Two days before Narendra Modi’s visit.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: It was a small dinner gathering at a midtown Indian restaurant in Manhattan, organized by the Indian National Overseas Congress. Outside the room and the restaurant, the conversation at Indian gatherings and receptions was about Narendra Modi’s upcoming speech at the Madison Square Garden. Inside that banquet room at the restaurant though that evening, the audience waited in excitement for the star guest to arrive: Shashi Tharoor.
Tharoor looked his dapper, confident self when he strode into the room, got engulfed by fans and supporters. Some were dexterous enough to shake his hand and get a selfie at the same time. Most were content to stand next to him, wait for a camera to click that photo, chase the photographer down, and book a shot, to be cherished for a lifetime, framed on the walls of their house. Some just gazed at him in pure admiration from a distance.
Frank admission: I belong to the category of admirers of Tharoor. I would go out of the way to listen to him talk, become spell-bound each time by a man who delivers rhetoric like few others in the world.
Much before I became a fan of him as a diplomat, a speaker and a politician, I was an admirer of Tharoor the writer. I devoured all the fiction he wrote. It has always perplexed me, as to why would a brilliant writer like him, would pursue other goals, abandon a writing career. After all, what would the state of Indian fiction be like if the likes of Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh had given up writing to pursue other interests.
But Tharoor took on each new interest as a life-long career passion, seemed to relish every new goal he set for himself. When he entered politics, and then soon enough became a minister, it seemed here was a man who could become the prime minister of India one day, in a jiffy. But perhaps, that thought and fear must have crossed some senior Congress leaders too. And Tharoor’s downfall, his demotion began. But this story is not about Tharoor the politician. That’s for some other day. It’s about that September evening in New York, when he was the cynosure of all eyes inside that Indian restaurant.
Tharoor looked relaxed and happy that evening. He had good reasons to be so. He was in the midst of a crowd that he knew loved and admired him. He had some good friends present. Most importantly, both his sons were present too, with one of them bringing along his fiancée, whom Tharoor addressed in public as ‘my soon to be daughter-in-law.’
It seemed that Tharoor had perhaps gotten over the anguish of the recent tragic past, the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, had moved along, reconciled his life to the demands of the present. He made no affectation of being the bereaved husband. He smiled, and laughed, seemed to revel in the adulation. A couple of people I spoke to commented in private that Tharoor looked a “bit too happy”. The implication was obvious: Tharoor could be happy, but not overtly so. After all, he had lost his third wife, and the cause of her death remained suspicious.
In his impressive speech, Tharoor talked of many issues, the debacle faced by the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, praised and criticized Modi in equal measure, wished him well on his upcoming visit to the US, pointing out that Indo-US relations were above petty politics.
Some of his choice comments, which this reporter recorded:
On Narendra Modi:
“When it comes to Modi as the political leader it is a totally different matter and I think I have much less to say but I have a little more to say about some of the things that he has not done in that capacity.”
“The truth is that he is a good communicator. Let’s give him credit for that because he talks in a great way, especially Hindi and I believe Gujarati but I don’t know Gujarati but certainly he seizes the audience extremely effectively and as a result he has large crowd enthralled by his appearance in the TV in the rallies and on his visit to foreign countries. I think he is brilliantly stage managed. Curiously by the way in the same time despite being a great communicator India is witnessing a period of media management which has never been seen in the democratic India’s history.”
“At the same time his public speeches has been inspiring… But he talked about things like sanitation , about girls and gender equality, he talked about toilets which nobody ever thought a Prime Minister would ever talk standing in the Red Fort and these are important messages and I actually think it was a good thing that he did all of that.”
“There has been no divisive no hate speech, none of the kind of hostile and bluster that we used to hear from Modi during his the campaign trail. He hasn’t put a wrong foot; he has simply said the right things. But the Gap between the promise and the delivery, between the word and the action, between the commitment and action and this is what we and the Congress party have to watch. Because the public especially during this honeymoon period – the first year and the half or so, there is an uncritical reception I think every Indian Prime Minister after coming into office on an electoral mandate have all enjoyed their honeymoon time.”
“…he has talked about the very important message that given to the manufacturers during the Independence Day speech to make Zero defect products with Zero effects on the environment. Zero Defect Zero Effect, he has all these wonderful slogans. But Gujarat is a classic example where there was a great deal of manufacturing in the industry but there was this tremendous effect on the environment. In fact by every yard stick, official reports have been published, the single most polluted state in India is Gujarat.”
“He talks about the important of toilets, of sanitation. Very good. But is it enough for me to tell you that you should have a toilet. The state has a certain obligation a certain responsibility. Well the second worst record in the country is Gujarat. 66% of rural households in Gujarat have to practice open defecation. I am sure Mr. Modi made the same speech there for the last 12 years. And still there are 66% of people going out and having to go to the toilets in the open air. It is good to know the right thing to say, it is good to know the right message but we should have a track record of delivering our promises.”
“But the most important concern that I had was that we should have a prime minister who can unites the country and not divide it. As I said Mr. Modi himself so far cannot be blamed for what he may have has said and done though we can be critical about something that he failed to say. But what we have seen under his rule is that his party promoting irresponsible clamour for a Hindu state.”
On corruption:
“Corruption is a nationwide phenomenon that no particular party has either a monopoly on. If the same kind of Anna Hazare campaign and media exposure happened during the previous NDA government, when we had from the Coffingate of Kargil coffins to the Tehelka sting operation then may be it could have been their side that could have tarnished by corruption but, it so happened that we were in power and that became a major factor.”
On the Congress party:
“I have met many congress MPs who explained to me privately that the reason for their defeat was disloyalty within the party. Some people had their own aspirations, their own petty fashionable agendas who worked against the Congress candidates in places ranging from Assam to Karnataka…But that doesn’t seem that we are dead and the obituaries are slightly premature because the report of our demise are exaggerated. When we have fallen so low the only place that we can go is up and as they say it doesn’t matter how hard you fall what matters is how hard you bounce up like a good strong ball.”
Tharoor ended his speech with this punchline: “As Indians let us say that we are now circling Mars and landed on the Moon. We how have to get things right here on Earth.”
Then came the time for the interactive question and answer session, before dinner could commence. It’s the time when there is usually at least one ridiculous, absurd or embarrassing question which makes the speaker and the audience flinch alike. That evening, journalists like me present in the room waited for somebody to ask that question of Tharoor: are you happy with the investigation of Sunanda Pushkar’s death?
There were the silly and self-promotional questions, and some chiding by some of the INOC leaders later to some of the new members on their rude intrusions to get comments and questions in, but the session came to a close with not a single question related to the tragedy that had made national headlines in India.
Years ago, I had seen Tharoor read on stage from his book ‘Riot: A Love Story’ with the actress Shabana Azmi, in New York. That book revolved around the death of an idealistic American woman working in India and the mystery surrounding her death.
I almost asked the question of Pushkar’s death, but that evening as I saw Tharoor smile, look genuinely happy, his sons listening avidly to him, I couldn’t bring it on myself to spoil it for him and his family. I didn’t want to see him explaining his real-life perspective of how his wife had died, perhaps been murdered, like he did for his female character in ‘Riot’.
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar)