Tag: karan thapar modi

Watch | ‘BBC Credibility Greater Than Modi Govt Internationally, BJP’s Comments Shameful’: N. Ram

In a 29-minute interview with Karan Thapar, Ram also sharply criticised the British government and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for what he called “a pathetic response” to the Indian I-T department’s ‘survey’.

In a hard-hitting interview, where he unequivocally expresses his condemnation of the tax surveys against the BBC, N. Ram says that “the BBC’s credibility is clearly greater than the Modi government’s credibility internationally”. Ram, the former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, adds: “I can’t think of a more credible organisation (in the world of media) than the BBC.” He says “the BBC won’t be intimidated” by these surveys, which he says are, in fact, raids although they are defined differently by the tax department. The surveys, he said, are “completely unacceptable … it’s censorship … looks like a comedy of follies”. Ram added that these surveys “could be a little bit of revenge” for the two-part BBC documentary India: The Modi Question.

In a 29-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, N. Ram also sharply and strongly criticised the British government and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in particular, for what he called “a pathetic response”. Ram asked: “Isn’t it strange that there’s nothing from Sunak so far?” He added, “I would have expected a self-respecting government to raise their concerns publicly.” The journalist said bluntly, “Sunak has been found very short.”

Ram was asked about the tax department’s statement issued on February 14, wherein it said the survey was conducted “in view of the BBC’s deliberate non-compliance with the Transfer Pricing Rules and its vast diversion of profits.” Ram said these are “sweeping allegations” and “a poor defence”. He added: “Yes, I’m skeptical (of them).” He added, “We have seen no evidence of it”. He said that “in the past, nothing is ever proved”.

Asked if there was a connection between the two-part BBC documentary India: The Modi Question, the government’s angry response and this survey, Ram said they are “clearly connected” adding “99% would see the connection … it stares you in the face”.

The journalist said even if the government has genuine tax-related questions and issues with the BBC, the survey – which continued all night and is continuing on Wednesday as well – is an “indefensible manner of treating the BBC.”

Finally, Ram said the surveys against the BBC have done “more damage than any previous attack on media freedom and free speech” to India’s international image. He said after this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s boast that India is the world’s largest democracy and the mother of democracies “lacks credibility”.

Please see the full 29-minute interview to appreciate the strength of N. Ram’s arguments and opinions.

‘Modi Is Not Caring Enough, It’s His Greatest Weakness’: Prashant Kishore

In the second part of his 2 part interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Kishor said Modi’s greatest strength is his ‘incredible experience’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s greatest weakness is “lack of benevolence,” says Prashant Kishor, the electoral strategist widely credited for devising and executing the electoral campaign that got Modi elected prime minister in 2014. Asked what he means by “benevolent”, Kishor said “caring and forgiving.”

In the second part of his 2 part interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Kishor said Modi’s greatest strength is his incredible experience. Kishor pointed out that Modi had spent 10-12 years as an RSS pracharak, another decade as a senior official in the BJP culminating as a party general secretary, 12 years as a chief minister and, now, six years as prime minister. This, Kishor said, was the explanation for Modi’s unique ability to know or sense what the people of India feel or think. “It’s the outcome of his incredible experience,” he said.

In the second interview, which is nearly 40 minutes long, Kishor told The Wire he first began working with Modi in 2012 as a public health consultant. During that time, Modi recognised Kishor’s political talent and started to use it. Thus began the second stage of their relationship, when Kishor became a political consultant to Modi. In turn that established Kishor as India’s foremost political strategist. Since 2014, he has played a critical role in the successful campaigns of Nitish Kumar, Amarinder Singh, Arvind Kejriwal and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Asked by The Wire if this meant Modi both spotted and nurtured his political talent, Kishor said he was aware of its existence from his university days but the opportunity to use it came through Modi and then “one thing led to another”.

However, Kishor made clear there was no question of him ever working again with Modi. “We have gone our separate ways.”

Speaking about the Congress campaign for the UP elections of 2017, which he masterminded and which is widely regarded as his only failure, Kishor said the problem was that the Congress kept changing the target and as a result, he had to keep changing the strategy. He said long before voting day he had realised that things were not going right and wanted to opt out but each time was persuaded to continue. Kishor said he had learnt a lot from this experience but when asked if that meant how not to run an election, he merely laughed.

In the interview to The Wire, Kishor speaks about the role he plays when he takes on a campaign. He says he gets involved in all its facets, including ensuring its proper execution. He works very closely with the chief ministerial or prime ministerial candidate and there is great trust and free expression between them.

