Josy Joseph, author of The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State

What drove you to write this book?

What drove me to write this book was the fact that I have had a ringside view of the Indian security establishment for almost two and a half decades, both the military and the non-military arms.

I got angry and astonished at the way the institution, and especially the non-military part of the establishment including agencies such as the police, the CBI, ED, DRI, and the Income Tax etc behave. Their degeneration has been happening in front of our eyes and nobody seems to be either acknowledging it or bothered about it.

The political masters are taking turns in misusing them. Those in power would misuse the agencies to create distorted narratives against their narratives, to silence their critics etc. Since I understood this world, and its implications for democracy, I decided that I will have to write it. There are somethings you cannot postpone. This was one such book.

Given the prevailing situation in the country, how difficult was it to strike a balance between what you said and what you left unsaid? What kind of limitations did it impose upon you as a writer?

If you see the book, I haven’t left anything unsaid. I may have left out things which did not fit into my narrative, or some I was unable to recall, or about which I didn’t have full information. But whatever I was confident about and knew the facts I have not left out anything.

You will also figure out that from very early in the book I am also parallelly examining the security architecture that Narendra Modi built in Gujarat, and which is now being implemented from Delhi, a lot of which the Congress created in the past. Modi has an unparalleled understanding of the sinister capabilities of this security architecture.

When I am writing into my computer fear is not my emotion. When you are writing books on contemporary issues, trying to think through t