Gandhi and Nehru: two of the most influential men in the history of Indian sub-continent.  Yet it is difficult to ignore their differences not just on political matters, but even their personal outlook, especially when it came to women.

Gandhi, with a view to re-integrate our virtuous past into the present and future used the symbol of Sita to motivate Indian women during our freedom struggle. Sita stood for chastity, sacrifice and her selflessness towards her husband Rama. As a firm believer in a woman’s home-making abilities, Gandhi encouraged their participation in politics within certain parameters. By an inference thus, Gandhi expected a strong woman to support her husband and provide him the strength to rise up and perform greater deeds for the country.

By contrast, Tagore’s idea of the woman that he felt Indian women ought to look up to, was Chitrangada. The intrepid Manipur princess was unorthodox and epitomized equality. Nehru, who often found himself closer to Tagore’s thinking than with Gandhi’s, echoed similar sentiments. Talking about his deceased wife Kamala, Nehru wrote in his book, Discovery of India,   “Like Chitra in Tagore’s plays, she (Kamala) seemed to say to me: I am Chitra. No goddess to be worshipped, nor yet the object of common pity to be brushed aside. If you design to keep me by your side in the path of danger and daring, if you allow me to share the great duties of your life, then you will know myself…”

 It may thus be inferred that while Gandhi was still largely conservative in the role he envisaged for Indian women, Nehru, in a truer sense saw them as equal companions.

 This fundamental difference in outlook between Gandhi and Nehru extended to the way each carried their lives. While Gandhi preached ‘abstinence’ and control over one’s concupiscent desires, Nehru was a liberal in its truest sense. While the way Gandhi conducted his life bordered on the ascetical, Nehru was a romantic at heart. While Gandhi advocated some unnatural experiments in his ashram which even his staunch supporters would have found cumbersome, Nehru pursued some interesting relationships, which many believe provided the right intellectual stimulation to the genius that he was. 

 Today, several decades later, it is worth debating if Gandhi’s and Nehru’s ideas about the Indian women had been a bit too simplistic. For, Indian women in the subsequent decades were seen to evolve into far more layered beings. Nehru’s own daughter, Indira for instance, went on from being equated with Goddess Durga post the 1971 war to being generously hated just a few years later.

 The Indian woman of today is a complex assortment and demystifying her would ironically require acknowledging some of the positive attributes of the most controversial woman in Hindu mythology, Draupadi. Two attributes of Draupadi that stand out are her strong will (she knew precisely whom she wanted to marry) and her ability to adapt to and succeed in adverse circumstances (it was but a careless sentence of Kunti that became the cause of Draupadi’s life long suffering).

 These attributes are not uncommon to the liberated Indian woman of today.  To that extent, apart from seeking Sita and Chitrangada, it makes sense to acknowledge the omnipresence of Draupadi.

 Nehru, being the practical visionary that he was, would sure have evolved to arrive at a newer idea of the Indian woman, if he were alive today.  

(Painting by Ramyani Dasgupta)

I’ll remember the Delhi launch as the biggest launch of my career.  It had Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, RS Member and Chief Spokesperson, BJP  and Mr. Bhupendra Chaubey, political editor, CNN-IBN do the honours.

Instead of me telling you more, I leave you here with four videos which capture almost the entire panel discussion that took place that evening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5bbP8FW94w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-KiIQN-LVA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3hqzblX4nA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQAqZRgpO54

I have spent thirteen years in Loyola( from KG to Std 12) from 1982 to
1995. As such, I have a whole ocean of memories which I won’t be able
to share on any blog. I can just say that I’ve been fortunate to grow up
in Loyola and Jamshedpur- while they keep your small town values intact,
they also teach and inspire you to reach out for the stars.

Speaking to Loyoleans was an overwhelming and humbling experience.
I said what I believed in: you’re lucky to be in Loyola. Make sure you
make the most of it. I aptly endly the session by singing the Loyola
Anthem with the students:
Loyola Loyola, we’ll sing our proud refrain…
Loyola Loyola, till the echoes ring again
For here we all are true and our hearts are strong
And merrily we sing, as we march along
Loyola Loyola, till the echoes ring again!

