About the best way to stay young is to interact and engage with the young. One of the methods I use to do this is to visit colleges and universities. In 2014, I did this in India as well as the United States, visiting Yale and Columbia. More recently, my focus has been at home, for nothing fascinates me as much as my own country. In the past three months, I have travelled to educational institutions in Mumbai, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. A week ago, it was my privilege to go to Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi, as part of the College's Business Conclave 2016.
Rather than giving a speech that lasted for an hour, I resorted to a Q&A format, making for a back-and-forth discussion. An edited version of the transcript is presented below:
Q: Considering the Tatas were forced to move out of Singur, what is the Trinamool Congress government doing to address the apprehensions of investors, to make them believe in Bengal?
A: Let me explain in a nutshell what the problem was in that Tata project. I'll give you a Delhi example and then I'll tell you what our point of view is.
Here's the story - Golf Links in Delhi, just next to the Golf Club, has say 10 bungalows, bungalows 1,2,3,4,5,6, 7,8,9,10. Somebody wants to set up a plant there. Seven bungalow owners agree to sell their bungalows, bungalows 1,2,4,5,8,9 and 10. Three bungalow owners decide, "This is my bungalow, I don't want to sell". That is exactly what happened in Singur. 70% of landowners decided to sell. 30% per cent of landowners did not want to sell their multi-crop land.
Please come back to the Delhi story now. If three bungalow owners don't want to sell, will the government or a corporate house be allowed to take over those three bungalows? We believe they will not. It's the same principle we fought to defend in Singur. We fought for those landowners who were saying, "It's our land. We want to till this multi-crop land, we are not sellers". That was the point of view we gave.
After that we fought three elections and we believe the people of Bengal agreed. And we are very happy now that even the government of India has kept its draconian Land Bill, first brought by the UPA and now by the NDA, somewhere between the cold storage and the morgue.
That's my answer. You don't have to agree. It's like walking into the NDTV studio and saying, "Prannoy Roy, we want to acquire your studio and we want to turn it into a Chinese restaurant". And NDTV says, "No, we want to do television stuff from the studio".
Q: How do you suggest the education system of the country should change to keep pace with the needs of a digital society, since we still follow the bookish system of education?
A: The problem is not with the acquiring of knowledge. There's some very interesting research done on how Indians acquire knowledge. The problem is with the application of that knowledge. Too much of our school education is on what knowledge we acquire and we do not spend enough time, unlike Americans or Europeans, in the application of that knowledge.
That's a simple answer. But it's not that I can change it or the government can change it. It's a bigger picture we all need to work towards as a society.
Q: From an insider's point of view, what can you tell us about the logjam in Rajya Sabha? All we hear is from the media and they can be really biased at times.
A: Well in the Rajya Sabha let me tell you, there's a lot of great talent. I know politician-bashing is very fashionable but believe me,while of course there are jokers in any pack, there is also so much to look up to. Take the example of one of your SRCC old boys - I don't believe in his political ideology, but Arun Jaitley in Parliament is special. So is Ram Vilas Paswan, Doesn't matter if they belong to different parties. Or, for that matter, P Chidambaram, who was in Parliament till recently. So many of my colleagues from Trinamool or other parties are absolutely top of the line in Parliament. So please don't always indulge in politician bashing.
To answer your specific question on the Rajya Sabha, here's the story. When the Congress was in power, the BJP stopped GST and stalled Parliament. Now the BJP has come to power and the Congress is looking at it and doing just the same. What about us guys sitting in the middle? We're watching the sham. We've been consistently saying, "Pass the GST, pass the GST, pass the GST". They should have passed it a while ago. I even have a 25-minute speech on GST ready that I'm dying to make!
One more point. When seasoned politicians like Arun Jaitley, whom I respect personally and professionally, start talking nonsense that the Rajya Sabha is not important, it doesn't help. We've studied the Constitution, it created India as a Union of States. There were representatives from the states in the Constituent Assembly and it was actually a precursor to the Rajya Sabha.
Q: How do you define development of the country?
A: There are different parameters. One is numbers, another is mindset. So if you think "Who has a car", "Who has a television", is that development? No. Before we go there, let's get drinking water to all people. We are fighting an election in Bengal in about three months, and one of the biggest achievements of our government is that we have given people something as simple as safe drinking water without arsenic in it. It's as basic as that. Give people
bijli, sadak, paani, basic education, healthcare... their lives will improve. And when you do that, they will reward you and vote you back again.
Q: What does it take for someone to become a good quizzer?
A: I don't think your trip in life or your ambition should be to be a good quizzer. You will become very boring. So please don't do that and make it your ambition.
I spoke earlier about the application of knowledge, I think the world has changed. What has changed is not the acquiring of knowledge, what has changed is how good your soft skills are. You need good content, one can't come here and get away only with smart one or two liners. You have to have substance, well-researched content.
The truth is: quizzing in a way is very limited. Fenced. You ask something and someone answers. At some level quizzing is only about recall, Whereas the application of that knowledge and using that knowledge to present, to say things in say Parliament, to debate, to influence policy- that application of knowledge is important.
Q: What are your views on the intolerance debate?
A: I live in Kolkata, I was born and lived in a Hindu neighbourhood. We were a Christian family, and we lived on a street named after a Muslim. That is the India I know. That is the only India I want to know.
(Derek O'Brien is leader, Parliamentary party Trinamool Congress (RS), and Chief National spokesperson of the party)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.