The journey of the author through his academic and professional life from a Congressi Hindu to a Sanghi is beautifully described by Rahul Roushan in his maiden book, SANGHI who never went to a Shakha. The first thing that crosses the reader’s mind midway through the book is, if there is an Omerta code in the field of journalism, Rahul is either unaware of it or ignored it.
Most of us would relate with his early childhood in a small town middle class family. Many, like this reader, would also be familiar with his first academic goal – to get into the IIT. He describes his family as Congressi Hindu – not politically active but a congress supporter by default. Personally never deeply religious, he was brought up to become a very liberal person. His transition from an innocent child to a teenager coincides with the relocation of his family from a small town to the big city of Patna.
The introduction ends and the actual story begins after he moves from Patna to Delhi. The innocent teenager matures in every sense of the term as he does his course in journalism and starts his career as a TV journalist. For those of us not familiar about what happens behind the TV screen, he describes in great detail the roles of the people behind the news network. But that’s not what the book is about. It is about how the Left Liberal ideology dominates the media industry. I will be doing an injustice to Rahul if I give out more details here. Suffice to say, whether he knew it or not, this was the beginning of his conversion from a Libertarian, as he called himself, to a Sanghi.
The journey then takes us to Ahmedabad, in his words, “from Sonia’s Delhi to Modi’s Ahmedabad”. His first hand experience in Modi’s Gujarat slowly peels away the layers of false narrative that was built around the man and his state.
Anyone who has seen the transition of TV journalism from DD days to the private news channels has gone through the same thoughts about their unfairness as Rahul did. Difference being he saw it from behind the screen. For people like me, who is about three decades older to him, one can also relate with what he describes as history since he has no first hand experience of the happenings in the sixties and seventies. What we couldn’t or didn’t say, he has written.
There is only one factual error when he says the Emergency was imposed in March 1977. The Emergency actually ended at that time.
It is a book that must be read by anyone and everyone who is sick and tired of the left-liberal narrative in the mainstream media as well as Social Media. It will be surprising if one finds even a negative review about the book by the Left Liberals. Because it would be admitting that they read the book which would be a Cardinal sin for the defenders of Free Speech. Rahul will not be an invitee for the Jaipur or other Literary Festivals. To use a SM phrase currently in vogue, the publishing of this book is sure to be a ‘burnol moment’ for the Liberals.
Here’s wishing more power to Rahul’s pen.
