Ullekh Np

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ULLEKH NP

Ullekh NP is an author, journalist and political commentator based in New Delhi. He has nearly two decades of experience working with India’s biggest news publications such as The Economic Times, DNA and India Today. He writes on international and domestic politics, economy, governance, public health and corporate affairs. He is currently executive editor at OPEN magazine. He has done extensive interviews with luminaries from various professional backgrounds such as the late Gary S. Becker, Martha Nussbaum, Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagwati, Liugi Zingales, Dani Rodrik, Angus Deaton, Salman Rushdie, Thomas Zeltner, Daron Acemoglu, Gita Gopinath, AK Antony, Raghuram Rajan, Akhilesh Yadav, Arun Jaitley, Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Prakash Karat, Mira Nair, Arvind Panagariya, Jean Dreze, Simon Kuper, Faisal Devji, Masha Gessen, Ed Glaeser, Robert Kaplan, Tom Enders, Neena L. Khruscheva, Edward Luttwak, Michael Axworthy, Shashi Tharoor, Pinarayi Vijayan, BC Khanduri, Amitabh Kant, Shivraj Chouhan, Raman Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal and Oommen Chandy amongst others. Ullekh’s latest book Kannur: Inside India’s Bloodiest Revenge Politics was published by Penguin Viking in June 2018. It was an Amazon number one bestseller for four weeks after its launch, and has been widely covered in the media. The book explores why the Kannur region of north Kerala is so susceptible to vendetta politics and deadly violence. How is it an anomaly in Kerala, the state with the highest social development parameters in India? Born in Kannur and brought up amidst some of the tallest political leaders of the state, Ullekh delves into his personal experiences while constructing a modern-day graph that charts out the reasons, motivations and local lore behind it. Ullekh\'s previous book “The Untold Vajpayee: Politician and Paradox” (Penguin Viking) is the unbiased biography of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of India’s shrewdest politicians, known for negotiating multiple contradictions from militant nationalism to his secret family life. Exploring crucial milestones of Vajpayee’s career and his traits as a seasoned politician, supported by hard facts and accompanied by inside stories and anecdotes, the book opens a window to life and times of a poet politician. Ullekh\'s first book was “War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology Behind Narendra Modi’s 2014 Win” (Roli Books, 2014). This book takes you behind the scenes into how a political brand was built in a country as multi-dimensional as India.