Coalition of regional parties is what India needs

Watching Arvind Kejriwal’s speech at Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds shortly after he was sworn in as chief minister, I was glad he tempered the overenthusiasm and too-keen ambition of some of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) colleagues. Running a government in Delhi was his priority, he said. He cautioned against any “arrogant” attempt to expand the party’s footprint and contest elections in several other states.

The following weeks have seen the debate and discussion in the party go in quite unexpected directions. Kejriwal and his rivals in AAP have fought a very public battle. While this is entirely their business and I have no desire to intervene, in many ways it has reflected the evolution and the waking up of a clubby social movement into the hard reality of politics and managing public expectations.

Winning an election is an exhilarating moment. It can also be very scary. The weight of the mandate can make the winner apprehensive. After winning 67 seats in a 70-member assembly, Kejriwal realised the time for loud thinking and television debates was over. The voter had given him a huge mandate, but expected results. The voter wanted him to govern Delhi, and govern it well. That was the first and last message of that mandate. I think Kejriwal realised this before some others in his party did, and some of the problem flows from there.

If one considers the long-term trends in Indian politics, May 2014 was an aberration caused by the Modi team’s ultra-expensive, ultra-macho publicity campaign and by public anger with the UPA government. The Delhi victory by AAP has brought back focus on regional parties. AAP is a strong regional party in Delhi. Regional forces that are hostile to the Congress and the BJP are beginning to regroup in Bihar as well. Elections are due there in a few months.

Taking a regional party national and building an all-India constituency is not just difficult, it is near impossible. Modi’s achievement in May 2014 was a freak, and normality is being restored. AAP is not going to find it easy to expand its base. Politics in different states and regions varies. Political and social conditions, language and culture, modes of mobilisation, all vary. When AAP contested four Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in 2014, it won a grand total of 12,000 votes.

It is the same with other parties. Nitish Kumar and Laloo Yadav are powerful in Bihar but have failed to make an impact in other states, from Bengal to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat. Trinamool has been in existence since 1998. Despite attempting to tap into the Bengali-speaking population in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and other neighbouring states, we have not succeeded. We had an MLA in Arunachal Pradesh but he joined us from another party. It was only in Manipur that we managed to grow organically and are today the leading opposition party in the state assembly.

Having thrown in those caveats, I hope AAP succeeds in government. I so want it to. This will give the people of Delhi a chance to compare the BJP’s empty promises with the delivery of a grassroots party, embedded in the gullies and mohallasof the city.

In time, regional parties, representing the aspirations, interests and genuine popular sentiment of their states, and free of the arrogance of the Congress and the BJP – and the smugness of the drawing-room ideologues of the Communists – will need to band together and give India a genuine alternative to the current ruling order. That coalition, so representative of the coalitional nature of Indian society itself, will truly be what India needs.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament from Bengal
Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party Leader (Rajya Sabha) & Chief National Spokesperson

Trinamool doesn't want government meddling in land deals between industry and farmer

There's a delightful phrase of Persian origin called 'noora kushti'. It denotes a fixed fight ­ two people pretending to wrestle and fool spectators. The so-called tussle between the BJP-led government and Congress over the bill seeking to amend the land acquisition law is a first-rate example of noora kushti. Neither party is serious. Both are taking pro forma positions.

That is why Trinamool Congress opposed Congress' land acquisition law of 2013 and will oppose BJP's amendment bill this year. We are not doing this because we are determinedly oppositional. In fact our criticism of both the existing law and the new bill is consistent with our approach since at least 2006. TMC has lived up to its name: Truly Most Consistent.

What happened in 2006? The CPI(M) government then ruling West Bengal sought to forcibly acquire fertile, multicrop land from farmers in Singur for a car plant. Unwilling farmers were beaten up by CPI(M) cadre, backed by police muscle. In a shocking incident, a protesting farmer's daughter was raped and killed.

That episode shook Bengal's conscience. Mamata Banerjee, the leader of Trinamool, went on a marathon 26-day fast that attracted national attention. It embarrassed the CPI(M) government as well as UPA-1 in Delhi.