Kishor said he had refused to work with individuals or political parties far more times than he has agreed to take on their campaigns. Responding to the charge he is a ‘political mercenary’, Kishor said in each of the campaigns he has managed, the key or core element was an issue he agreed with and identified with. Asked how he explained the fact he had worked with Shiv Sena last year and is now working with Trinmool, two parties that are polar opposites, Kishor said his association with Shiv Sena was small if not minimal.

Finally, speaking about his own future over the next two decades, Kishor, who is 43, said he did not see himself as an MP of either house of parliament over the next ten years. His priority was to work at the grassroots. This was why he has launched the Baat Bihar Ki platform in February. He completely ruled out converting it into a political party to contest the Bihar elections which, if held on time, are six months away.

However, Kishor revealed he would be willing to become an MLA during the next 10 years because this is part of working at the grassroots.

This is a paraphrased precis of Prashant Kishor’s second interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire. Watch the first part here.

Politcal Leaders and Well-Wishers Across the Spectrum Pay Tribute to Arun Jaitley

Opposition leaders said he was a good administrator who acted as a bridge between the BJP and other parties.

New Delhi: Political leaders from across the spectrum paid tributes to Arun Jaitley, India’s high-profile BJP leader and former finance minister who passed away on Saturday noon.

While top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh were the first to express their condolences, opposition leaders like former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee also condoled his death.

The prime minister said that Jaitley and BJP had an “unbreakable bond”.

Veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani too paid his tribute.

Shah, on the other hand, while speaking of Jaitley’s death as a “personal loss” highlighted his achievements as the Union finance minister.

It was under Jaitley’s tenure that the Union government controversially demonetised the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes and introduced the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax.

‘Good administrator’

Although these two measures brought him a lot of criticism, the opposition leaders, across political hues, felt that Jaitley was a good administrator and acted as a bridge between the BJP and other parties.

Sonia Gandhi said that his “long innings as a public figure, parliamentarian, minister and his contributions to public life will forever be remembered.”

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh called Jaitley “an eminent lawyer, an excellent orator, a very good administrator, and an outstanding Parliamentarian. In his death, our country has lost a great leader who always worked for the betterment of society,” he said, conveying his condolences to Jaitley’s family.

Also Read: The Arun Jaitley I Knew

Rahul Gandhi too said that he was “sorry to hear” about his demise and offered his condolences to his family.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was among the first to offer her condolence. “Extremely saddened at the passing away of Arun Jaitley Ji, after a battle bravely borne. An outstanding Parliamentarian & a brilliant lawyer appreciated across parties. His contribution to Indian polity will be remembered. My condolences to his wife, children, friends & admirers,” she tweeted.

Kerala chief minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Pinarayi Vijayan also tweeted to say, “He was a legal luminary and an exemplary parliamentarian. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues.”

Among opposition leaders who paid their respect to Jaitley were Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Shashi Tharoor, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sharad Pawar and Jairam Ramesh. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury also remembered Jaitley’s days as a student activist in the Delhi University, where he was elected as the students’ union president in the 1970s.

Arun Jaitley with actor Dharmendra. Photo: PTI/Files

Cricketers, colleagues and well-wishers also pay tribute

India men’s cricket team captain Virat Kohli, who worked with Jaitley during his tenure as the president of Delhi and District Cricket Association, also paid his tribute. Sachin Tendulkar called Jaitley a successful “cricket administrator.”

Former additional solicitor general Raju Ramachandran remembered Jaitley for his generosity and non-partisan nature when it came to taking administrative decisions.

“I first saw Arun Jaitley sometime in 1971. He was a star debater of the Delhi University, representing Shri Ram College of Commerce, and I was in the hall at St Stephens (College). I was delighted to find him in my class at the Law Faculty, and soon got to know him. His political activities kept him so busy that he couldn’t attend classes very regularly; I guess he must have just managed to fulfil the minimum attendance requirement. And so, despite his brilliance, he preferred to stay quiet in classroom discussions,” he said.

He added that Jaitley’s legal knowledge and acumen were apparent from the time he started practice, and his meteoric rise was because of his ability. “I remember him for his warmth, his generous hospitality and his great sense of humour. As an important member of the Vajpayee government, he did not oppose attorney general Soli Sorabjee’s proposal to appoint me additional solicitor general, though he knew quite well that I was ideologically no fan of the BJP. And as my law minister, although we were such old friends, there was not a single occasion when he told me how to handle the politically sensitive cases which came my way.”

