Following the tremendous success of Anant Vijay’s highly-acclaimed Hindi book Amethi Sangram: Aitihasik Jeet Ankahi Dastan, Westland Publications (an Amazon Company) is all set to release the book in English, titled Dynasty to Democracy: The Untold Story of Smriti Irani’s Triumph on 15 March 2021.
Dynasty to Democracy: The Untold Story of Smriti Irani’s Triumph traces the journey of Smriti Irani from her defeat in 2014 to her win in the 2019’s Lok Sabha Election, where she defeated Rahul Gandhi. Amethi has long been perhaps India’s highest profile constituency. Billed as ‘karmabhoomi’ of the Nehru–Gandhi family, it has been continually held by the Congress since its inception as a Lok Sabha constituency in 1967, except for half a dozen years in between.
In the book, Anant Vijay attempts to understand the reasons behind Smriti Irani’s success in Amethi, shining a light on both Irani’s personality and her political methods. It examines how political parties function in a democracy like ours. The book can also be seen as a study of the RSS’s working style, its strategies and exemplary execution that backed Smriti Irani’s efforts from 2014 to 2019.
Commenting on the book, Anant Vijay said, “It was a feat that never occurred in the history of Congress party when a sitting President lost the parliamentary election. This happened in Amethi in 2019 when Smriti Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi. I was tracking the results of Lok Sabha election and when this result came, a thought came into my mind to document the reasons of this one of the biggest political happening of Independent India. The result is Dynasty to Democracy.”
Dynasty to Democracy: The Untold Story of Smriti Irani’s Triumph by Anant Vijay will be published in March 2021 across online and offline bookstores in India.
Anant Vijay has been active in journalism for nearly twenty-five years. His articles on politics, literature and cinema are read across the country. He did BA (Hons) in history from Bhagalpur University and followed it up with a postgraduation in journalism, an MMC in journalism and a postgraduate diploma in business management from University of Delhi. He is the author of eleven books. Among these, Prasangvash, Kolahal Kalah Mein, Vidhaaon ka Vinyaas, Bollywood Selfie, Loktantra ki Kasauti and Marxvaad ka Ardhsatya have been quite well received. Anant Vijay is currently working with Dainik Jagran as Associate Editor. He has been conferred with the National Award (Swarna Kamal) for best writing on cinema.
About Westland Publications Pvt Ltd:
Founded in 1962, Westland is one of India’s largest English-language trade publishers, bringing out print books and e-books in genres ranging from popular and literary fiction to business, politics, biography, spirituality, popular science, health and self-help. Its bestselling authors include Amish Tripathi, Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Anand Neelakantan, Perumal Murugan, Anita Nair, Pavan K. Varma, Devdutt Pattanaik, Amruta Patil, Amrita Mahale, Namita Devidayal, T.M. Krishna, Manu S. Pillai, Manoranjan Byapari, Vivek Shanbhag, V.V.S. Laxman, Ambi Parameswaran, Venita Coelho, Janaki Lenin, Ruskin Bond and Rujuta Diwekar, among others. The key publishing imprints include ‘Context’, which publishes award-winning literary fiction and non-fiction, ‘Eka’, which publishes the best of contemporary writing in Indian languages and in translation, ‘Tranquebar’, home to lively new paperback fiction, the eponymous Westland Sport, ‘Red Panda’, which publishes a range of books for children of different ages, and the recently-launched ‘Westland Business’ specialised in offering incisive, thought-provoking and compelling stories centred on Indian companies and thought leaders. Westland was acquired by Amazon in 2017. Westland also brings Amazon Publishing’s bestselling international books to the Indian market.
