Tryst with Strong Leader Populism offers a rewarding read for those yearn to understand the Modi government's famed mystique, its working style, achievements and fault lines. Through its 11 chapters, the book provides a comprehensive record of the Modi dispensation various initiatives, its flagship programmes, demonetisation, the way the Modi-Shah duo successfully silenced the protesting RSS siblings, evisceration of the statutory watchdog bodies, and finally, how his trusted Chanakya staged a stunning return in 2019 Lok Sabha polls- all presented with utmost accuracy and supported by enormous authenticated data. The strength of this fact-based narrative is its 500 plus endnotes and citations which seek to testify the validity of its insightful inferences and interpretations. In the process, Strong Leader Populism decodes and pierces through the much exalted Modi Phenomenon. In the opening chapter, it sheds much light on how and why RSS boss Mohan Bhagwat put his full weight with Narendra Modi and made it the bedrock of his hybrid regime model. This book also poses many riddles of the Modi phenomenon and tries to unspool them. How come India most powerful prime minister with all powers at his command feels so powerless in tackling the economic decay? Read Strong Leader Populism to understand how the paradox of power works. P. Raman belongs to a generation of journalists that continues to uphold the virtues of the old era ethos like fact-checked content and objective presentation. He began with V.K. Krishna Menon's The Century weekly as sub-editor, and has worked with over a dozen English dailies and weeklies, including the once puissant Patriot daily and Link weekly. During the Emergency, he was sent to Ahmedabad as the Gujarat correspondent. An octogenarian, his book Post-Truth Media Survival Sutra was published in 2018. He has just completed another manuscript The Fallen Messiahs.