Matters were compounded in March 2007 when the CPI(M) government responded to similar farmer protests in Nandigram ­ location of another `land acquisition' scam ­by firing on innocent citizens. Eventually, the oppressive state machinery had to surrender to the moral authority of farmers and the just cause espoused by Mamata.

It was a historic moment. The issue of forcible land acquisition and need for a modern and fair law and mechanism to transfer agricultural land for industrial use had come to the fore. This was Mamata's contribution.

What was the prevailing situation? Land acquisition was governed by a colonial-era law dating back to 1894. This law had been drafted by the British to forcibly acquire land for `public purposes' ­ railway tracks, army cantonments, greenfield cities such as New Delhi. Free India's governments had retained this law, but used it even more dishonestly.

State governments were routinely acquiring land for a `public purpose' and then selling that land, at a handsome profit, to private companies. In some cases the land was handed over virtually free. The businessman and the government (or an individual set of politicians and crony capitalists) made windfall gains. The farmer got only a pittance. He lost his one asset ­ his precious, ancestral land ­ and was left to fend for himself and his family .

The logic applied was that of eminent domain, that the state had the right to acquire any property for a larger public or national purpose. One can understand the principle of eminent domain being applied to build a public hospital or a highway, but how does it become applicable in case of shopping malls, automobile plants, BPOs and other facilities owned and run by private enterprise?

Industry requires many 'factors of production', to borrow an expression from my Marxist friends. It needs land, water, raw material, labour, transport and logistics. In most of these government doesn't interfere. It does not seek to forcibly or cheaply acquire raw material or feedstock for an aluminium plant or a petrochemicals unit. It leaves this to the market, and to negotiation between buyer and seller, irrespective of the price.

Why can't this be done in the case of land as well? That is the simple question Trinamool asked in 2006, repeated in 2013 and is iterating in 2015. Congress failed to answer it and BJP ignores it too.

It is not a matter of x per cent or y per cent of a farming community agreeing to sell individual parcels of land. Let the industrialist negotiate and get the concurrence of 100% of farming families the land of whom he believes he needs. Let this be a clear negotiation between buyer and empowered farmer.Why should the state intervene?

Do farmers have the capacity to negotiate with industry? Perhaps all don't; that is true. Some guidance, whether from government or civil society, could be provided, but let the farmer decide for himself. And if the 100th farmer gets more for his land than the 17th ­simply because he holds out longer ­ then let the industrialist deal with it. When cement is in short supply the same industrialist is willing to pay higher prices, isn't he?

Maybe some farmers would want cash up-front. Maybe other farmers would want a staggered deal, and equity in the factory or facility being constructed. Let the onus of structuring different arrangements and giving the farmer a choice be on industry. Why should the government play fairy godmother?

As a pre-requisite for a land law and a genuine land market, India needs a rigorous and detailed map of its entire land area. Such a map should be easily accessible, including online. Also helpful would be an estimate of rust-belt land or factory land that is lying unused or is enmeshed in legal cases. How can this land be unlocked? Can we have some answers please?

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament from Bengal
Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party Leader (Rajya Sabha) & Chief National Spokesperson

We support progressive legislation, not the Land Bill which is draconian

Friends are asking if the Trinamool Congress is both batting and bowling in the same innings of the match in Parliament. Why did we support the Mines and Minerals Bill in Parliament, but strongly oppose the Land Acquisition Bill that seeks to amend the Act of 2013. Actually, we have been consistent. When a law is progressive and states-friendly, we will back it, irrespective of whether the law is framed by a BJP government or a Congress government.

In the case of the Mines and Minerals Bill, we were satisfied that suggestions made by Trinamool in the select committee were incorporated in the final draft. There were several parameters Trinamool used to judge the Bill.

First, local communities were invited as partners in development. Trinamool urged the government to facilitate the setting up of a District Mineral Foundation by state governments. This Foundation would incorporate tribal communities in the mining region and undo their sense of alienation and exploitation. The onus of the composition of the Foundation has been left to the state government. States have also been empowered to set up special courts for quick settlement for mining disputes.

Second, mining makes for windfall gains. It is important to retain these in the country, the state and the community. Here again the Trinamool government’s experience in West Bengal has proved a great learning. Using e-governance we have increased revenues by 87 per cent in the past three years. As such, we welcome the concept of e-auctions.

