Believer?s Dilemma by Abhishek Choudhary is the definitive second volume of a decade-long study on Atal Bihari Vajpayee, offering a deeply researched, unsentimental portrait of the BJP?s first prime minister and his role in mainstreaming the Hindu Right. Drawing on new archives and candid interviews, Choudhary unpacks key political events from the late 1970s through Vajpayee?s term (1998?2004) and beyond?his leadership struggles, foreign policy shifts, and handling of national crises like Babri (1992) and Gujarat (2002). The book examines Vajpayee?s complex persona: a poetic moderate shaped by deep-rooted loyalty to the RSS, caught between democratic ideals and ideological constraints. It tracks how he helped reposition India as a capitalist democracy and aspiring superpower, while never fully breaking with the hardline forces that shaped him. Profoundly insightful and politically sharp, Believer?s Dilemma is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the evolution of Indian politics and the Hindu nationalist movement through the life of one of its most enigmatic figures.