Smriti Zubin Irani’s book Lal Salaam was recently launched by Amish Tripathi in a virtual session organised by The Nehru Centre London.
Smriti Zubin Irani is an Indian politician and a former television actress and producer. She is the Minister of Women and Child Development in the Union Cabinet of India since May 2019. A prominent leader within the Bharatiya Janata Party, she is a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, representing Amethi.
Speaking to Tripathi, Smriti said, “Many times books are compared to, let's say, in the age of digital media, to OTT stories of that matter a decade ago to televisions series. And they were not supposed to hold as much of interest of the viewer or the reader as much as other visual mediums of engagement. And for me, when people tell me after they read the book that it reads almost like a film script. And for me when they go through, let's say the first three chapters, and they see that I can actually visualise the characters. That is the success that I'm celebrating with this book. From I think, as a writer, you're right, we have the privilege of genuinely gripping somebody's attention. And if we can keep that consistently, till the end of the book has been reached. That for us as writers is a success. And the fact that I can count myself in the same bracket as the writers you in just what, two months of having published a novel, that is genuinely a dream come true.”
The plot of the book read as follows: “The manner of his arrival in the dusty little village of Ambuja, in Chhattisgarh, instantly establishes SP Vikram Singh as a man to watch out for. Over the next few weeks, as he attempts to bring order to a long-neglected police station and motivate his less-than-enthusiastic crew, Vikram can feel those eyes everywhere, following his every move, watching and waiting for the first misstep. At stake for him is the truth behind the vengeful killing of his old friend and fellow officer, Darshan—and the very idea of justice.
“Vikram knows he cannot rest until he solves the case, but every day there is a new challenge: a local businessman with vested interests in both bureaucracy and Naxalism, an influential academic in Delhi at whose doorstep the trail runs cold, a young widow and her journalist friend, who quickly take centre stage in his vexed new life.
Inspired by the unfortunate killings of seventy-six CRPF personnel in Dantewada in April 2010, Lal Salaam seeks to humanise the daily conflicts and ethical dilemmas that confront people in the poorest and most troubled regions of our country. It is also a story of the brave men who serve the law even when the law fails to serve them.”
“I think life is complicated. It cannot be as stark as black and white. They are people who presume that if somebody from my ideology, that is a nationalist ideology, looks at an issue like Naxalism, we will demonize every individual who was in the periphery of Naxalism. I for years have never understood when people blame poverty for raising arms against the Indian state. I come from a very impoverished family and not somebody who had great monetary means that her readers and I think that there are many who have struggled through many economic phases of their lives, and yet not trample the Indian constitution for their own monitoring purposes. So that is something that I could never align myself with. The greed that drives you to profit from leading your state or bleeding your nation is great that I could never understand and agreed that I could never translate into writing or justify. But what I did understand was people who were misled people who were possible, through indoctrination, told that this is a better way out. And I think that nuance is reflected in the book, yes, that it is complicated and complex, even for those who are working within the police systems, trying to bring to justice women who raise arms against the state or who bring to death, Indian citizens, their lives are equally complicated and filled with challenges,” Smriti added.