Of course, there is more that needs to be done. We have recommended that the rules that will complement the Bill should put in place a modern regulatory process for environmentally-friendly mining. We cannot repeat the mistakes of China. The need to bring in scientific and best-in-class technology practices and procedures for mining, using the mechanism of the National Mineral Exploration Trust, is also critical.

It is for these reasons that we supported the Mines and Minerals Bill. The amendments to the Land Acquisition Act are another matter. They make a bad act worse. Trinamool had steadfastly opposed the UPA’s land acquisition law. Now the NDA, by rushing through with an ordinance and refusing to let Parliament deliberate, debate and decide before such trigger-happy action, is making things that much more difficult for farmers and actual users and owners of the land.

The UPA law institutionalised rent-seeking – in the form of giving a blanket mandate, for change of land-use to government authorities. This one completely chips away at the farmer’s ability to make an informed and voluntary choice. The NDA government’s ordinance on the land acquisition law – now set to be re-issued after flagrantly ignoring the sentiments of Parliament and suddenly and unconscionably proroguing the Rajya Sabha – is draconian. It virtually legitimises forcible acquisition of land.

Trinamool will oppose this with all its might.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament from Bengal
Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party Leader (Rajya Sabha) & Chief National Spokesperson

My top ten speeches this Budget Session in Parliament

Parliament is a great place to contemplate, deliberate and legislate.

During the Budget Session of Parliament, I received many opportunities to raise concerns on meaningful subjects.

Here are the links to videos and transcripts.

•    We scorn the codfish, the loudmouth hen we praise | Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address

•    Insult to Mother Teresa is an insult to all Bharat Ratna awardees

•    Trinamool is consistent in opposing the land acquisition law. Now NDA Govt is making a bad law worse.

•    Discussion on Budget (Railways) 2015-2016

•    Bigger crime in Maharashtra to eat beef than to sexually harass someone

•    On Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015

•    Trinamool supports Mines/Minerals Amendment Bill but warns against "Land Mine Bill"

•    Questions/suggestions to the Minister of Women & Child Development

•    Zero Hour Mention on the ghastly incident involving a 72 year old nun at ‪‎Ranaghat‬

•    What is the definition of a communal incident? | Question on communal incidents in the country

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament from Bengal
Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party Leader (Rajya Sabha) & Chief National Spokesperson

Banning beef goes beyond religious connotations

When I mentioned it to him, a well-meaning political friend urged me not to touch the subject or write about it. “Beef is a sensitive issue,” he said, “it has religious connotations. And you are a Christian…”

I thought about it but decided to go ahead anyway. The manner in which the BJP-led government in Maharashtra has banned the cutting, eating and very possession of beef is disturbing. And to me, it is not a religious issue but a broader social and economic one – linked to the liberalism that is the bedrock of our Constitution.

Beef is a cheap meat. It is often called the “poor man's protein”. In Maharashtra it is eaten by Muslims and Christians, and by some Dalit communities that do not belong to religious minorities. As a magnet for economic migrants from across India, the Mumbai-Pune region is also home to many from the Northeast who consume beef.

By banning beef in such a draconian and absolutist fashion, the state government will only drive up prices of other meats. This will have an inflationary impact and will raise household food bills. It will affect livelihoods of traders and butchers who deal with bovine meat.

The decision is impulsive and political and has not considered the impact on agriculture and on the Maharashtra farmer. There are long-standing agrarian problems in the state. One of these is a whopping 61 per cent shortage in fodder, if one compares fodder required for livestock, largely cows and buffaloes, against what is available. With the ban, this fodder shortage will worsen. It will push up input costs for farmers.

Lastly, there is my concern about perceptions and inclusiveness. India is a ‘live and let live’ society. Beef is forbidden among most Hindus and the cow is held sacred. I respect that and am certainly not asking for beef to be served at state banquets or in the Parliament canteen. But to ban its use and consumption even in the privacy of a citizen’s home and kitchen?

It strikes me as odd that I can walk into a supermarket in Dubai – which is not a democracy and not a model for Indian society – enter a sub-section of the meats area and buy pork, which is forbidden in Islam. I have seen simple signs outside such demarcated areas that say: “Pork and pork products: For non-Muslims only”.

