Voice Of The People (Paperback)

A comprehensive and authoritative anthology of the great speeches from India's best lawmakers.

India's Parliament has been a battleground like no other, featuring clashes of many ideas and interests. MPs have sparred on every possible issue and debated every crisis the nation has faced in its close to 80 years, in a bewildering array of languages. Read together, these speeches give us an insight into how lawmakers viewed the subjects that confronted them in real time as they made their decisions.

Award-winning journalist Smita Gupta has collated and organized these extraordinary speeches thematically. Readers will learn about the evolution of India's relationships with its neighbours, its financial policies and its quest for gender and caste equality, as well as national integration and harmony.

Smita Gupta, a prize-winning journalist and political analyst for television, worked for close to four decades with the country's major newspapers including Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Times of India and The Hindu. She was Senior Fellow with The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy (2018–19) and Reuter Fellow at Oxford University (1992–93). As a journalist, she reported – and commented – on politics and Parliament, government and elections, and caste-based and religious conflict. She has contributed chapters in academic books on the Prime Minister's Office, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the politics of Uttar Pradesh, and Parliament.