Of ripe minds & thoughts

Ambika Sharma

Advertisement

On the second day of the 7th edition of the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival being held in Kasauli, sharing his experiences as a television journalist, Karan Thapar threw light on the the lesser-known side of political reporting. He also talked about the incidents that inspired him to pen down Devil’s Advocate in an interactive session with Congress politician Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Having interviewed renowned political figures like LK Advani, Narendra Modi  as well as Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, he shared interesting stories with the eager audience.

Classy Tharoor 

The day also saw Shashi Tharoor, Congress spokesman, elucidating   on his book Why I am a Hindu in a session with Rajiv Mehrotra. His upcoming book on the paradoxical Prime Minister also came in for discussion. Tharoor said contrary to his belief, the major criticism for his book Why I am a Hindu came from the left wing rather than the RSS, as had been expected.

Taking up the queries of the audience later, he vouched for his party’s victory in the next year general elections and said, “The government of the day has served the nation so badly that it doesn’t deserve a second innings. Several disasters like demonetisation, irresponsibly raising fuel taxes to absurdly high levels and more, they have gone wrong.” “The character of the nation is being changed to a horrendous level,” he lamented and added that the Rafale deal is a scam thousand times larger than Bofors. 

Sidhu unplugged

Navjot Sidhu, Punjab Cabinet Minister, added the much-needed humour to the festival in his talk on Believe to Achieve, after a series of serious discussions on issues plaguing the government. Sindhu recalled his experience of hitting 42 sixes in a World Cup and the hard work that went into making him a cricket star.

While dwelling on the highs and lows in his life, he said it was appalling to note that there was a   crisis of character today and the people didn’t trust politicians. He also spoke at length about his famous ‘Sidhuisms’ and the criticism it drew, but said one’s thoughts will become one’s deeds and deeds become one’s habits, while the habits define one’s destiny. He said a leader doesn’t make others believe in him but he makes the people believe in themselves.