Can we not imagine something similar for beef in India? Do bans like this serve any purpose other than simply putting off some people – and contravening the spirit of the Constitution, as the BJP-led government in Mumbai is doing, even without amending it? The pursuit of an agenda of religious divisiveness does not start with grand pronouncements. It starts with relatively small events like these.

That is why I decided to write this piece. I plan to iterate its contents this week in the Rajya Sabha. I hope the Chairman gives me permission.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Leader in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, All India Trinamool Congress

By using ordinances the government is mocking Parliament

After President Pranab Mukherjee, it is now Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan who has cautioned against the repeated and knee-jerk use of ordinances. Speaking at a conference in Lucknow, she said, “Ordinances should be kept to the minimum as far as possible. They have a very limited life and need to be passed by Parliament to become a law.”

In recent days, the BJP-led government has sought to brazen it out and issue a series of ordinances. It is threatening to browbeat Parliament, even call repeated and frequent joint sessions of both Houses, to ram through Bills and legitimise its ordinances.

There are many well-qualified lawyers who serve in this government. I am sure they have done their homework and will reach a position that is legalistically correct and validated by technicalities. But is it validated by the larger morality of democracy? Law-making is not diktat; it is arrived at after a process of deliberation. It is the government’s job to either win enough allies and friends in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in an abysmally small majority. Or it is obligated to tailor and amend the draft Bill so that it reflects the hopes and aspirations of the majority of members of the House.

To seek this route is not heresy. Members of the Rajya Sabha reflect the legislative strength of state assemblies. As such, they are as representative of our federal structure as members of the Lok Sabha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came in promising a better deal for states and a more enlightened approach to federal relations. His over-reliance on ordinances, rejecting the misgivings of state governments and regional parties on key issues such as FDI in insurance and Land Ordinance, does not sit well with his commitment.

Consider the sequence of events. A slew of economic ordinances were promulgated at the end of December. The Winter Session had gone badly for the government. The political mood in the country had changed, with hotheads and bigots from the BJP’s sister organisations and wider ideological family resorting to wild, reckless and provocative actions that threatened social harmony in our country.

To top it all the business community, as well as ordinary people, from their different vantage positions, were beginning to wonder when this government would end its event-management series and get down to actually fixing the economy. Finally, the government was obliged to “do something” before President Barack Obama’s visit lest the BJP’s American associates feel unhappy.

The government responded with the ordinances and by spreading the propaganda that a handful of Bills, some of them objected to in the Rajya Sabha by opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress, were holding up economic development in the country. Was and is this a fair charge? Are new laws and legislative initiatives all that stand between India and high GDP growth?

There are so many things in the government’s domain – including appointment of chief executives to numerous public-sector undertakings, cleaning up the tax office, sorting out the non-performing assets and bad loans of banks, and so much else – that have nothing to do with parliamentary approval. Has the government shown urgency on these matters in the past eight months?

The ordinances have become a convenient and diversionary tool to hide all that the government itself has not achieved, and to mask its failures. Unfortunately, by taking to them so often and reducing them to a political statement rather than what they should be – an emergency provision granted by the Constitution, to be used with care – the government is mocking Parliament.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

Women shakti and the big TMC bypoll win

The recent by-elections in West Bengal, for the Bongaon parliamentary seat and the Krishnaganj assembly seat, resulted in big victories for the Trinamool Congress. They established the trend, evident in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and subsequent by-elections, that Trinamool remains the dominant party in the state. However, the CPI(M) is slipping rapidly from its second position and ceding ground to the BJP. Of course, both these parties are too far behind Trinamool for us to be seriously worried.

For me the story of the by-elections was about women’s power in politics. This is not just a reference to Mamata Banerjee, our stalwart leader, who has fought the onslaught of two successive governments at the Centre now and emerged vindicated, but also of our party’s culture of empowering women down the line.

Only 11 per cent of India’s MPs are women. The Women’s Reservation Bill proposes to take this number to 33.33 per cent. Trinamool already boasts of a 35.12 percentage representation for women in our parliamentary party. The lady who helped us cross this threshold was my colleague Mamatabala Thakur, who has just been elected from Bongaon.

