The country may be looking for “change” in small currency notes, but a change of another kind seems to be dominating the poll vocabulary in Uttar Pradesh. Two books from opposite political camps, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP, having the same title are going to hit the stands at the same time.
BJP chief Amit Shah has written the preface for a book entitled Parivartan Ki Ore (Towards Change), edited by journalist Anant Vijay and Shivanand Dwivedi, a researcher at the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, and published by Prabhat Prakashan.
In the preface, Mr. Shah defines the “acche din” (good days) promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There are at least two paragraphs devoted to the terror attack in Uri that claimed the lives of 19 Army men and the “surgical strike” that followed in retaliation (demonetisation had not been announced before it was written).
Sources say the book is aimed at the Uttar Pradesh polls. It is a kind of primer on the government’s policies and its release has coincided with a book — Parivartan Ki Aahat (Signals of Change) — written by senior SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary.
It is the first volume of a compilation of speeches, interviews and statements made by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
This is the first of a series. “One volume cannot possibly be enough,” said Mr. Chaudhary.
