THE TELEGRAPH NATIONAL DEBATE
When people meet to debate audience listens .When stalwarts debate gods listen. Today i had the opportunity to experience such an oratory rhapsody at the telegraph national debate at Netaji indoor. The Telegraph National Debate has long been an iconic event in the city's cultural calender drawing the cream of Bengali intelligentsia to this war of words which has seen participation of some of the major celebs of India- from Big B to Aparna Sen to Pataudi (to name a few!). This year too the star quotient was maintained by Rahul Dravid and Mamata Banerjee who seems to be ubiquitous as the elections draw near.
The distinguished panelists divided into two groups of 4, debated on the topic - India will be better run If politicians are left out of the government. rooting for the motion were Suhel Seth, rahul Dravid, while opposing them were Joy Panda, salman Khurshid, Ram Guha and Mamata banerjee.
Suhel seth set the battlefield with his caustic sarcasm and vicious jives pointing out the need of people away from the parochial set-up in politics. The distinction of politics and politicians which was later taken up extensively by Joy Panda and Khurshid was also sown by Seth who won over the audience with pharases like " Politicians like marriage are a necessary evil."- an analogy which was again given a delightful fillip by khurshid.
Dr. Ramchandra Guha, a scholar of economics started out on alight note saying that politicians were indeed indispensible, otherwise R.k . Laxman would become insipid! But he went on to add serious content by pointing out that in an "unlikely democracy" like India Politicians were necessary to consolidate the country's unity. He however seemed steeped in History and lacked relevance to the present political scenario. ( A sin which teacher's at time do fall prey to.;-) ]
Mr. Dependable though initially seemed genuinely overawed by the erudition at display, held his ground firm voicing the need for performance being a yard-stick for selecting and retaining politicians.
A genuine surprise to me was Joy Panda. An MP from Orissa , he managed to grab the eyeballs with his excellent oration and logic. He brought forth the connection of democracy and politicians and put forth examples from history to establish his point. A fresh blood in Indian politics he seemed brimming with ideas and changes that he has envisioned. A fresh face and perspective were successful in swaying the audience towards his view.
Mr. Dipankar Gupta and Salman Khurshid both were vociferous with their thoughts and delightfully humerous. Mr gupta made a tongue-in-cheek start stating that he too craved to be a Bengali bhadralok but his profession ( a teacher in JNU) has reduced him to being a Hindusthani! He succeded in drawing one of the loudest applause from the crowd when he classified politicians into 3 classes- one who dream, one who plan and the last who scam.!
The best was however saved for the last as Ms. Mamata Banerjee took the stage.In her inimitable style she proceeded to take on the opposition and within minutes had convinced the crowd that she and she only was right! Rattling off sometimes in hindi, sometimes in bengali and the rest in benglish and hinglish she enthralled the audience witha mock smile on her lips. She spoke as a debater - we felt like attending a brigade rally and don't ask me who is to blame!! Her content had the smell of party manifesto yet the aroma of the soil. She spoke like the mass and drew the maximum applause (and even catcalls) from the general audience in the gallery than the Vip box.
Mamata was also an eye-opener in a very insecure area of today's youth - speaking english. this little lady here clad in a plain-jane sari was sharing the stage with some of the best orators of india. Yet she seemed at ease with her atrocious English which should anu primary school teacher in terms of its grammar and proninciation. S and sh were mistaken several times, singular became plural many a times and people become pepul frequently. Yet the audience glossed over all these, trapped by her intelligent alliteration and superbly confident presence reminding us the english-speaking phobiacs that the speaker counts, content counts. English? Naaaah...let the Queen worry about her former colony...
The distinguished panelists divided into two groups of 4, debated on the topic - India will be better run If politicians are left out of the government. rooting for the motion were Suhel Seth, rahul Dravid, while opposing them were Joy Panda, salman Khurshid, Ram Guha and Mamata banerjee.
Suhel seth set the battlefield with his caustic sarcasm and vicious jives pointing out the need of people away from the parochial set-up in politics. The distinction of politics and politicians which was later taken up extensively by Joy Panda and Khurshid was also sown by Seth who won over the audience with pharases like " Politicians like marriage are a necessary evil."- an analogy which was again given a delightful fillip by khurshid.
Dr. Ramchandra Guha, a scholar of economics started out on alight note saying that politicians were indeed indispensible, otherwise R.k . Laxman would become insipid! But he went on to add serious content by pointing out that in an "unlikely democracy" like India Politicians were necessary to consolidate the country's unity. He however seemed steeped in History and lacked relevance to the present political scenario. ( A sin which teacher's at time do fall prey to.;-) ]
Mr. Dependable though initially seemed genuinely overawed by the erudition at display, held his ground firm voicing the need for performance being a yard-stick for selecting and retaining politicians.
A genuine surprise to me was Joy Panda. An MP from Orissa , he managed to grab the eyeballs with his excellent oration and logic. He brought forth the connection of democracy and politicians and put forth examples from history to establish his point. A fresh blood in Indian politics he seemed brimming with ideas and changes that he has envisioned. A fresh face and perspective were successful in swaying the audience towards his view.
Mr. Dipankar Gupta and Salman Khurshid both were vociferous with their thoughts and delightfully humerous. Mr gupta made a tongue-in-cheek start stating that he too craved to be a Bengali bhadralok but his profession ( a teacher in JNU) has reduced him to being a Hindusthani! He succeded in drawing one of the loudest applause from the crowd when he classified politicians into 3 classes- one who dream, one who plan and the last who scam.!
The best was however saved for the last as Ms. Mamata Banerjee took the stage.In her inimitable style she proceeded to take on the opposition and within minutes had convinced the crowd that she and she only was right! Rattling off sometimes in hindi, sometimes in bengali and the rest in benglish and hinglish she enthralled the audience witha mock smile on her lips. She spoke as a debater - we felt like attending a brigade rally and don't ask me who is to blame!! Her content had the smell of party manifesto yet the aroma of the soil. She spoke like the mass and drew the maximum applause (and even catcalls) from the general audience in the gallery than the Vip box.
Mamata was also an eye-opener in a very insecure area of today's youth - speaking english. this little lady here clad in a plain-jane sari was sharing the stage with some of the best orators of india. Yet she seemed at ease with her atrocious English which should anu primary school teacher in terms of its grammar and proninciation. S and sh were mistaken several times, singular became plural many a times and people become pepul frequently. Yet the audience glossed over all these, trapped by her intelligent alliteration and superbly confident presence reminding us the english-speaking phobiacs that the speaker counts, content counts. English? Naaaah...let the Queen worry about her former colony...
Cheers,
SOUVIK..
Comments
Post a Comment