The by-election was necessitated when our MP, Kapil Krishna Thakur, passed away in October 2014. A leading light of the Matua community, there were many contenders for his seat of Bongaon. His brother was a Trinamool MLA and minister in the state government. He resigned and joined the BJP, as did the brother’s son. Now both father and son were contenders for the BJP nomination and the son – nephew of the late Kapil Krishna Thakur – finally got the ticket.

Who would the Matua community back? Would it stay true to Trinamool or would it swing with that section of the Thakur family that had defected to the BJP? The decision was taken by Mamata Banerjee and the 95-year-old matriarch of the Matua community, Binapani Devi, the “Great Mother” of the Matua people, ageing but still sharp as a needle. Rather than back her son or grandson in the BJP – or even her second surviving son (Kapil Krishna Thakur’s other brother) – a new name was proposed: Mamatabala Thakur, the late Kapil Krishna Thakur’s wife.

The lady, a newcomer to politics but very aware of social and economic conditions and challenges among her constituents, won easily. The Matua community, which has its origins in a religious reform movement in erstwhile east Bengal, taught a few lessons in women’s shakti and in consistent, principled politics to city-slicker media honchos, who had all but announced a BJP victory.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

Time I stopped writing columns for ABP / The Telegraph

9 February, 2015

Mr. Aveek Sarkar
The Chief Editor
ABP Group
Kolkata


Dear Mr. Sarkar,


Goodbyes are never easy, but not answering to the call of one's conscience is even harder.

As you are aware I have been contributing three columns to the ABP Group for about 20 years now. These are Knowledge Darpan for Anandabazar Patrika and two quiz columns for Telekids and Graphiti, both supplements of The Telegraph.

All of these columns are apolitical and knowledge-based. I have enjoyed writing them and interacting with my young, enthusiastic and remarkable readers. Unfortunately, I have to stop.

Much as my readers are precious to me, the ABP Group's prejudices are making it impossible for me to continue. I wake up each morning to appalling, tendentious, biased and polemical reportage and commentary that seeks to sensationalise and misrepresent even the most basic facts and occurrences.

In this scenario, I have no choice but to cease writing for the ABP Group and its publications. I do this with a heavy heart, as I have had a long association with it. Unfortunately, the Group's current leadership and management is unequal to the rich, disinterested and intellectually honest legacy it had inherited.


Yours sincerely,

Derek O'Brien
Founder, Chairman and CEO
Derek O’Brien & Associates

Why Bengal was kept out of the Republic Day parade

All day several friends have called to ask why the West Bengal tableau was missing from the Republic Day parade in Delhi. The absence has particularly disappointed and hurt a lot of us because West Bengal had won the award for the best tableau in 2014.

There is a back-story to the missing tableau. Kanyashree is the flagship programme for the girl child in our state, and with good reason. Some 17.5 million people in West Bengal are adolescents aged between 10 and 19. Forty-eight per cent of these are girls. Many are poorly educated and in rural, poverty-stricken families seen as an economic burden and an extra mouth to feed. As a consequence, they are married off early, leading to teenage pregnancy and motherhood, and giving rise to a subsequent generation – the children of these adolescent mothers – who perpetuate the cycle of socio-economic challenges, including infant mortality and maternal ill-health.

Under Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress government has been determined to rectify this. That is why we launched the Kanyashree scheme to support and incentivise girls’ education and the postponement of marriage and thereby pregnancy. We also sought to empower girls, who could get educated up to an advanced level and then become economic contributors and earners.

Kanyashree not only supports families with girl children, it actually pushes them into educating their daughters and keeping them in school, without forcing them to drop out. For each year a girl spends in school her family is given Rs. 500. If a girl is still studying at the age of 18, whether in high school or college, her family is given Rs. 25,000, transferred straight to a bank account. This money can be used for higher education or can help at the time of the girl’s wedding, since weddings can be expensive in our society and can inconvenience ordinary parents. (It doesn’t give me much happiness making that last point, but it is a reality).

