Five Decades In Politics

'A stalwart Congressman symbolizing the party's foundational values' - SONIA GANDHI

'Sushilkumar embodies Lord Krishna's mantra on how to address a challenging situation: "He who responds to every situation with a smile and never reacts with anger is the one who wins".' - SHARAD PAWAR

Veteran politician Sushilkumar Shinde's career trajectory is unrivalled in Indian politics. Beginning life working as a child labourer and as a ward boy to make ends meet, he went on to hold some of the highest offices in the land: the chief minister of Maharashtra, the Union home minister, All India Congress Committee general secretary and the UPA's vice-presidential candidate. In this candid memoir written with Rasheed Kidwai, he takes us though the highs and lows of his fifty-year-long political journey: from being 'discovered' by Sharad Pawar and fighting his first few elections to his subsequent rise to the pinnacles of power.

Shinde's tenure as Union home minister saw, among other things, the controversial trials and executions of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru, the 2012 Delhi gangrape case and an investigation of 'Hindu terror' groups. Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated into two states under his watch as governor. He gives us a behind-the-scenes view of these significant events and also sheds light on what went wrong with the Manmohan Singh-led UPA II government and why the Congress-led coalition lost to the BJP-led NDA in 2014.

Referring to the many challenges Sushilkumar Shinde confronted and overcame in his long career, President Pranab Mukherjee once said, 'His [Shinde's] story is the story of India.' Five Decades in Politics, Shinde's memoir, makes for fascinating reading, and the tale it tells will be an inspiration to many.

Rasheed Kidwai is a journalist, author and political analyst. He is a visiting fellow at the Observer Research Foundation [ORF]. A former associate editor of The Telegraph, Kidwai tracks government, politics, community affairs and Hindi cinema, and has written several books on these topics. A graduate of St Stephen's College, New Delhi, he holds a master's degree in mass communication from Leicester University, the UK. He also contributes as a political analyst to News 18, ABP News, NDTV, IndiaAheadNews and India Today TV, among others.

Sushilkumar Shinde is a veteran politician who served as the Minister of Home Affairs (2012-14) and Minister of Power (2006-12) and the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha. He served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2003 to 2004.