When Sushmita Dev played anchor
Recently at the “We Women Want” conclave held in the capital, Trinamool MP Sushmita Dev was part of a discussion on “Breaking Biases”, along with SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Towards the end of the discussion, Sushmita took the microphone and asked her fellow panellist about the time when Rahul Gandhi had walked across to the Treasury Benches to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi a hug. At that time, Sushmita recalled that it was Harsimrat, then a cabinet minister, who was speaking on the floor of the House. “I’ve always wondered,” asked Sushmita, “I saw your face freeze—did you think that Rahul was coming towards you with the hug?”
To which, Harsimrat, as candid as ever, replied that she was under no such illusion: “I dont think he’d have the guts to do so, considering what I do to him. I was one of those who survived the 1984 (anti-Sikhs) genocide. I am one of those who have a great bias against Rahul and the Gandhi family. I was an 18-year-old student then and worked in the camps at Trilokpuri, so I have seen first-hand what happened in ’84 and have been pretty vocal about my feelings about the Congress.”
So, clearly, there was no way Rahul was making his way towards her with his goodwill gesture. Also clearly this is what happens when you put two feisty MPs on the stage together. Expect the unexpected.
The Unputdownable
Shashi Tharoor was quite the star at the “We Women Want” conclave (NewsX). On a lighter note, there was some good-natured ribbing about the conclave poster which had featured 59 women speakers, along with only one man—Shashi Tharoor, who was slated to give the keynote address. During the show, when asked what he would call his autobiography he laughed and said that while he was not ready for the Lifetime Achievement Award just yet, the title could be, “The Man Who Nearly… The man who nearly became the UN Secretary General, the man who nearly set a record in the
Thiruvananthapuram constituency, the man who nearly became the Congress President…” And added with a rueful smile, “somehow nearly doesn’t seem good enough.” Well, no one is putting Tharoor on the shelf just yet, as clearly there are many more chapters to go. Moreover, he did undersell himself a bit for even though he lost the Congress Presidential election, he did set a record of sorts, as the “most successful” loser in the history of elections to the post of the party chief.
As far as his constituency is concerned, as a four-term MP he has won every election he has contested from Thiruvananthapuram—not to mention the fact that the first one he contested in 2009 was virtually as a newcomer, for he only returned to India from the UN and joined politics three years prior. Maybe a better title for his story could be “The Unputdownable”, which applies to both his books and his politics.
Tharoor’s Message for Trump
When Shashi Tharoor was asked to react about the ongoing tariff war between India and the United States, he pointed out that the proposed tariffs were unjust and unfair. And added, “He (Donald Trump) has an unusual negotiating style. There is a famous anecdote about when he was being interviewed by Larry King on CNN. Larry King asked Trump, what is your negotiating style, you are the master of the deal, how do you do it? He (Trump) looked at Larry King and said do you mind if I move my chair away from you, you have terrible breath? Larry King’s face fell as Trump moved his chair and dominated the rest of the interview. Later he said, you want to know my negotiating style, that is my negotiating style.
So, there is something to be said about the schoolyard bully school of negotiation. Trump saying the Indian economy is dead is really the schoolboy equivalent of the big school bully telling the smaller kid, I think your mother is ugly. He may never even have seen his mother, but it’s just the idea is to demean the other guy.
Put him down, make him feel small. While I don’t take the (Trump’s) words literally, but I do tell people we have to take him seriously, because he is the President of a major power and a significant trading partner for India, as $90 billion of our exports are riding on this. And if we do end up with 50% of tariffs, then no one in the US will want our goods.” Then what can India do?
Tharoor had a suggestion. “We need to diversify and find other markets which don’t have such extortionate tariffs. Britain is an obvious example with whom we have a free trade agreement where 99% of India’s exports will be duty free. So we can do well in that market and also persuade some countries in Britain to import from India free of duty, repackage it and ship it to America as British goods.”
Some sound advice, there, which makes one wonder, what next for Shashi Tharoor? Because he is facing some serious tariffs from within his own party as well. That is the one question he hasn’t answered…as yet.