Author Sanjoy Hazarika, who knew Jaitley from the days of the Emergency, recalls how the former finance minister was able to tap into Lutyen’s Delhi without belonging to the ‘required’ class, family or party.

I met Arun when he had just come out jail in 1977 after the internal state of emergency was relaxed to enable elections to the Lok Sabha.  He was then president of the Delhi University Students union (DUSU) and we met at one of the coffee places in Connaught Circus.  I was new to Delhi, then a reporter for Himmat Weekly, edited by Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of the Mahatma, and which resisted the emergency especially censorship and a cub reporter with the Hindustan Times.

“You’re very brave to meet me,” said Arun with a smile. “No journalist still wants to be seen with me because they think the intelligence is watching me — and them — and bad things will happen to them.”
We kept in touch occasionally and on one occasion he provided excellent pro bono advice to a friend who had made a significant error of judgement on a sensitive political issue.
He was later Additional Solicitor General under Soli Sorabjee in the VP Singh Government in 1990 as he rose in Delhi’s power circles and boss of the Delhi District Cricket Association.  We rarely met but he was unfailingly courteous when we did.  And when Ashok Saikia, the IAS officer from Assam closest to AB Vajpayee was around, whether in the PMO or not, there would be the regular 5 pm sessions with others in the Ramjas group at the India International Centre (IIC) main lounge where a bunch of politicians, bureaucrats and journalists would gather for ghup-shup.
They often had the same table; it was a change from the environs of the tacky Embassy restaurant where the  cartoonist Rajinder Puri, with his vitriolic pen and sharp tongue, had held court.
This was Luytens Delhi which some BJP loyalists later disparaged without knowing that some leading members were part of its star cast. For Arun knew more than many of his colleagues, as someone who understood power, that Luytens Delhi did not belong to a class, party, clique or family.  It belonged to those who exercised power, held it and also understood how to use it.

For Arun Jaitley, Law Was an Intellectual Passion

As law and finance minister, Jaitley was a rare politician with whom one could fearlessly disagree.

Lawyers are often fond of repeating ‘howsoever high you may be, the law is above you’. For Arun Jaitley, the law was certainly above him. When he was finance minister, customs officials at Delhi airport seized his luggage suspecting that some medical devices were contraband. The officials were not punished for their actions, as one might have expected of a powerful politician in an imperfect rule of law state such as ours. Instead, he complied with the directions issued and ultimately commended the officials for doing their job.

But the law was also in him – his speeches in parliament, amid the din and disruption, were always structured, logical and reasoned. As a senior advocate, his ability to turn a case by startlingly simple and effective legal analysis was unparalleled. Above all, whether as lawyer or politician, the law was his first love. From stories about his father and his ilk of trial lawyers in Punjab who couldn’t pronounce dates in English to the finer nuances of constitutional law, Arun Jaitley loved the law and the courts like few did.

This became clear to me when I met him for the first time. It was the summer of 2009, and I took a train ride with him from London Paddington to Oxford. To my horror, London Paddington resembled Howrah station that afternoon, owing to a power outage on the Great Western Rail network. Jaitley and I scrambled to find two seats in a train that barely had standing room.

Also Read: The Arun Jaitley I Knew

In this chaos, he remained unperturbed. The Indian parliament was then struggling with the nuclear liability Bill and he was animated about an arcane question of international law: whether the treaty which the US was eager for India to sign as a precondition for nuclear supply allowed wiggle room to the parliament to remain sensitive to the plight of victims of a nuclear accident by allowing them to sue the nuclear supplier. Having lived through the detritus of the Bhopal gas leak, as a lawyer and a young politician, Jaitley had his heart in the right place. But the answer had to be in the four corners of the law. The melee of Paddington was merely background noise while the course of Indian law was being shaped.

The law was not only an intellectual passion for him. It was the stuff of friendly banter. He regaled all comers with stories about how a certain judge was an unstoppable force of nature in their shared student days in Delhi University; another lawyer who could barely make ends meet in the profession but thrived as a judge; and how several judges knew the law, while several others knew the law minister!

Finance minister Arun Jaitley stands outside his office at North Block holding the briefcase containing the Union budget for 2017. PTI Photo: Vijay Verma

A man with whom you could disagree

As law and finance minister, he was a rare politician with whom one could fearlessly disagree. Whether it was the slapping of sedition charges on a few activists and whether the Supreme Court ought to have struck down personal laws for violating the Constitution in Sabarimala, he had firm views but firmer respect for others like myself, who sometimes disagreed with him. Neither did it affect personal relations, nor did it cause him any insecurity. Much of this explains why he was loved across the political spectrum.

