| Sunday , March 15 , 2015 |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150315/jsp/frontpage/story_8812.jsp#.VQT2A3yUeSo
The High Command gasp |
| RUCHIR JOSHI |
 As people settle down, fanning themselves with the programme, it's clear that, at the moment, the house believes the hot weather is finally here. Given the juicy line-up of speakers, the house also seems to believe they're in for a rollicking good time. Before the debate starts there are short, humorous videos about each person on stage. In the one about Victor Banerjee, who's moderating, we are reminded that he keeps greeting people by saying ' Hari Om'. The videos finish and Victorbabu smiles at the audience. ' Hari Om,' he says. As he lays out the timing rules, nine minutes max, two bells only, you notice that tonight's performers include three Banerjees, one non-Banerjee Bong and five sundry others, all men. In his opening remarks VB mentions this. He also tells the speakers not to take themselves too seriously. "We know what we think of you already, we know what your politics are, we'd like to see how you enjoy debating in a good-humoured way." Two of the speakers, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Sanjay Nirupam, will speak in Hindi. "Delightful," says VB, "since we Bengalis don't speak any Hindi." Ajay Maken of the Congress starts off the proceedings for the motion: What I interpret about this motion. Sum total of states = nation. Decentralisation of power. What I mean to say is, nation = states. He bravely goes back to his Congress party's victories in 2004 and 2009, trying to connect them somehow to this notion of devolving more power to the states. Then he licks his lips once and actually says it: "Congress needs to do away with High Command culture." The audience does collective intake of breath. Everyone on stage looks at Maken as if he's just jumped out of an airplane without any obvious parachute. Maken goes on a bit more about national parties needing to connect to the ground reality of their regional party wings but no one's paying attention, everyone's waiting for Maken's phone to ring and the screen to flash "Madam" or "RG". Abhishek Banerjee of the Trinamul is up next, speaking against the motion, i.e arguing that in no way is the state more important than the nation. Victor B verbally pats him on the head - you're the Simba of the Trinamul, we'll crown you later, go ahead. Abhishek ignores this obvious reading of the obvious future and begins. "Ironically, all of you are my seniors." At which, Babul Supriyo, on the other side, shakes his head. Abhishek sprinkles some cliche cologne on himself and continues. The nation is important because. Then he stops as if he's driven into a blind alley and reverses and starts again. There was a man, the leader of a country, who got a suit made. We in the audience think "Ah, yes, c'mon you Bengal Lion Cub!" All over the suit was written his own name, can you believe it? "Ah, he's going for the big one straight away!" More description of suit and then - I am not talking about any Indian politician but about Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, which is a large country. As Abhishek steps back from making a full swing of the bat he gets confused again - another blind alley, again back gearmaaro! And then he goes into political rally rant mode. It's clear he hasn't got the memo about not taking himself too seriously, nor about sticking to the time limit. Big Banerjee finally puts a stop to Small Banerjee after the fourth bell and replaces him with BJP's Babul Supriyo from the opposition. Babul is wearing distressed jeans and a white jacket. He refers to Abhishek's reference to The Suit - "talking about suit of honourable PM" - and says he's wearing a white jacket today because he wants peace. He points out that there is a marriage between the state and the Union ( a gana bibaho) and the public does not want its two parents to fight. They want the state and the Centre to stay married and produce babies. He points out that the money now being given to the states (by Mr Suit's government, presumably; though he doesn't call him that, he calls him Shri Narendra Modi- ji) has gone up from 32 per cent to 42 per cent. Then, from a marriage, he turns the governing structure of the country into a three-tier compartment, the Centre on top, the state in the middle berth, panchayat and urban local bodies at the bottom; at night the Centre and the state can be on top, but in