The release of Bihari Babu Shatrughan Sinha’s biography Anything But Khamosh on Wednesday in New Delhi is bound to create more noises across the political spectrum than to put his friends and foes in silent mode. The book is being released by his political mentor lK Advani in presence of his political guru Yashwant Sinha.
Expectedly, more people from the other parties who have uneasy relations with BJP’s top leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah will attend the function much to the chagrin of the leadership of the party Shatru belongs to. Modi and Arun Jaitley are among some top BJP leaders who have been extended invitation but sources said they are unexpected to attend the ceremony at Hotel Claridges.
The guest list has already created a stir. While Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo lalu Prasad, Sinha treats the duo as his best friends, have been invited none of Bihar BJP leaders received invitation. A close confident of Sinha said that the biography will also be released in Patna and Ranchi.
Before the release of the biography, authored by Bharthi S Pradhan, some of its contents went viral and that at a time when the Shotgun was issuing bitter and heavily critical statements and tweets on the party affairs and drubbing in Bihar election by accusing State leadership, and recently supporting suspended Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad. Bihar top BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi even suggested action against him, albeit without naming him.
The biography, which has already created interest in politics and film world, deals with the “unknown scarface from Patna that went to create history on celluloid. In politics too, with no known surname or family to power his entry, he set a record as the first film star from India to be sworn in as a Cabinet Minister”.
Congress MP Sashi Tharoor who has written the foreword, said, “At a time when his superstar contemporaries were romancing heroines, Shatrughan, with his portrayal as the Bollywood’s new baddie, and then as a rough-hewn hero, challenged the industry’s norms.”
Commenting on his political status, Tharoor noted, “Similarly, when the BJP political establishment was falling in the line behind the new leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Shatrughan did not hesitate to speak his own mind, even if it meant ploughing a lonely furrow.” Shatru’s political mentor Advani’s cryptic remarks is, “A person who joined the Jan Sangh or the BJP when it was in the Opposition, had to be gutsy. Shatrughan is”.
And what his friend lalu says, “I find there’s no chaploosi (sycophancy) in him. Our doors are open 24/7 to him.” Nitish warns, “”If the Bihari babu is hurt, the whole of Bihar is hurt.”