Thank you Loyola for what I am today.

Monday, 28th June, 2010, TMDC Auditorium, XLRI

Tuhin addressing at XLRI on “Of Management And Politics”..as in how disciplines of management can be used to organise the political forces better; management students from premier institutes can come forward to manage the country and take up politics as a career..having said that, can politics be more corporate with proper recruitment, training & development, performance evaluation, compensation and growth path chalked out!

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous at XLRI. But now that its over, I’m on for many more such sessions. It’s a thought and a view that I subscribe to: there is an acute Leadership Crisis in the country; Management institutes have to brace up to provide solutions.

After That Thing Called Love and 22 Yards, I knew I had to attempt something grander. Politics, religion and/or ideology are issues that seem impersonal and relatively inconsequential in our daily existence. And yet sometimes, the influence cast by them is such they make or break personal bonds.

Of Love and Politics is an unusual love triangle between three young Indian politicians. The book plays with some interesting ideas:

• That ideological differences do impact personal bonds…

• That Indian politics tends to be largely promiscuous – perhaps a fallout of being over-democratic. As such alliances are entered into and broken pretty much conveniently out here.

• Paradoxically enough, in the book, a similar making and breaking of personal alliances takes place between Aditya Samar Singh(Congress MP), Brajesh Ranjan( BJP MP) and Chaitali Sen( CPI-M activist).

It will be significant to note even though the story is fictitious, it generously employs a whole gamut of real incidences which have occurred in recent years and which have had the potential to be a bone of contention between two thinking individuals. In its rather unsuspecting way, the book tends to fix up responsibility for some of our biggest political blunders post Independence.

The following blurb will throw more light into the story:

I’m a political journalist by profession and an eternal romantic at heart. I’m sure that is a scandalous and a rare combination.

 Unlike the US, where elections are essentially personality centric and every citizen has a right to decide the next leader, Indian elections tend to be extra-democratic, often putting the very institution at peril. The Indian political scenario is largely tri-polar. There is the Congress and its allies called the UPA on the one hand, the BJP and its allies called the NDA on the other. And then there is the Third Front comprising Left Parties and others who come and leave the front on their convenience. A tri-polar contest carries a huge probability of a hung parliament, which in turn results in some rather hasty and volatile re-alignments to form government. Some of these alignments can be outright opportunistic. And having closely studied them over the last several years, I am in a position to deduce that Indian political parties are promiscuous by nature.

The other interesting point that I have noted is that the political ideology or thought of an individual does tend to percolate down to the individual’s personal demeanor and beliefs too. At least, my friendship with a host of politicos cutting across ideological affinities and my comprehension of them bears testimony to such a phenomenon.

What happens then, when the political drama that unfolds in the country’s corridors of powers, spills over to a complicated personal bond that the protagonists – Aditya Samar Singh, Brajesh Ranjan and Chaitali Sen share?

Aditya like the Congress party he belongs to, tends to be aristocratic while he stands for rationalism and prudence; he is a centrist and he’s accommodating. Brajesh Ranjan, like his party, the BJP, swears by an overtly nationalist agenda; his personal dignity, as well as his idea of the nation’s self dignity tend to be so inflated that they sometimes border on egocentricity; he is hard on himself and others alike. Chaitali Sen, like the CPI(M) she represents, does have some revolutionary crusader traits and instincts. It goes without saying, she is leftist at heart and swears by the underpowered.

Facts, as they say are stranger than fiction and in as much as they would want to deny it, this is an oxymoronic tale of how Aditya, Brajesh and Chaitali were once entangled in a personal alliance, as volatile as the one their parties were forming and breaking. Through their journey, I could manage some rare insights into the personal side of Indian politics.

The book releases June end… Like both my previous books, I guess this one too was destined for a Monsoon release. I do hope it gives you good company in the rains…

Till then, be good!!! God bless!

