Best friends Azim Khan and Karan Nehru never considered politics a career choice, but then fate decreed otherwise. Forced by circumstances to rethink their professions, the two friends find themselves willy-nilly contesting the elections. Slowly but surely, Azim makes western Uttar Pradesh his electoral fiefdom and begins his journey to becoming the leader of Muslim India; Karan establishes himself as the overlord of eastern Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining states. Together they make their way to the top, never compromising their friendship, until, finally, as cabinet ministers in a shaky coalition government under the prim ministership of the wily former Congressman Y K Naidu, their widely differing ideologies and temperaments, abetted by the malevolence of their colleagues, and the sheer scale of unfolding events, all combine to uphold the conventional wisdom that there are no friends in politics.

In the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi – as politicians, powerbrokers, media moguls, and bureaucrats go peaceably about their business of amassing unlimited personal wealth–occasionally getting ensnared in their own webs of scandal and sleaze – the President of India, an exarmy chief, throws everyone into shock by defying his rubberstamp status and threatening to establish military rule. Only Jasjit Sidhu, his sometime soninlaw, erstwhile corporate banker and money launderer, and newly returned to India as personal financial adviser to Prime Minister Paresh Yadav, can bring him to heel. Brilliantly plotted and bitingly written, Delhi Durbar is an astute and gripping political novel, in which the outrageous twists and turns of the empowered corrupt, and their fiercely selfserving agendas makes for a political thriller of a uniquely Indian flavour.

Bharat News Ticker: Prime Minister Azim Khan takes office, becomes first Muslim to lead India... Pakistan rejects peace talks after hostilities end in Indo-Pak war... Unconfirmed reports suggest Deputy Prime Minister Karan Nehru's disenchantment with PMO...Tensions with China escalate, as India is accused by Beijing of 'sheltering Tibetan extremists and abetting instability in Tibet'... Ulema leaders ask PM to cater to Muslim interests or face backlash... US presidential candidates debate South Asian crisis... Opposition parties prepare for the possible fallout from a Khan-Nehru split... Assuming power in the messy aftermath of a war with Pakistan, and mounting hostility with a belligerent China, Azim Khan inherits an India in crisis. Heading a shaky coalition, his leadership is questioned at every turn - most visibly by Deputy PM Karan Nehru, his once-best friend and, more insidiously, by other scheming detractors hidden within his government. India's first Muslim PM must earn the trust of the Indian people in his leadership and prove he is the man with the ability to heal the wounds of the past and chart a path to a united and bold future for the nation. Buffeted by history, conflicted by ideology, and curbed by his own limitations, Azim and his team of idealists face the ultimate test. Will they succeed? The concluding volume of the bestselling Raisina Series, The War Ministry is a gripping account of the complex day-to-day functioning of a prime minister and his office.