While Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expressed displeasure over plans to include chapters on him in school curriculum, books devoted to him continue to be sold at the BJP offices.
From Common Man to The Phenomenon to The Gamechanger, there are at least 15 titles on sale at the literature outlet at party headquarters on 11, Ashok Road, that shower lavish praise on the Prime Minister and the eventful journey of his life.
Though the outlets also stock books on Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Deendayal Upadhyay and S P Mookerjee, Swami Vivekanand, Chhattrapati Shivaji, even an odd one on Nitin Gadkari and Kalraj Mishra, it is the literature related to Modi that has been more in demand.
Modi did not seem to mind the personality cult that was built around him in the run up to the polls when masks, stickers, hoardings and trendy merchandise became ubiquitous across the country. At that time, he did not even disapprove of the announcement by Rajasthan government to include chapter on him in schoolbooks . However, curiously, the attempts by Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to include his life story in the school syllabi after he became the PM-designate, have invited his displeasure.
As the books on him continue to be sold at the BJP offices, the sale is vetted by those in charge of the headquarters. While some books have now run out of stock, others came to occupy the shelves a few months ago to join a handful of books written by Modi himself. The sale was brisk on the counting day and the day he took oath when volunteers, especially those who had come from other states and abroad, made a beeline to the headquarters.
There are also a few illustrated books for children: Bal Narendra: Narendra Modi ke bachpan ki kahaniyan and Pragati Purush Narendra Modi that talk of his encounters with crocodiles and how he saved someone from drowning.