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080911/jsp/jharkhand/story_9817696.jsp
http://www.newkerala.com/photo-news.php?action=fullnews&id=540
http://www.screenindia.com/old/fullstory.php?content_id=14387
http://22yardstuhin.wordpress.com/
http://www.oxfordbookstore.com/dotcom/oxford/archives/oxford_bookstore_review/for_my_readers/that_thing_called_love.htm
http://www.oxfordbookstore.com/dotcom/oxford/archives/oxford_bookstore_review/for_my_readers/22_yards/index.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/spirituality/soul-curry/She-was-my-type/articleshow/5274709.cms

“… an urban metropolitan reader may easily be able to relate to the dynamics governing the rising complexities in relationships.”
Shaaditimes.com

“the book touches several social issues and deals with them in a manner that has hitherto not been dealt with before.”
Screen

“A subject, currently explored in films, coupled with flowing language and generous use of the first person, makes this book an exciting read.”
Afternoon Dispatch and Courier, Mumbai

“A journey of discovery through disparate spectrums, Tuhin waxes eloquent on the choices that lie before the typical urban Indian male and in an odd way strikes a chord that is unmistakable.”
The Sunday Indian

The War on Terror May Finally Have Just Begun

 I have never been a big supporter of aggressive activism; yet this time round the cause and emotion were so overwhelming that I could not, not be a part of it. And what I saw there has made me feel prouder of being an Indian.

Hordes and hordes of people (some estimates say there were 1.5-2lakh people) walked the stretch from the Regal cinema in Colaba to the Gateway of India shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Vande Mataram” and ripping apart politicians and Pakistan in equal measure.  Seldom has the country looked more livid and seldom has it seemed so united: people of every religion, caste and region were there, all proud to be Indians and ashamed of the political class. Some of the slogans were quite amusing: one, exhorting our PM to be a true Sardar and act; the other asking Raj Thackery the price of his new Audi. And how can one forget the relentless sloganeering –‘Gali gali mein shor hai, Pakistan chor hai’ and ‘Pakistan murdabad’. There are few things about this movement, which make it stand apart: it is devoid of any political motive; rather a movement against the abuse of politics by politicians. Seldom has a mass movement seen the normally apathetic middle and upper middle class get so involved. The majority of those who participated in the march today were from the middle/upper middle and educated classes. Among the celebrities that I could spot were Rajeev Khandelwal, Prasoon Joshi, Narender Ahmed among others. There was my friend, actor, Rajev Paul and several others from the world of TV and films.   The display of this kind of anger by the educated class carries a power which only an incapacitated government can ignore.

One hopes that this cumulative anger will make the government realize that it stands a real danger of squandering away the gains that India has achieved economically and in world politics. It is another reminder for it to act before the anger assumes giant proportions.

The other important news of consequence today was Mr. Zardari’s refusal to hand over the 20 militants demanded by us. But why did we have such illusions in the first place?. Let us be clear: we are dealing with a rogue state, whose leadership has always carried a rich history of deception and betrayal. Mr. Zardari’s mask of civility will not bring about a change in the country’s intentions. A failed state( an ‘international migraine’ , as former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright calls it) would want to export all the chaos that exists there to its prosperous neighbor. This is where we need to hit them where it hurts the most: snapping of all economic ties, till they hand over india’s most wanted. In 2002, after the Parliament attack, the mere refusal of India’s airspace to any Pakistani airplane had caused them humungous hardships. That is the language Pakistan understands and not the civil reprimands that the Indian leadership never ceases to indulge in.

If perfidy characterizes the Pakistani leadership, incompetence and passiveness characterizes the Indian one. For the last three days Maharashtra is without a Home Minister and virtually without a CM. The central leadership is in absolutely no hurry to settle the issue. That more RDX was discovered from the CST today should be of little surprise.

I’m optimistic though that a movement of the nature and magnitude we saw today will eventually force change. Maybe, we might need to have it once every month. Instead of people assembling at the Gateway, it will not be a bad idea to form a human chain across the length of the city.  It will obviously need some amount of sacrifice, which all of us ought to be prepared to make. After all, our sacrifice is negligible compared to the sacrifice of the victims of terror.

I’m optimistic that our war on terror may have finally just begun.

JAI HIND!

(pic courtesy: ndtv.com)

The last three days have been one of the most heart-wrenching and numbing experiences of my life. I could barely do anything except watch news unfold on TV, join a couple of internet groups meant to mobilize public opinion and call up friends and enquire about their safety. The only other instance of such a prolonged national gloom that I can recall, was the Kandahar plane hijack episode of 1999. The magnitude this time though was larger. Moreover, this happened in the heart of Bombay.

