmir and gives insights into the murky world of national politics. Here are the stories of many careers that were made and unmade in the Congress. Among these are the saga of Narasimha Rao's no-holds-barred effort to stay in power, Amitabh Bachchan's falling out of favour with the Gandhi family, the machinations of succession after Indira Gandhi's death, Giani Zail Singh's tiff with Rajiv, and many more. Fotedar, for long the voice of political wisdom in the party, also passes his verdict on the current crop of Congress leadership and searches Indira Gandhi's will, to which he was a signatory, for the true successor to her legacy.As a record of Indian politics at a time of momentous events, this is a frank and sometimes shocking look at recent history from the man who exercised immense influence from behind the scenes and whose impact continues to this day.

Sonia

Sonia PDF

Author: Rasheed Kidwai

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 0143416863

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Sonia Gandhi's transformation from an unsure Congress party president to the unchallenged political chief of the ruling United Progressive Alliance government happened with some speed in the aftermath of the Congress-led coalition's surprise victory in the 2004 general election. Her renunciation of the prime minister's post enhanced her moral stature in the public eye, but it is her skilled handling of the equation with the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, that indicates the emergence of a self-confident politician, secure in her position at the helm of national affairs. In this fully revised and updated biography, Rasheed Kidwai tracks the evolution of the new Sonia Gandhi against the backdrop of the Congress party's return to power after years in the Opposition. The last five years have witnessed the Congress president's growing assurance in her dealings with party stalwarts, with coalition partners and Opposition leaders. Drawing on his long experience as a political journalist, Kidwai chronicles how Rahul Gandhi's smooth passage into the front rank of the party's leadership was achieved and gives a vivid account of how Sonia Gandhi navigated such critical moments as the 'office of profit' crisis, the presidential election, the Indo-US nuclear deal and the vote of confidence. In Sonia, A Biography, Rasheed Kidwai tells the extraordinary story of one of India's most enigmatic women, whose journey from the small Italian town of Orbassano to 10 Janpath, New Delhi, is one of the most fascinating in contemporary India.

Akbar & Jeff's Guide to Life

Akbar & Jeff's Guide to Life PDF

Author: Matt Groening

Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780007180257

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Who the hell are Akbar and Jeff?* Find out the astonishing answer in this book featuring the original syndicated comic strips by genius Matt Groening. *The funniest (and gayest) dudes from the Simpsons-inspiring Life in Hell cartoon series. What are you waiting for? Meet Akbar and Jeff and unlock some of their secrets to make your hellish life more laughable. These comic strips may not make you as rich or as happy as Akhbar and Jeff themselves -- they aren't giving all their secrets away -- but you'll certainly get value for money learning from this dastardly duo in comic strips including: Akbar and Jeff: Masters of 1000 disguises, Akhbar and Jeff''s liposuction hut, The 77 Moods of Akhbar and Jeff, plus lots more cartoons with fezzes in them. adventures of Akbar and Jeff. Life in Hell was the syndicated newspaper cartoon strip by Matt Groening which ran in the States during the 80s and early 90s. Asked to turn the characters into TV animation, Groening instead developed The Simpsons, retaining many of the characteristics of Binky, Bongo, Sheba, Jeff and Akbar in the series. In a world where The Simpsons and Futurama are as popular as ever, these hellish cartoons featuring Matt Groening's zany brand of comic genius are simply gold dust

Ballot

Ballot PDF

Author: Rasheed Kidwai

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2022-01-25

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9351952274

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543 Lok Sabha seats. More than 4,000 state constituencies. Over 800 million voters. The world's largest democracy . . . From the time of its inception, democracy in India has been dubbed 'miraculous' by the world's media, and its elections as a spectacular exercise in human management. In Ballot, Rasheed Kidwai takes us through his pick of seminal elections that have shaped Indian democracy both at the centre and in select states. Highlighting the unique challenges faced by a country that adopted universal adult franchise at the very outset, profiling personalities who have triggered ground-shifts, and analysing the causes and consequences of key electoral episodes, he traces the very evolution of India's democratic process. Combining insightful commentary and colourful anecdotes, Ballot provides a brief, incisive examination of India's most momentous elections.

Leadership Without Easy Answers

Leadership Without Easy Answers PDF

Author: Ronald A. Heifetz

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0674038479

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The economy uncertain, education in decline, cities under siege, crime and poverty spiraling upward, international relations roiling: we look to leaders for solutions, and when they don’t deliver, we simply add their failure to our list of woes. In doing do, we do them and ourselves a grave disservice. We are indeed facing an unprecedented crisis of leadership, Ronald Heifetz avows, but it stems as much from our demands and expectations as from any leader’s inability to meet them. His book gets at both of these problems, offering a practical approach to leadership for those who lead as well as those who look to them for answers. Fitting the theory and practice of leadership to our extraordinary times, the book promotes a new social contract, a revitalization of our civic life just when we most need it. Drawing on a dozen years of research among managers, officers, and politicians in the public realm and the private sector, among the nonprofits, and in teaching, Heifetz presents clear, concrete prescriptions for anyone who needs to take the lead in almost any situation, under almost any organizational conditions, no matter who is in charge, His strategy applies not only to people at the top but also to those who must lead without authority—activists as well as presidents, managers as well as workers on the front line.

Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Calling a Wolf a Wolf PDF

Author: Kaveh Akbar

Publisher: Alice James Books

Published: 2017-09-25

Total Pages: 89

ISBN-13: 1938584724

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"The struggle from late youth on, with and without God, agony, narcotics and love is a torment rarely recorded with such sustained eloquence and passion as you will find in this collection." --Fanny Howe This highly-anticipated debut boldly confronts addiction and courses the strenuous path of recovery, beginning in the wilds of the mind. Poems confront craving, control, the constant battle of alcoholism and sobriety, and the questioning of the self and its instincts within the context of this never-ending fight. From "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before" Sometimes you just have to leave whatever's real to you, you have to clomp through fields and kick the caps off all the toadstools. Sometimes you have to march all the way to Galilee or the literal foot of God himself before you realize you've already passed the place where you were supposed to die. I can no longer remember the being afraid, only that it came to an end. Kaveh Akbar is the founding editor of Divedapper. His poems appear recently or soon in The New Yorker, Poetry, APR, Tin House, Ploughshares, PBS NewsHour, and elsewhere. The recipient of a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, Akbar was born in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives and teaches in Florida.

Incarnations

Incarnations PDF

Author: Sunil Khilnani

Publisher: Random House India

Published: 2017-01-12

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 9385990950

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For all of India’s myths, stories and moral epics, Indian history remains a curiously unpeopled place. In Incarnations, Sunil Khilnani fills that space, recapturing the human dimension of how the world’s largest democracy came to be. His trenchant portraits of emperors, warriors, philosophers, film stars and corporate titans—some famous, some unjustly forgotten—bring feeling, wry humour and uncommon insight to dilemmas that extend from ancient times to our own.

The Huge Book of Hell

The Huge Book of Hell PDF

Author: Matt Groening

Publisher: HarperCollins (UK)

Published: 2005-03-07

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9780007191666

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A second bumper collection of the classic Life in Hell cartoon strips from the 80s and 90s which were the basis for The Simpsons.