Shashi Tharoor, the high-profile Member of the Indian Parliament, should be feeling especially high these days.
His latest book, "An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India" (published by Aleph Book Company) is shattering all records for bestsellers in India. With rave notices galore, and glowing media coverage, it's already in its fifth printing. (I strongly recommend the book, which is wonderfully crafted and is packed with Mr. Tharoor special mix of scholarship, wit, and high self-regard. It's based on a talk that Mr. Tharoor gave last year at the Oxford Union; a video of that tough and coruscating speech quickly went viral on the Internet.)
Meanwhile, word is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seriously thinking of offering the post of Minister of External Affairs to Mr. Tharoor. Mr. Modi, of course, leads the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and he would be taking an unprecedented step in making the offer.
The current minister, Sushma Swaraj, has advanced diabetes, and is gravely ill with renal problems; she is undergoing dialysis at AIIMS in Delhi.
Although Mr. Tharoor is a stalwart of the Indian National Congress and arguably one of its brightest leaders and a close friend of Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, his appointment would be a something rare - even unheard of - in Indian politics; it would represent a bipartisan move.
American presidents typically enlist members of the opposing party in their cabinet, more for cosmetic karma than anything else. Of course, should such an inductee step out of political bounds, he - or she - is unceremoniously shown the door.
With his extensive experience in international affairs, his charisma, and his immense popularity throughout India - especially with young people who constitute 75 percent of the country's population of 1.3 billion - Mr. Tharoor would be ideal for the job. Nothing like massive domestic support for a foreign-affairs job - particularly when held by a youthful and fashion conscious 60-year-old man with movie star looks and a deep gravely voice that famously makes women wobbly and want to marry him.
Moreover, despite the political theater of their so-called differences on a variety of domestic issues, Prime Minister Modi deeply admires Mr. Tharoor's charm, intellect and eloquence.
He's also said to be personally admiring of the Congressman's looks and fitness, which offer a stark contrast to the pudgy Mr. Modi. He's sometimes remarked publicly that although both men are strict vegetarians, diet seems to have yielded more physical dividends to Mr. Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, a southern Indian state known for its savory, spicy meat and fish dishes.
Mr. Modi, who was born and raised in western Gujarat state, is even said to have discouraged an investigation of the death of Mr. Tharoor's third wife, Sunanda Pushkar, in mysterious circumstances at The Leela Palace Hotel, in New Delhi on January 17, 2014.
She died just five months before Mr. Modi's BJP was elected to a huge parliamentary majority, thereby making him India's 14th prime minister since the country's independence from the British Raj on August 15, 1947. The Delhi police have yet to issue a conclusive finding about Ms. Pushkar's death, other than to opine that it wasn't natural.
Not generally known for his erudition or passion for literature, Mr. Modi even said to have read "An Era of Darkness," and has been reportedly recommending it all around.
His admiration of Mr. Tharoor notwithstanding, Mr. Modi is surely mindful of the fact that the Congress leader's name has come often up in influential circles as a future prime minister of India.
So inducting him into the BJP cabinet might well be a shrewd move to defang a potential prime ministerial rival, at least for now.
Or perhaps, recognizing Mr. Tharoor's wide appeal, Mr. Modi is privately grooming him for the premiership of the world's largest democracy. After all, the BJP bench isn't particularly deep with potential candidates for the job.
So will Shashi Tharoor become India's first bipartisan prime minister?
That may seem fanciful at the moment, but politics turns up strange things. After all, before November 8 who'd have thought that Herr Adolf Trump would be elected the 45th President of the United States?