Indian authors speak out over plan to reissue Narendra Modi exam book

Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy attack Penguin Random House India for putting out book by a prime minister they say has mishandled Covid and persecuted writers

Leading Indian authors Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy have spoken out against Penguin Random House India's decision to publish and promote a book by Narendra Modi during the country's coronavirus crisis, with Mishra accusing PRH India of enlist[ing] in a flailing politician's propaganda campaign".

In a letter published in the London Review of Books blog, Mishra wrote to the chief executive of PRH India, Gaurav Shrinagesh, after the publisher announced it would be reissuing Modi's book Exam Warriors while, in Mishra's words, smoke from mass funeral pyres rose across India". India suffered a world record one-day death toll from Covid-19 on Wednesday - 4,529 - with the overall figure believed to be much higher than the official death toll of 283,248.