Recipe for success

Congress leader Ashwani Kumar has authored a book, Hope in a Challenged Democracy: An Indian Narrative, and invited leaders from across the political spectrum, including senior Cabinet ministers in the Narendra Modi government, for the launch. One of the invitees said Kumar had assured him that the book is a serious work of scholarship. The invitee quipped that recently a Nationalist Congress Party politician had brought out a coffee-table book on his life and times. The politician in question is known for his looks and attire. The invitee quipped that if a leader was a serious parliamentarian he or she could author a tome, “but if you look good but have little to say, as in the case of the NCP leader, then bringing out a coffee-table book filled with your own photographs is more advisable”.