When it comes to speaking truth to power, author M.P. Prabhakaran does not mince words.

Wilmington, Delaware Jan 22, 2024 (Issuewire.com) - The book is a collection of thought-provoking articles that originally appeared in The East-West Inquirer, an online monthly, of which M.P. Prabhakaran is editor and publisher. During the two decades the articles cover, governments have come and gone in the countries, whose policies some of the articles critique. They bear evidence to the fact that Prabhakaran is an equal-opportunity critic of those governments, whenever he found that the policies adopted by them were dictated by political and selfish interests of their leaders. He has no political ax to grind. He decided to call a spade a spade because, according to him, the mess the world is in today is the result of the short-sighted, selfish policies followed by the leaders of the most powerful nations in the world.

"Your pen is your biggest enemy," Prabhakaran's friend have often warned him, he says in the preface to the book. They were concerned that some of his provocative articles could get him into trouble. Pointing to the topic of the article they read, those well-meaning friends would add, "Why bother, if it doesn't affect you in any way?"

Prabhakaran's response to them was: "History is full of examples of the disastrous consequences of this attitude." To drive home the point, he would recite the immortal words of Martin Niemöller, as translated by Bob Berkovitz:

"When the Nazis arrested the Communists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Communist. When they locked up the Social Democrats, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat. When they arrested the trade unionists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist. When they arrested the Jews, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Jew. When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest."

In a world in which the potency of the written word is often underestimated, "How I Spoke My Mind and Created Enemies Around" reminds its readers of the consequences of the silent acquiescence in what is handed down by the powers that be.

The book is available at: Amazon.com: How I Spoke My Mind and Created Enemies Around by M.P. Prabhakaran: Books

ASIN: B0CKY9K7GX

Book Title: How I Spoke My Mind and Created Enemies Around

Author: M.P. Prabhakaran

Publisher: Gotham Books

Represented by: Great Writers Media

Publication Date: August 31, 2023

Book Genre: Non-Fiction, Political and Social Commentary, Essays and Opinions, Activism and Advocacy, Personal Development, Personal Empowerment, Current Affairs, Current Issues

About the Author

M.P. Prabhakaran has been a journalist for more than half a century. He started his career as a reporter on Current, a weekly newspaper (now defunct) published from Bombay (later renamed Mumbai). He then moved on as a copy editor to March of the Nation, another Bombay-based English weekly (also defunct now); and then to Free Press Journal, one of India's leading English dailies.

After immigrating to the U.S. in 1975, he worked as an editor, first at The Voice of India, a monthly; and later, at South Asia Newsspecial, a news and feature syndicate. Side by side with his journalistic work, he pursued a Ph.D. in Political Science at The New School for Social Research, New York. After completing the Ph.D. in 1988, he taught for a few years as an adjunct professor of political science at the City University of New York.

Since 2001, Prabhakaran has been traveling around the world. His travel experiences have already produced two books: "What an India Learned from His Thirty-Day European Odyssey" and "What India and Virgin Mary Have in Common." Right now, he is working on another book, tentatively titled "How I Responded to Blunders of Donald Trump via The New York Times."