Kanyashree has progressed extremely well since its inauguration in October 2013. So far 900,000 girls have started receiving benefits and in 2015 another 700,000 girls are expected to be added. The programme has been appreciated by national and international agencies as a model for developing societies. UNICEF partners the West Bengal government in the roll-out of Kanyashree and the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has acknowledged the programme’s achievements.

We had planned to make Kanyashree and the girl child the theme of the West Bengal tableau at the Republic Day. It would have fitted well with the overall national message of encouraging and empowering women. The proposal was sent to the relevant Ministries and Departments in Delhi but was rejected. Many submissions were made, formal and informal, but it was to no avail.

Finally, we were resigned to missing out. It hurt and still hurts, but life has to go on. Only, I am left with a niggling question: were some people worried the focus on Kanyashree would have overshadowed another girl child related programme launched a few days ago… Never mind. There’s always next year.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

Respite for 4000 soldiers... happy to have played a very small role.

It was a weekend in early August and I found myself watching an NDTV programme anchored by Barkha Dutt. One of the studio guests was an articulate young lawyer called Navdeep Singh. He spoke about how pension claims of disabled soldiers, those who had lost limb or suffered injury in the service of India, were often contested by the Ministry of Defence. In fact 90 per cent of the legal cases being fought by the Ministry related to disabled soldiers and their pension claims.

I was left stunned by the figures and by the sheer insensitivity of our bureaucracy. The following morning I phoned Barkha and got Navdeep’s number. After a series of chats with him, I decided on a Special Mention on the issue in the Rajya Sabha on August 11, 2014. In the Mention, I criticised the “shallow pretexts” being used to deny disabled soldiers pensions.

In many cases, the timing of injuries was questioned.“Military Boards have also been rejecting diseases such as neurosis and schizophrenia for being ‘constitutional’ in nature,” I said, “and not aggravated by service conditions. In contrast, pension claims for such diseases are routinely allowed by medical boards of the Central Armed Police Forces under the Home Ministry. Even though the Supreme Court has rendered a series of judgments in favour of the soldiers’ claims, the Ministry of Defence has continued to file appeals against claims at all stages.”

The Income Tax Department does not go to the Supreme Court unless the claim amount exceeds Rs 25 lakh. In contrast, the Ministry of Defence hires top lawyers and takes its old soldiers to court for even a few thousand rupees. It is an unequal and unfair battle: “Most soldiers cannot afford the costs of protracted litigation and are forced to abandon their claims.”

I requested the defence minister to direct his civil servants to stop filing such frivolous cases. My Special Mention was appreciated by fellow MPs. As I realised, I was not the first to bring the subject to the notice of the House. A parliamentary colleague, Smriti Irani of the BJP, had already done so.

Over the next few months I continued to stay in touch with Navdeep and to be exercised by the cause of our disabled veterans. Unfortunately, the government took no action. On December 10, 2014, the Supreme Court dismissed en masse appeals filed by the Defence Ministry in pension-related matters. After this, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar issued a statement that the Ministry would not be taking forward appeals against old and disabled soldiers in 4,000 separate cases.

Frankly, the Supreme Court has left the Ministry with no choice. This is not a time for point scoring but I do wish the defence minister had made his statement before the court order. I also hope a precedent has been set and in future disabled soldiers, and old soldiers generally, will not have to go from courtroom to courtroom to get due pensions from a government, a system and a country they risked their lives protecting.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

House Games in Flannels

While in school, my sport of choice was football. I was a goalkeeper of some reckoning in local and club-level tournaments. The only reason I made it to the school cricket team (as wicket keeper) was that my friend was the team captain. For the past three years I have been keeping wickets for the Parliamentarians' XI. Every December, towards the end of the winter session, MPs play journalists in a 20-over game. The match is held in good cheer and for a good cause—children's health and fighting childhood diseases. The NGO Global Health Strategies organises an event around the game.

This time, the match was played on December 20, 2014, at the Delhi Public School ground on Mathura Road. The MPs' XI was a multi-party team, though Congress MPs, so visible in previous years, were missing. The Journalists' XI had more television professionals than those from print. Perhaps television journalists are physically fitter and simply run around more than a print journalist!

