'I read Gurcharan's book at a pace a somewhat slower than most people read Jaswant Singh's book (on Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah that led to the expulsion of the BJP leader).

'It prods us to think about the perennial question that the book raises and posits the question what is good. The biggest difficulty in being good is the fact what is good differs under particular circumstances,' he said with a hint of 'sarcasm and cynicism' alluding to the political developments.

'When you deploy strategy, you must deploy it for a higher purpose as Sri Krishna told Arjuna in Mahabharata.'

The launch, which was followed by a discussion on The Difficulty in Being Good, was also attended by Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor and writer William Dalrymple.

'I reinvented Mahabharata 20 years ago to tell the political story of India from Independence to globalisation in my book 'The Great Indian Novel'. The dynamics, discussions and aspects of the book relate themselves to the challenges of present. It offers a choices between different set of rights, wrong and good and shows us the way in the age of uncertainties we live,' Tharoor said.

'One can always free one from the chains of Hindutva and remain a liberal Hindu -- using Mahabharata as a guide book for dharma,' he added.

Shourie, however, refused to respond to Tharoor's bait over the brand of Hindutva propagated by the BJP and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).