Today, the NSG operation has finally ended. Our war against terrorism, sadly, hasn’t begun yet.

Before I come to that, let me offer my heart felt condolences to the families of Hemant Kirkire, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte. I wish to pay my tribute to all the other people to laid down their lives, trying to save others and to those who suffered bullets for no reason. Had it not been for the effort of some of the martyrs, the casualty today would have been much bigger.

Mr. Kirkire’s death was the most disturbing. It made me think of the thanklessness and ingratitude that actually adorns the lives of our brave protectors. Just two months ago, Mr. Kirkire was in the firing line for being harsh on Muslims. Just two weeks ago, Hindu groups were ridiculing him for making the sadhvi a scapegoat. His martyrdom should be his answer to all the criticism leveled against him.

Now for some hard facts: Let us get this clear right at the start- empty rhetoric doesn’t get us anywhere. But point is, are we capable of anything beyond that?

This is not the first time that the country is seething in collective fury. We’ve seen this before on 11 July, 2006. We saw it barely two and a half months ago on 13^th September 2006, when there were serial blasts in Delhi. But barely a week after the occurrence, all our anger evaporates. We are pretty much engrossed in our mundane existences to bother about issues beyond us.

This attack has exposed several failings on our part: our police and intelligence are terribly understaffed; their modus operandi and equipments are primitive compared with those used by the enemy; there is minimal co-ordination between the center and states, more-so in cases where the Central government and State government are not run by the same party. What is even more unfathomable is the amateurish approach of the Union Government and the gross abdication of responsibility by the Union Home Ministry. How many times have we heard the Home Minister say: we had intelligence inputs, which we had forwarded to the state?   The state home ministry is known to respond in predictable fashion: we had general information, no specific information.  

Can a country as progressive as ours be run by politicians whose naiveté would put schoolboys to shame? Even the student councilors and group heads in schools show more enterprise and responsibility.

There is a collective indignation that the country is feeling today. Our PM has summoned the ISI chief to Indiato share information on the blast: can there be a bigger hogwash? To what extent will our government go to hide its incompetence at fighting terror. Let me state here, in no unspecific terms that this attack was impossible without some amount of local support, albeit logistical in nature. After all, two cabs were blown apart in places far away from where the shooting was taking place. Before summoning the ISI chief, we’d do well to bring in fresh laws to deal with crimes of this magnitude. We need special fast track courts to deal with such cases. We need extraordinary and barbaric laws for extraordinary crimes like these. And to all those who would condemn me for this statement, let me tell them to stop living in denial. We are a country under siege. We’ve been under siege for decades, thanks to a convoluted interpretation of ‘tolerance’.

 A noted film-maker was reported to have said yesterday- India is paying the price for being a war ally of the US. There can’t be a statement more puerile than that. This attack has set a dangerous precedent. Tomorrow, God Forbid, terrorists may zero in on a building that houses Indians in some other part of the world, just like they zeroed in on the Nariman House this time round. The last thing that we can do in this fight against terror is duck for cover and get defensive. In fact, if this attack cannot substantiate the need for collaboration between India, US, UK and Israel to wipe out the menace of terror, nothing else can. So far as the Indian scene is concerned, all it needs is political will power and integrity and our erudite PM would do well by starting off the exercise by removing a grossly incompetent dummy from the office of Home Minister.

What I’ve written is a cathartic outpour. For the last three days I’ve suffered for want of options to deal with a situation like this. One common campaign doing the rounds is- “Exercise your power of vote to elect the right leaders”. My point is, in the huge firmament of Indian politics, I can’t see anybody inspiring confidence. This is where we need to contemplate a step further. Instead of confining ourselves to pouring ourselves out on the internet and some meetings that are extremely sequestered, those of us who can afford it(mentally and intellectually, more than financially) need to contemplate a career in politics. Sure, it will be an extremely long drawn process, but a definite start has to be made somewhere. After all, it was the Mahatma who had once advocated, “Be the change you want to see around you.”

Jai Hind!