AN ALARM FOR CITIZENS TO WAKE UP

 A dazzling piece of non-fiction, A Feast of Vultures lays bare the problems that confound India. India’s best-known investigative reporter, Josy Joseph, writes with moral conviction, yet never denigrates to pontification as he piles up evidence of corruption in high places. The truth is conveyed through a searing prose—an alarm for the citizens to wake up and take notice. Corruption is everywhere, more so in India with the aid of the ubiquitous ‘middleman’, and the book exposes the morass at the heart of the world’s biggest democracy. While the rich get richer, and the poor continue to beg for their inalienable rights, the book displays immense courage in exposing the offenders, who are abetted by India’s political class for a price. While it criticizes the decaying system with impunity, the passion to see a resurgent India – minus its ills – is evident throughout the book. One of the stories is about an airline tycoon, who’s daylight murder in the 90’s was shabbily investigated and hushed up to abet the rise of a leading rival airline today. The book is a reminder to us, not to look away, but to take notice of what can kill the very idea of India as a nation.