A SOCIO-POLITICAL READ CENTRED ON THE CURRENT POLITICAL MILIEU
Book Review: Riding a Tiger by Vinay Capila
The political spectrum has a lot of ideologies catering to various political vote banks, and these include left-wing, centre, right-wing, centre-left and centre-right ideologies. Nowadays, the world is seeing the emergence of right-wing extremism. In western countries, this is due to rising immigration and xenophobia. India too, according to many centrist intellectuals, is also seething under right-wing extremism due to the somewhat autocratic dispensation of the current ruling political party. The author Vinay Capila comes up with the book “Riding a Tiger”, which is a thin-veiled revelation into the current political dispensation in India and details how political masters manipulate the system to reach the top rungs of the political ladder.
The front cover of the book is well-thought out and is an example of how excellent symbolism can bring out the quintessential characteristics of a story very well, as it shows the Nazi swastika superimposed by the Indian swastika, indicating the creeping fascism overtaking the country. The blurb at the back cover also portrays the essence of the story very well, and people interested in political thrillers and books delving into the inner workings and machinations of political parties will surely pick up the book on reading it.
The storyline follows the lives of two boys, Deepak Moolchandani and Manohar, who are leading lives in two separate towns, and are lured by circumstances to join BSS, an extremist rightist organization. They come together to help the organization to increase the membership of its political arm. Over the coming years, they are driven to actualize their individual ambitions and take their party and their country by storm, with the help of rampant false promises and rabid roving gangs. However, they don’t realize that it is always dangerous to ride a tiger- for it has its own ravenous appetite and desires. Till what levels will Deepak and Manohar go to fulfil their political ambitions? Will they be able to ride the political tiger with ease, or will the political tiger go berserk? The storyline then goes on to answer these questions.
This is a book which is very well researched and splendidly details the inner workings of politics and the manoeuvrings adopted by the political parties to win votes. The character development is good and the musings and scheming of the characters are detailed in depth, and the writing style of the author is elegant. Though the book is a fiction, but one gets a fair idea of the whole contemporary context on which the book is based. Also, the build up to the climax is action-packed and full of intrigues, but the climax could’ve been more interesting.
This is a book which employs a fictional premise as a backdrop to portray the contemporary political climate of ideological extremism and right-wing underpinnings in our country, and is able to do it plausibly. This is a book that should be read by those interested in political reads, anyone who is contemplating to read something different from the romance and mystery genre, and anyone else who is concerned by the direction that our country is taking.