Gaurav for Gogoi & Dhoni-like elan for Akhilesh
The recently concluded Budget Session of Parliament saw two Opposition MPs capture the headlines—one was Gaurav Gogoi, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lower House, and Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief. Akhilesh has always been a media delight, delivering his pithiest punchlines with a Dhoni-esque élan, hitting boundaries with a deadpan face. The exchange between him and Home Minister Amit Shah is an example of how political differences can be aired with grace and civility.
Gaurav Gogoi’s growth trajectory is the one to watch. He may be a dynast, but he is also one who had to prove his credentials, for it is his lineage that Himanta Biswa Sarma has used to target him. Gaurav has worked hard for his legacy. His Lok Sabha win from Jorhat in Assam, where he singlehandedly took on the might of the BJP state government (with the Chief Minister leading the campaign against him) must have given young Gogoi some confidence, for don’t forget he had to change his constituency from Kaliabor to Jorhat due to the delimitation exercise carried out by Sarma’s government. But in the end, it is also his natural articulation and political instincts that are standing him in good stead. It was Gogoi who led the Opposition’s debate on the Wakf Board amendment bill and he gave a scathing response to the government with facts and pointed rejoinders, while Akhilesh made his point with rhetoric and flourish. The duo made a good team.
Tuning out the noise
Union Cabinet Minister for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju faced the brunt of the Opposition heckling when he moved the controversial amendments to the Waqf Amendment Bill. When he tried to make himself heard above the din, he got some valuable advice from a colleague sitting next to him in the Lok Sabha. Another Cabinet Minister, Piyush Goyal, advised Rijiju to use the headphones lying on his table as an ear muff, to tune out the noise and continue with his speech. The advice worked as Rijiju used the headphones—normally used for translations—to drown out the Opposition noise and went on with his speech introducing the amendments to the bill. Clearly, Piyush Goyal has mastered the art of successfully tuning out unsolicited advice.
Potato Chips or Computer Chips?
It does seem as if Union Cabinet Minister Piyush Goyal is on a roll this week. While addressing the Startup Mahakumbh he was critical of Indian start-ups that seemed to be focusing more on food delivery apps than anything more meaningful, such as semiconductors and deeptech. He made a valid point when he said kids of billionaires are making fancy ice creams and cookies and calling these ventures a startup. This, despite the fact that India churns out the highest number of STEM graduates every year. As the minister pointed out, “We are making food/hyper delivery apps; creating cheap labour so the rich can have a meal without stepping out, while the Chinese are working on AI (artificial intelligence), EVs (electric vehicles), and semiconductors.” This led to an interesting debate on X, with Aadita Palicha, the co-founder of Zepto, posting, “It is easy to criticise consumer internet startups in India, especially when you compare them to the deep technical excellence being built in US/China…there are almost 1.5 Lakh real people who are earning livelihoods on Zepto today—a company that did not exist 3.5 years ago. Why doesn’t India have its own large-scale foundational AI model? It’s because we still haven’t built great internet companies. Most technology-led innovation over the past 2 decades has originated from consumer internet companies. Who scaled cloud computing? Amazon (originally a consumer internet company). Who are the big players in AI today? Facebook, Google, Alibaba, Tencent etc. (all started as consumer internet companies).” Regardless, the minister’s comments have led to a much needed introspection as to where our startups sector is headed, is the government doing enough to support