With his death, the era of the politician who is not just respected but loved across the aisle has come very close to its end. But if his passing is to be a reminder of the values he stood for and cherished through his life, three things stand out for me.

First, he always remembered where he came from. His family were refugees of the Partition, who came to Delhi and started afresh. Despite climbing to the very top of the legal profession, he remained rooted in the beginnings that made him.

Second, that the currents of the country are much bigger than us. In the egotistical world of the rich and powerful, Jaitley always put the country first. And once the country was put first, he spoke the truth boldly, even if it hurt. That might have sometimes made him unpopular in his party, in parliament and amongst his friends in the media, but that was a price he was willing to pay.

Also Read: Arun Jaitley: The Insider Who Solved BJP’s ‘Image Problem’

Finally, that one can be personally successful while firmly standing for others. For all his achievements, as a statesman, finance minister, law minister, senior advocate, party leader, representative of India in various forums abroad, it was his kindness as a human that he will be remembered for.

This is beautifully summed up by his dear friend Mukul Rohatgi, who said to me on his passing: “Jaitley lived only for others. For me, he was instrumental in my appointment as attorney general. He lent a helping hand to countless people, in the profession or otherwise. His kindness spread like sunshine and gave warmth to many.”

When I had earlier asked Jaitley how he turned out to be so sensitive, unlike several of his battle-hardened colleagues, with a twinkle in his eye, he said that he belonged to the only institution in the country – the parliament – which was accountable to so many. He was being kind to parliament too, while never losing an opportunity to demonstrate his ready and ever-visible wit. That is the Arun Jaitley I will remember – twinkly eyes, a half-smile, making razor-sharp arguments that were beautiful in their simplicity.

Arghya Sengupta is research director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.
Views are personal.

The Arun Jaitley I Knew

Often gentle and ironic, Jaitley balanced his personal principles well with the pull of politics.

I can’t claim to know many senior BJP politicians well, but Arun Jaitley was perhaps the only one I could presume to call a friend. 

Even when I fell out of favour with his party – and it was clear I was boycotted at the behest of the prime minister – Arun maintained a line of contact. I would SMS him and he would always ring back. 

Many are the times I sought his advice, which he readily and unstintingly gave. On such occasions, he knew how to deftly handle my natural impetuousness. “Think about it overnight before you jump to do anything,” he would gently say.

He never outright contradicted what I planned but usually, a hint was sufficient. He was unfailingly right.

Few people know Arun arranged my infamous interview with Narendra Modi, when the latter was chief minister of Gujarat, in 2007. I had approached Modi several times but in vain. I then asked Arun for help and he immediately agreed. Within days, the interview was fixed. Had it not been for his intervention, it would probably never have happened.

Also Read: Arun Jaitley: The Insider Who Solved BJP’s ‘Image Problem’

The interview, unfortunately, ended badly. Modi walked out after barely three minutes and I don’t think he’s forgiven me. Arun, on the other hand, never held it against me. In fact, he didn’t even mention the subject. It made absolutely no difference to our relationship.

Years later, when I wrote about this in my book Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story, Arun rang to say he had read the chapter on Modi. “What did you make of it?” I asked. I feared his answer wouldn’t be approving. After all, he was now finance minister and Modi was prime minister. Things had significantly changed since 2007, whereas my account of the Modi interview was part of a bigger chapter about the way the BJP has boycotted me. It was sharply critical.

“You have every right to write as you want,” he softly but firmly replied. And then, after a little pause, added: “I wouldn’t really disagree with what you’ve said. Maybe a bit here and a bit there. But, by and large, you’ve been fair.”

BJP MP Locket Chatterjee pays tribute to Arun Jaitley. Photo: PTI

Standing by his principles

This was not the only time Arun stood by his principles rather than the pull of politics. In 2009, during the run-up to the elections, an interview with L.K. Advani, then leader of the opposition, was terminated shortly after it began. Arun manfully and willingly stepped into the breach. Advani, with whom at that time I had a damaged relationship, had agreed to the interview as a way of bridging relations. That didn’t happen. Relations, in fact, plummeted. But none of this put off Arun.

I rang and asked if he would give an interview in Advani’s place. Arun laughed. “You can’t help yourself, can you?” If that was reproach it was delivered with a feather touch. More importantly, he agreed. At ten that night, he gave the interview.