Batting first, the MPs' XI collapsed to 109 in the allotted 20 overs. Our star batsman in 2013, Mohammad Azharuddin, was not with us, having not been elected in the Lok Sabha polls. Navjot Sidhu was not there either, since he didn't contest the 2014 elections (though some say he did manage to stump his party in his former constituency, but that's another story). Sachin Tendulkar didn't show up. He scarcely makes it to the Rajya Sabha, so he couldn't really be expected to come for the MPs' cricket team.

One by one, all our stars failed, even Kirti Azad and our captain, Anurag Thakur, the two former cricketers in the MPs' XI. I was run out early, the fault of a mix-up with the non-striker, Dushyant Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal. The dynamic duo from the Biju Janata Dal, the movie star Siddhanta Mahapatra and Kalikesh Singh Deo, who had a glittering sports career in The Doon School, also scored poorly. It was left to Manoj Tiwari—not the Bengal and India cricketer but his namesake, the BJP MP from Delhi—to play a lone hand and keep our score respectable.

Chasing 110 in 20 overs shouldn't have been difficult but the Journalists' XI made heavy weather of it, losing six wickets before getting to their target. They suffered a shock after a brilliant run out, effected by a sharp throw from Thakur. For me, this was the moment of the match. It was very impressive fielding and an indicator of just how seriously the match was played. This was no exhibition game, but truly competitive.

On January 24, I am organising a match between MPs and Journalists in Kolkata, at the Calcutta Cricket & Football Club. I am proud to be a member of this club. Founded in 1792, it is the world's second-oldest cricket club, right after the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Our MPs' XI for January 24 will comprise both Bengal MPs and those from other states. I am looking forward to Kirti Azad, who is flying down to Kolkata for the game, hitting the ball out of the playing arena, onto the tramlines outside the club.

In the summer of 2015, an Indian MPs' XI is travelling to London for a cricket match against a British MPs' team. The dates have not been finalised but I expect this will be after the general elections in the United Kingdom in May. Let it be clarified, this is not some junket. The 'cricket tour' will coincide with an official trip being made by MPs in their professional capacity. I am excited about playing on English green. Of course, it would help if my Rajya Sabha colleague, the honourable Mr Tendulkar, were to take guard.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

The Big Apple's barometer

My wife lives in New York, and, over the years, I have got to know the city well. It is a useful barometer to judge the health of the world and of the American mood and economy. A visit in the winter of 2008-09, over the New Year and just weeks after the Lehman Brothers crash, is still in my memory. It had been only a few months since my previous visit, but the financial crisis had taken its toll. It was as if I were walking through another country. New Yorkers had lost that spring in their step.

I was in New York for a week this October and spent a lot of time thinking about the 2008-09 visit. The buzz and the atmosphere was quite a contrast to those times. It told me the US economy was recovering, that spring was back in the step—but there were some caveats.

In the US, everything is a marketing opportunity, even an economic crisis. In early 2009, I began to notice signs outside restaurants offering 'Recession Lunch', a discounted meal aimed at attracting customers who were staying away. At least two of five restaurants made such offers. Today, the 'Recession Lunch' signs have vanished. Normalcy is returning to the eating-out industry.

Five years ago, my wife's house help, a Colombian lady, began to bring her husband to the apartment on her weekly cleaning mission. He used to work for a moving and packing firm, but it had more or less shut down. There was no business. Bored and desolate, he accompanied his wife to keep himself occupied. We do not see the husband anymore. He is back at work with the same moving and packing company; the US economy is moving again, literally.

In 2008, I had spent long hours consoling a close friend who had lost his job at Lehman Brothers. He was distraught, middle-aged and out of job, with no sign of recovery. In the next 15 months, he changed four jobs. Today, he is settled into another job with a leading investment bank. The stability is back, so is the pay-cheque and the bonuses, even if these are not as generous as in the old days. Nevertheless, my friend works very long hours; he is out of the house from 7am to 9pm. He tells me the fear of losing another job and of another collapse gives him nightmares.

In 2008-09, I used to see too many 'For Sale' signs outside houses and properties. The housing market had plummeted. There was panic in the mortgage industry and distress sales were very common. Today, there are far fewer such signs. The number of distress sales has fallen as people are regaining control of their lives.

