Book launch turns into Jaswant show.

Expelled BJP leader says writing is a hazardous business

THE OCCASION was the launch of former top cop Ved Marwah's book, India In Turmoil ( Rupa), but BJP's expelled leader and Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh was the centre of all attention ( and the target of a posse of TV cameramen).

Clearly enjoying the success of Jinnah -- India -- Partition and Independence ( another Rupa title), the book responsible for his expulsion from his old party, Singh launched Marwah's book at The Ambassador with a word of caution.

" Writing a book," he said, " seems to have become an extremely hazardous business." No one should know this better than Singh and he had the audience in splits. But he avoided TV journalists, replying with nothing more than an avuncular smile to their persistent questions on BJP leader L. K. Advani's reported Uturn on his expulsion. He just stuck to praising Marwah's book.

" It is far slimmer and certainly more readable than mine," he said modestly. " I suggest you buy two." With Jinnah selling 50,000 copies so far, at the rate of 800 to 1,000 a day, the gathering's interest in Singh's speech was more than evident.

" His expulsion from the party and the ban on the book in Gujarat has helped us," said R. K. Mehra, chairman, Rupa & Co. " We expect to sell 100,000 copies within 100 days." He also announced Jinnah is being translated into Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam and Urdu, and these editions will be out in the next few weeks.

Singh left soon after the book launch, leaving a stimulating discussion on India's internal security challenges mid- way. " He has to reach Jaipur before midnight, otherwise he'll turn into a pumpkin," joked noted constitutional expert Fali Nariman, who was chairing the discussion.

The speakers included former IB chief and columnist Ajit Doval, strategic affairs expert Lt. Gen.

( Retd) V. R. Raghavan, and K. C. Singh, former secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Marwah, a former Delhi Police chief who's now a professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, and chairman of the Task Force on National Security and Criminal Justice System, has served in several troublespots, including J& K, the north- east and Punjab. A former governor of Manipur and Jharkhand, with additional charge of Mizoram and Bihar, he draws on first- hand observations on the internal security situation in the country to discuss how it's being dealt with in the worst-- affected areas.

Marwah took potshots at the bureaucracy, and recalled how he had been kept out of key decisions even when he was a governor. " We appear not to have drawn any lessons from our successes and our failures. We don't have a system of institutional memory," he said.

Nariman described Marwah's book as " depressingly brilliant". He said: " It indulges only in fact, not fiction, and is what they call unputdownable." With such high praise, Marwah looked delighted.

He said: " I had promised some of you I won't write another book but seeing the warm response I am tempted to break my promise and write another one." Not a bad idea, Mr Marwah.

THE BOOK IN BRIEF

INDIA in Turmoil: Jammu & Kashmir, the Northeast and Left Extremism offers an overview of the internal security situation in the country and how it is being dealt with in the worst- affected areas. The idea of the book came to the author in 2004, when he was the governor of Jharkhand. It gives first- hand accounts of the phenomenal success of the security operations in Punjab and how the situation on the ground went terribly wrong in J& K, the north- east, and the states affected by " left extremism".

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