When it was over, he offered green tea and asked what had gone wrong. Arun loved a good story. None was so long he wouldn’t listen attentively. He heard me in silence but the smile on his face got wider and wider. When I finished, his pragmatic response was very reassuring: “It’ll blow over. It may take a while, but these things always do.”

Today, I can look back on 22 years of knowing Arun and as many years of hosting him on my shows. It started after the elections of 1996, during the United Front government when support for the BJP was building. In those years, I would often invite Arun and Kapil Sibal to debate each other. I have a photograph of the two of them beaming with me in the middle. They may have been political opponents and even legal rivals, yet they did not hide their respect. But it also did not stop them demolishing the other’s arguments! Indeed, they seemed to revel in doing so.

In those days, I made a point of writing thank you letters as soon as the recording was over. At the time, I didn’t realise in India such notes of thanks are not customary and, in fact, looked upon with suspicion. On receiving his, Arun would ring back and tease. “Do you have a set format for these letters? They always seem to say thank you in the same language and they come so promptly.”

Interviews and jousting

After he became a minister in Vajpayee’s government, a series of one-to-one interviews began. Many were not just tough but aggressive. I have a reputation for interrupting – occasionally unacceptably – and that was frequently the case. But Arun seemed to enjoy our jousting. He saw it as a game and knew that at least some part of it was to attract attention. And he always gave as good as he got. His voice might occasionally become tense or his face acquire a stern look, but he never lost his cool.

“That was a well-balanced match”, he would say after the interview had been broadcast. “I think we both came out of it pretty well.” That was flattery. I can’t deny he usually got the better of me. But he would always pretend it was otherwise. This was the gentleman in Arun.

Also Read: Arun Jaitley, BJP’s Man for All Seasons

During my Devil’s Advocate years for CNN-IBN, we started a tradition of inviting senior politicians to interview me as a New Year Special. It began with Arun. When I put the idea to him, he thought it might be fun. “So can I do to Karan Thapar what he does to everyone else?” he chortled. “Of course,” I promptly replied. “Good,” he said. I expected to be brutalised.

In fact, Arun was gentle and ironic. He chose to draw me out rather than push me into a corner. He made me expansive, not defensive. Had he not been a politician, he would have made a great interviewer. I even pointed that out to him. “Well, I’m a lawyer. Getting people to talk is as much my trade as yours!”

Arun Jaitley with former PM A.B. Vajpayee. Photo: PTI

A way with words

I can’t say I got to know Arun intimately but, when he was leader of the opposition, he did come over a couple of times for dinner and was delighted when I invited him to meet the new king of Bhutan. On that occasion, he didn’t thrust himself forward but stood at one end of the room chatting to Montek Singh Ahluwalia. It was only when I realised he had not spoken to the king that I effected an introduction. His hesitation was markedly different from the other guests who virtually ‘gheraoed’ the king.

Arun had a way with words and a sense of humour that was winning. He admired turns of phrase that others probably would not even recognise. He believed the witty put down was more effective than harsh criticism. His speeches in parliament were often laced with humour or, even, satire. On such occasions, he would invariably ring and chat about it.

Once he became a minister, he was usually seen in kurta pyjama. However, whenever I saw him in a suit or jacket and tie, I would text to say how good he looked in western clothes. He would always call back with a suitable bon mot. After his kidney operation, when he lost a dramatic amount of weight, he told me he was able to fit into clothes which years earlier had ceased to fit. I could tell he was pleased.

For my 60th birthday, he gave me a present that he had chosen with great care. It was a Hermes tie of a colour I would never have picked myself. Yet it was one I had seen on many people and often thought of buying, but lacked the courage to do so. Arun got it for me.

He happened to be watching television the first time I wore it. I had barely walked out of the studio when he rang. “So, you approve of my taste?” he laughed. “I think this sort of plain dark colour shows up better under studio lights than a patterned tie.” He was spot on.

My last conversation with Arun was shortly after he wrote to Modi to say he could not be part of the new government. I texted my concern and a few hours later he rang. I won’t hide his voice was weaker than I have ever heard it. But his wit and gentle teasing were undimmed. He made light of his illness. Instead, he spoke about me and my programmes. I knew he was doing that deliberately and I admired him for it.

“Come and see me sometime,” he said before the call ended. I wish I had. I shall always regret not doing so.

Karan Thapar is a senior journalist and television commentator.