Jun 21 2023 to Jun 21 2023 6:30 p.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Few ordinary citizens know much about the office of the President of India as it is the Prime Minister who calls the shots. KC Singh’s The Indian President: An Insider’s Account of the Zail Singh Years is not just about Zail Singh’s tenure as the President of India. Singh waited for 15 years after retirement to write the book and says, “I’m glad I waited as my perspective has evolved. Instead of the book being just about the Zail Singh-Rajiv Gandhi saga, I have expanded it to examine the role and institution of the President.” A study of the institution of the President of India, this book is based on the author’s term as Deputy Secretary to the seventh president, Giani Zail Singh. In particular, it examines the President’s role when authoritarian governments are voted in power. Things are all the more challenging for a president with a popular prime minister who has an overwhelming majority, as happened in the case of Zail Singh and Rajiv Gandhi. The book recounts how the guardrails painstakingly created by the first two presidents, Rajendra Prasad and S. Radhakrishnan, were partly resurrected by Zail Singh. Richly anecdotal and incisively observed, The Indian President makes a compelling case for why the Zail Singh years are crucial to understanding both the limits and the possibilities of the country’s highest office.