Jigs Ashar, a banker-turned-consultant-turned-author, is back with his third novel and his first political thriller, The Cabinet Conspiracy. Ashar, who took the literary route inspired by his favourite author Jeffrey Archer (who adjudged his first short story, The Wait is Killing, a winner at a national short story writing competition), melds a political setting with his favourite genre of crime thriller in this novel. With the plot of an assassination attempt on the prime minister of India, this fact-meets-fiction with relatable characters and setting is a fast-paced read. Here is what he told t2.
This is your third novel and first political thriller. What made you shift from pure crime to a political setting and second, how different was it from the former sub-genre?
I have always wanted to write an international political thriller. I remember vividly, it was in April 2018 when the idea for The Cabinet Conspiracy came to me. While in Indonesia for work I was reading a special report on the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). While I had heard about China’s BRI, I had no idea about the scale at which it was being planned and developed. It blew me away. And then I read about India’s stand on the BRI. We had not only refused to participate in it, but we had vehemently opposed it at international forums. India being a critical link in the Silk Route (as the BRI is also referred to), I wondered as to how far China could go to get India to sign up. And this is where the plot started developing in my mind. That’s where fiction took over from facts; and I wrote this story where China, with help from an insider in the Indian prime minister’s cabinet, plans the Indian PM’s assassination.
The key difference between my earlier two books and this one is that my previous books were short, quick reads of around 130-odd pages while The Cabinet Conspiracy is a full-blown novel of 232 pages. Also, while the previous books were pure fiction, this one weaves a lot of true events into the story, making it feel very real and plausible.
Given that you have chosen the Indian political system as your setting, tell us about your research and how challenging was it to keep your characters’ sketch independent and not aligned to any party or real leader.
As the book blends a lot of real events into the story, finding the right balance between my fictional story and the facts was a big challenge. First, disparate events and characters had to be woven seamlessly into one story. That was the first thing I had to work out. Second, while I have done in-depth research into every element of what I have presented, the details should not slow down the pace of the book. They have to be just enough to take the story forward and keep the reader interested. It, therefore, took me a long time to complete the book and because the topic is internationally volatile, I had to verify and re-verify my findings to ensure I present an accurate picture to the readers.
I also used my network to speak with a few people across geographies to get their view on what I was trying to depict. For example, the rise of Khorgos, a city in China bordering Kazakhstan. It is expected to be a huge player in global economics in a few years, but not many have heard of it. While I have made references to real-life characters, including today’s leading politicians — both in India and globally, I think I have been able to achieve that delicate balance between real and fictional.
Is any of the characters inspired by a real-life politician?
The story I wanted to tell is based on real happenings in international politics today. So I could not help but naturally incorporate in the story characters who are inspired by real politicians. For instance, when I write about the BRI, I have to allude to the Chinese Premier, who is a key character in my book. For all that China does under the guise of the BRI — like its debt-trap politics, and this is strictly my personal view — I have presented Chen Jintao as one of the antagonists in the story; and Jintao symbolises ‘China’ to the reader.
Similarly, India has opposed the BRI and the Indian prime minister is the target of an assassination plot in the story. Readers will naturally find a similarity between PM Mahendra Doshi and our prime minister. The home minister, finance minister, chief minister and a few other characters in the book are also inspired by the respective ministers in Indian politics today.
What is it about the crime thriller that makes you stick to the genre?
I have grown up reading and enjoying crime thrillers. So, when I took up writing, unsurprisingly, I started in this genre.
How much is your writing inspired by your favourite writers, Jeffrey Archer and Frederick Forsyth?
I must have read all their books multiple times; and somewhere along the way, they have inspired me to ‘go out and tell a story’. Both have their distinct styles of storytelling, but they pack a punch without fail. The pace of their novels, the characters, and the political elements built in, especially international politics in Forsyth’s novels (in The Devil’s Alternative for example) are simply fantastic, and fuel the imagination of both readers and new writers alike.
The plot of the head of a nation being the target is not a new one. How did you intend to turn the oft-used idea into a novelty?
I actually haven’t read a story about an assassination plot set in the Indian context. Of course, one of the most famous novels on this theme is The Day of the Jackal by Forsyth, where the target is Charles de Gaulle. Jeffrey Archer’s Shall We Tell the President was also on a similar subject where the target was Edward Kennedy.
While The Cabinet Conspiracy is about the plot to assassinate the Indian prime minister, that’s where the similarities end. My story weaves a lot of real events and possibilities into the narrative. Not to give away too much, I have incorporated incidents such as the killing of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London, the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a consulate in Istanbul, and so on. A very interesting part woven into the story is of the ‘chocolate bomb’, which, incidentally, was conceived, but aborted, by the Nazis to kill Winston Churchill. Of course, China’s BRI is real and is a crucial plot point.
We heard that your two novels, Insomnia and A Brutal Hand, are being evaluated for a screen adaptation. Any update there?
Both are at a very advanced stage of finalisation, and I should be able to announce something soon. There has also been interest from a few production houses and an OTT platform for The Cabinet Conspiracy, and discussions have commenced.
What are you working on next?
I am very excited about my next three books, all of which are commissioned by leading publishers and are at various stages of development. First is a true crime murder mystery set in Madras in the 1940s, titled The Headless Victim. Next will be another fact-meets-fiction novel The Boardroom Mafia that covers the biggest corporate scam in India, exposing the nexus between banking, financial crime and terrorism. And the third one is another true crime novel, The Assassination of Akku Yadav, which tells the story of one of India’s most cold-blooded and dreaded gangsters, and two women’s fight to end his reign of terror.