Debasing novel

Sethji by Shobhaa De; Penguin Books; Price: Rs.250; 287 pp In the preface to this high octane exposé of Indian politics,  Shobhaa De, the celebrated founder-editor of Stardust and Celebrity magazines, is described as the author of 17 books including bestsellers such as Socialite Evenings, Starry Nights, Spouse and Superstar India. Books authored by her include several non-fiction titles in which she comments upon the glitterrati, social taste and custom and even politics. That being so, one expected a novel of maturity and insight rather than the breathless, low-brow prose of a writer hell-bent upon shocking with sensationalism. First the plot. The centrepiece is the eponymous Sethji, a fleshy rustic from Uttar Pradesh who heads the Azaad Bharat Socialist Party (ABSP), which with its 40 MPs is propping up the government in New Delhi. How Sethji built his party, nurtured his vote bank(s) and engineered ABSP into a formidable political force is not recounted. Like many politicians, at some point in his life, Sethji would have been an idealist or at the very least, a champion of the down-trodden or marginalised, and as such, acquired representative power. All we are told in a few lines narrated by his barber right in the beginning of the novel is that he was born into “one of the lowest rungs of the complex caste system” in Uttar Pradesh, and has since acquired “unlimited power, incalculable wealth”. The narrative begins with the super-rich Sethji’s spoilt younger son being accused of rape and murder of a north-eastern teenage girl. Sethji is annoyed, but being the typical male chauvinist patriarch, he rationalises that boys will be boys and it is his duty to get his son out of the country asap. Curiously despite his reportedly unlimited power in Delhi, for this he requires the assistance of Arun Mehta, a wealthy businessman, who at the time is bidding for the country’s largest ever highways project which is Sethji’s to dispense. Mehta agrees to get Suraj, the rapist son, to Dubai in return for being assured the prized contract. But a Mumbai-based business tycoon Jaiprakash Jethia, is also in the fray for the contract. And he has the Bhau (‘Brother’), the powerful, regional sub-nationalist politician who together with his two sons controls Mumbai, the nation’s commercial capital (and Bollywood), in his corner. Any resemblance to the late Bal Thackeray is purely coincidental, of course.  If Bhau has his two sons, Sethji has Amrita — his sexy and smart daughter-in-law who is the amoral heroine of this novel. Amrita is married to Sethji’s weak and feckless older son Srichand, who is despised by his wife who had a premarital affair with MK, a handsome Muslim college mate with whom she is still in love. The younger son, who is in trouble from page 1, is killed off-screen in Dubai. Therefore the mantle of supporting Sethji devolves upon Amrita who is not averse to coupling with her father-in-law in the larger cause. The plot thickens when a plan hatched by…