Manoj Kumar Jha does it yet again — pens a book that is a must read for anybody who wants to understand the labyrinth of Indian democracy — an apt commentary on Indian politics and the issues that plague it. Jha does justice to all the hats he wears — academician, politician, thinker, and an orator of rare eloquence, in and out of Parliament. His latest work, In Praise of Coalition Politics and Other Essays on Indian Democracy. The book breaks the notion that coalition is not good for democracy, especially when ‘one nation one election’ is being propagated and nation is being led towards the ‘one nation one party’ system.
The writer unequivocally pins the myth that coalition government is unstable. “It is a myth that coalitions are inherently unstable. The coalition era preceding 2014 was marked by pressures but these pressures enforced accountability on the government…,” he writes. The book attempts to align the “blue, green and saffron dots” of its cover, a metaphor that extends into its larger project: Making sense of the many hues of Indian democracy.
The book aptly captures the essence of the electorate with a striking metaphor: “Ghunghroo ki tarah bajta hi raha hoon main.” In other words, voters are likened to colored billiard balls, each struck and directed by political cue sticks, rolled strategically into pockets of power.
What makes the book stand apart is Manoj Kumar Jha’s unique craft of writing contemporary “open letters” to the nation’s makers and moral custodians. He addresses Mahatma Gandhi as “Dear Bapu” in the chapter Bapu within the Borders of this Country, New Walls Have Been Built. In another, he writes to Jawaharlal Nehru — “My dear Jawaharlal ji” — in Temples of Learning Have Become Breeding Grounds for Bigotry, situating his critique in a deeply contextual framework. Among the 22 “lessons” in the volume is also a moving letter titled “Dear People of Palestine, Forgive Us Our Silence.” There are others, including one to the Presiding Officer of the Rajya Sabha, reminding readers of Jha’s earlier, widely noted open letter to Jayaprakash Narayan in The Pioneer, “In Search of the Soul of the Constitution.”
Beyond form, the content itself is urgent. The book insists that coalition politics is not a weakness but a strength — one that preserves India’s plurality while pushing forward pro-people legislation. Jha reflects on the rise of Hindutva, the caste census, Kashmir, Manipur, and the politics of reservation, while also exposing the struggles of smaller party parliamentarians navigating a system dominated by larger forces.
The chapter on ‘Manual Scavenging’ illustrates his ability to place difficult issues at the right moment in the national conversation, while ‘The Crisis of Compassion in the Indian Prison System’ revives a debate that has all but disappeared from public discourse. Perhaps most striking is his candid exploration of The RSS and Government Servants, a subject long confined to whispered speculation in power corridors and newsrooms, now placed unflinchingly in print.
The breadth of subjects ensures that this book is not only a political commentary but also a resource. For civil services aspirants and students of contemporary politics, it can serve as a reference manual — refreshing minds dulled by conventional reading lists and offering insights both sharp and empathetic.
In the end, In Praise of Coalition Politics is more than a collection of essays; it is a dialogue across time —with Gandhi, Nehru, Jayaprakash Narayan, the people of Palestine, and with us, and its readers.
It reaffirms Manoj Kumar Jha’s position as one of the rare voices in Indian public life that can blend scholarship, political experience, and moral urgency into prose that both provokes and inspires. Buy the book before it goes out of print. It is worth much more than its cost price!
(The writer is an Executive Editor with The Pioneer)