Yashovardhan Azad's book, Policing the Republic: An Inside View of How India Fights Corruption and Crime, and Protects Rights.X, back when it was still Twitter, had first led me to the account of Yashovardhan Azad, a veteran IPS officer of the 1976 batch. I remember reading his posts and admiring the articulate commentary on various matters relevant to the country. Upon learning of the launch of Yashovardhan’s book, Policing the Republic: An Inside View of How India Fights Corruption and Crime, and Protects Rights, I looked forward to a crisp experiential account of India’s policing challenges in his quintessential style.The book lives up to the expectation with its cogent, complete and edifying account of the most-pressing problems assailing Indian polity. The politics of corruption, criminalisation of politics, the resistance to police reforms, the omnipresent spectre of Pakistani terror, the rise and fall of Naxalism, the tumultuous history and enduring crisis of Manipur and the potential and dilution of the right to information are, among other things, the important issues delineated by the author. The book is divided into five parts comprising 12 chapters.The strength of the book lies in the clarity and comprehensiveness with which the chosen subjects have been handled. It promises to be an immensely educative experience not only for the uninitiated and uninformed but also for those deeply immersed in these issues. The intrinsic worth of the book lies in the fact that it lends a historical understanding of the genesis and evolution of India’s acute challenges with inside information and multiple nuances surrounding crucial decisions and developments over the past decades.The chapter ‘Manipur: A Deep Divide’ is a case in point. Having read many accounts of the long-running insurgency in the State and often having found the detailing rather convoluted and tedious, the author’s exposition of the issue is perspicuous yet rich in detail. It leaves the reader with remarkable clarity on the issue while bringing to light the current status with a faithful account of the important developments. Even the minutest details don’t seem to have escaped the author’s attention.Each theme has been explored in a consistently non-partisan and professional manner, notwithstanding the fact that almost all the issues are inextricably intertwined with politics. That reflects the honesty of purpose in the author who comes across as constructively committed to addressing the crucial challenges confronting the country without taking sides.He shines true to the teaching and vision of his parents — learning from his politician father (Bhagwat Jha Azad, freedom fighter, Union Minister and former Bihar Chief Minister) that “governance is not a clean science — it is a never-ending negotiation between ideals and realities, between what is right and what is possible”. His mother, also his conscience-keeper, would say, “The nation is not an idea; it is its people — their daily needs, their daily fears, their daily lives. No policy, no law, no institution means anything except what it delivers — or fails to deliver — to them.” Police security during protest in Manipur (PTI)The book’s Preface offers an inspiring insight into the author’s family background and value system who, as the son of a politician father — a prominent participant of the Quit India Movement — was raised amidst the churn of politics and nation building. This extraordinary early exposure coupled with his later “subjective, emotional, visceral worm’s eye view of India as a police officer” in the Madhya Pradesh cadre, the Intelligence Bureau, the Cabinet Secretariat and later as Chief Information Commissioner render him a compelling commentator on the subjects he addresses.Story continues below this adThe book, however, is not a memoir. The subjects are only spartanly peppered with his first-hand experiences and the reader is left thirsting for more of the author’s own journey. The thirst is but partially quenched in the final part of the book, ‘Cricket Diplomacy, Security and Politics’, which offers a thrilling first-hand account of a sensitive mission to Pakistan in 2004 to assess the ground realities and risks of an Indian cricket tour — conceived after a 15-year hiatus in the spirit of political détente, and which the author ultimately helped make possible withouta glitch.Overall, Policing the Republic is an exploration to “pin down what ails this nation”. It would take a committed and invested reader to do justice to the rich and vast canvas of scrutiny that the author has diligently handed out.Vrinda Shukla is a serving IPS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre