Revisiting Vajpayee’s complicated legacy

Abhishek Choudhary’s ‘Believer’s Dilemma’ explores how Atal Behari Vajpayee’s first taste of power shaped his politics and his party.

‘Believer’s Dilemma’, the second volume of a two-part biography of Indian politician Atal Behari Vajpayee by Abhishek Choudhary, picks up in 1977, a watershed year in Indian politics. For the first time since independence, voters decisively rejected the Congress, bringing in a non-Congress government in New Delhi. It was also Vajpayee’s first real taste of power at the Centre. The coalition led by Sangh Parivar would profoundly shape both Vajpayee’s career and the trajectory of India's Hindutva movement.