daytime they have to come down and sit with the bottom-berthers. The Calcutta Club audience, clearly feeling nostalgia for three-tier train travel, gives this a big hand. Babul hopes honourable Mamata Banerjee- ji will appreciate this. Then, being from the area of culture, Babul-ji concludes by quoting Robert Frost. No not those lines, at least not immediately, but from the same poem, but changing the image of watching the neighbour's woods filling up with snow to filling up with fire, because in India that's what we have. Sanjay Nirupam gives the better of the two Hindi speeches on the evening, his Hindi now clearly influenced by Marathi, breaking each syllable apart like a bar of Kit-Kat. He is akattar-deshbhakt. Mamata- didi is not so Left of centre either but she had to out the CPM on FDI so she put state politics before country's needs. He believes in a strong Centre because he doesn't want a single hair of the precious nation to be hurt. Reasonable, professional, veteran, succinct, Nirupam-ji leaves immediately because he has a flight to catch. Leaving us in the arms of the final Banerjee, Ritabrata of the CPM. The burden of Comrade RB's song is that there is a unity of opposites, that Marx had spoken of the wealthy not only controlling the means of production but also the means of expression. That there is a shining India but also a suffering India and, like whatever, the Centre and states needed to sort this out.  The Calcutta Club-The Telegraph National Debate, presented by the Camellia Group, on the Calcutta Club lawns on Saturday. Picture by Amit Datta Say what you like, but something there is, in the classic debate format, that loves a well-trained Baba- log. Omar Abdullah comes on, speaks almost exactly within the time-limit, his arguments are cogent and follow from one another; he mixes personal anecdote and humour, but always in the aid of his argument; he addresses the other speakers' speeches; he agrees with Ritabrata B that the consequences of a "strong" Centre derailing the Kashmir state government in the early 1980s led to tragic repercussions; he urges Ajay Maken to work towards dismantling the Congress hierarchy; he points out that so-called "weak" central governments were the ones that gave us liberalisation, Pokhran 2, the Kargil victory and the US nuclear deal. His argument is clear: strong state governments will ensure a strong country whereas a strong-arming central government will guarantee the opposite. In other words, Jashn-e-Federalism. Sidharth Nath Singh, Lal Bahadur Shastri's grandson, jamai of Bengal and the BJP's satrap-in-charge of Waste Bungle comes across as a nice guy but the speech is less than scintillating. He waffles, he meanders, he sprays more cliche cologne - one is waiting to hear someone use the inevitable phrase, "august company", and on this slightly sultryfying March evening Shri Singh- ji comes through. Then: politics = things to do with the governance of an area. Unity, on the other hand, bigger than this, a culture, in fact. Call it Bhartiyata, Indianness or Hindutva, Sidharth-ji doesn't mind, all are equal. In the town of Banerjee- ji, S.N. Singh sahab refers to our first home minister as Sardar Patel- ji and, for some reason, that "ji" really thorns into the ear. Gandhiji, Panditji, Netaji, all correct, but Sardar was always Sardar, Sardar Patel, or Vallabh-bhai. No matter, the voting is somewhat chaotic. Abhishek B feels he's not happy with the summing up, either by Sidharth Nath- ji on his side or Omar-ji on the other, so he takes the mike again to make some points and to do some political mud-slinging, since he hadn't known when speaking that that's what the others would be doing. He challenges Babul Supriyo to resign from Parliament on the basis of a light joke Supriyo-ji has made following Junior Banerjee-ji's first contribution. Victor- ji asks Junior-ji not to take things so seriously. The audience votes on the motion. It's a close run thing. Maken's earth-shaking suggestion to his party makes no difference; Babul Supriyo's white suit brings no peace; Marx- ji's sayings and Omar Abdullah's deft debating don't make a dent. Marriages conducted in three-tier carriages be damned, and let the scandal of the Centre heavily squeezing J&K's discretionary budget be flung into the Dal Lake, Calcutta Club wants a strong Centre and it wants it now, ji, this very evening. |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150315/jsp/frontpage/story_8812.jsp#.VQT2A3yUeSo