In early 2023, journalist Rajdeep Sardesai began writing a book about the expected results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He initially dubbed the book Hat-trick, believing the outcome would be predictable. “Like so many others,” he writes in the preface to the now-published book, “I, too, was swayed by the ‘Modi ki guarantee’ drumbeat and the event-driven’spectacle’ of his politics, convinced that the resource-rich BJP’s election machine would overwhelm all else.”

Sardesai describes the real outcomes as a wake-up call. Despite retaining power, the BJP won only 240 seats, well below expectations and at least 40 less than Sardesai’s conservative forecast. “We journalists don’t put enough statutory warnings when we throw numbers at our readers,” says Sardesai to THE WEEK. “We say, ‘[This candidate] is winning, and this is the margin,’ and the viewer or reader is expected to believe that we know everything, when the truth of the matter is that we, too, at times, are struggling to unravel what’s really happening.”

He adds the outcomes were also humbling. “It’s time for a mea culpa,” he argues, “so that we (journalists) can restart…” and focussing on what we do best—reporting.”

Sardesai’s new book, titled 2024: The Election That Surprised India, is a riveting story of the dramatic buildup to this hard-fought election. The book, divided into fourteen parts and an epilogue, delves boldly into Indian politics, combining frontline dispatches from election battlegrounds with candid glimpses of behind-the-scenes wrangling and a dash of light-footed punditry.

It also holds a mirror to the media. “My bigger worry,” Sardesai tells THE WEEK, “goes beyond the leaders. It’s about the nature and quality of our democracy, the misuse of money power, the misuse of Central agencies, the misuse of media power. Are we an electoral democracy with a level playing field? That, to me, is the more enduring question.”

Sardesai, a print journalist, highlights how television journalism has significantly influenced politics. He recounts a meeting with Rakesh Tikait, son of farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, during the peak of the farmer’s agitation. Tikait, who quit as a Delhi Police constable to join the movement, appeared to enjoy media attention and saw himself as a political leader.

Sardesai, a print journalist, discusses how television journalism has influenced politics. He describes an encounter with Rakesh Tikait, the son of farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, at the height of the farmer’s movement. Tikait, who resigned as a Delhi Police constable to join the campaign, seemed to love media attention and considered himself as a political leader.

Sardesai detects a larger problem: power politics paradoxes. He describes how Prof Ashok Gulati, a distinguished economist who advocated for broad agricultural changes, conveyed his thoughts into how power politics prevented genuine progress. “Gulati was one of the specialists consulted by the Agriculture Ministry writes Sardesai. “Interestingly, even Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spent an hour with him. ‘I pointed out to Rahul that Modi’s farm laws were more or less identical to what the Congress had proposed in its manifesto, so why not support them and take credit,’ said Prof Gulati. ‘But I guess competitive politics is a different ball game.”

Sardesai says the absence of clear-cut ideological fault lines remains a challenge in Indian politics. “I wouldn’t say that there is no ideological fault line at all in India―there are, on certain issues like secularism,” he says. “There are certain core issues that seem to differentiate between parties. But, over time, ideology seems to matter less and less, because all that seems to matter at times is a power grab.”

In the book, Sardesai notes that the polls saw 114 former Congress members getting BJP tickets. The irony, he observes, is that it is a “Congress-yukt BJP” that talks about a “Congress-mukt Bharat”. “I think the problem is our party system,” he tells THE WEEK. “The party system in the west―the Republicans and Democrats in the US, for instance―is still intact. But, in India, the party system is broken. We need to fix it.”

Would a coalition of likeminded parties, like the INDIA bloc, be able to make a difference? “The basis of long-term politics cannot be just that ‘we have to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi at all costs,’” says Sardesai. “Long-term politics will have to be fashioned along your ability. The Congress, or a pan-Indian party like the Congress, will have to emerge to challenge Modi.”

Journalists, too, will need to up their game. “They have to ensure that they don’t get carried away by surround sound or echo chambers,” says Sardesai. “We need to restore our credibility by being more professional and keeping away from the hyper-polarised campaign that goes on around us. If we can do that, if we can be fairer in the way we cover both the opposition and the government, if we can simply hold whoever is in power accountable, we will have done a decent job.”