Ram Vilas Paswan was one of the most colourful of India’s political personalities. For over four decades he was an influential voice on behalf of social justice. Sobhana Nair has now produced a very racy account of the many twists and turns that had been the hallmark of Paswan’s career. Her narrative is not only of one man’s ups and downs but also of the turbulent times which shaped him and that he also did much to shape.

JAIRAM RAMESH MP, former Union Minister and Author

A definitive work on the life and career of Ram Vilas Paswan is essential to fully understand politics in Bihar as well as contemporary India. Sobhana Nair’s book addresses this gap. Her book is an engaging and careful biographical record that allows the reader enough space to assess Paswan’s legacy against crucial social and political contexts. Accessibly written, Ram Vilas Paswan: The Weathervane of Indian Politics, needs to be read widely.

MANOJ KUMAR JHA MP and Professor, University of Delhi

This is a comprehensive and dispassionate description of the life and times of Ram Vilas Paswan. BADRI NARAYAN Author and Professor, G B Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad

This brilliantly researched and clinically written biography of Ram Vilas Paswan fills an important gap in future generations’ understanding of India’s coalition era: 1996–2014. You couldn’t form a government in New Delhi then without Paswan. Sobhana, a close watcher of national politics, has the detail and the insights to bring this fine understanding of one of the most accessible, yet intriguing characters of our politics.

SHEKHAR GUPTA Founder & Editor-in-Chief, The Print

Sobhana K. Nair is Deputy Editor at The Hindu and has previously been with Mumbai Mirror, Hindustan Times, The Telegraph and Indian Express.