Ironically, they may not actually be buying homes. Anecdotal evidence in New York would suggest that even those people who can afford to put down a decent mortgage are preferring caution and staying on rent. There is apprehension of committing to a large mortgage and being sucked into another debt trap.

I am no economist. These are stray observations and pieces of information picked up during conversations. As such, my view is decidedly limited. Yet, a recovery is definitely on course in America. But, that sense of anxiety has still not gone away. For an entire generation of Americans, the survivors of September 2008, it may never.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

FDI in Insurance Bill? No, not so easy.

Few noticed but a remarkable and potentially far-reaching event happened late on Tuesday evening. A crucial meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Insurance Bill, scheduled for Wednesday, November 12, suddenly got called off. Somewhere, at some point, the government lost its nerve.

The Insurance Bill has an interesting history for the BJP. It sought to bulldoze it through Parliament in the Budget Session so that the prime minister had a lollypop to carry to America. The opposition, primarily the Trinamool Congress, the CPI(M), which have been consistent critics of the Insurance Bill, and the Congress and JDU, succeeded in checking the advance of the Bill, arresting the BJP’s unseemly hurry and taking the Bill to a select committee.

The government’s orders to BJP members of the select committee were to rush through with proceedings and get the Bill ready for the Winter Session, which begins on November 24. I’m a member of the select committee. We’ve already done about 10 meetings and there was an important one coming up on Wednesday. I can’t say more as I am not at liberty to reveal the workings of the select committee.

Meanwhile, jumping the gun and seeking to anticipate the recommendations of the select committee, members of this government have addressed economic conclaves and given assurances that the Insurance Bill will be passed in the Winter Session of Parliament.

But will it? The clue lies in the reason the meeting was cancelled. The BJP had three members in the 15-MP select committee: the chairperson, Chandan Mitra, and J.P. Naddaand Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The chairperson can vote only in case of a tie.

On Sunday, Nadda and Naqvi were made members of the Union ministry. With this they ceased to be members of the select committee. Hence the panicky cancellation of Wednesday’s meeting.

Two new members of the select committee will need to be appointed by the Rajya Sabha. This can only happen sometime after the House meets on November 24. Then the two new members will join the 13 previous members in debating and discussing the Insurance Bill. It is very unlikely this will conclude before Parliament ends the Winter Session on the eve of Christmas.

What then becomes of the government’s resolve to pass the Insurance Bill? My guess: Parliament will not be voting on the Insurance Bill this year. As for 2015, that’s another year and another battle. We’ll fight it when it comes.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

Brand Equity Quiz being put to bed

Those were the days of telephone operators. So Binny Kapur, the charming lady with the husky voice and the loud lipstick, my colleague for many years at Ogilvy, Kolkata, put the call through. It was Jug Suraiya, journalist, friend and spouse of my former boss, who had recently moved to Delhi. Jug had figured The Statesman was a ship rapidly sinking into the Hooghly and had opted to board the cruise liner docked in Delhi, The Times of India.

He came straight to the issue. “Derek, these TOI folks, actually The Economic Times team in Bangalore, have asked me to put together an advertising and marketing quiz for ad agencies in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai,” Jug deadpanned on the trunk call. “Bunny [Jug’s wife] and I told them point blank: Not me. Get in touch with this chap, my friend, Derek O’Brien in Kolkata. He’s your man… Oh and by the way, not free…  Charge the blighters your full fee.” That last bit was added almost in glee.

A few weeks, a couple of letters and half a dozen phone calls later we were all set to do the “Ad and Marketing Quiz” in the three southern cities. Dates were frozen: Chennai, okay. Hyderabad, okay… Oops. The date for the preliminary round in Bangalore clashed with the North Star Quiz (remember it?) I was committed to doing in another city.

Not a problem. The ET folks were comfortable with my father, Neil O’Brien, handling the opening day in Bangalore. The fees were fixed too: Rs 5,000 per show. (No, that’s not a typo. Those were my rates for a quiz show back in 1991!) As seasoned quizzers and a generation of corporate executives would have guessed by now, this is how the Brand Equity Quiz started.

Life has changed enormously in these past 23 years. Three years ago, I took a conscious decision to move away from live quiz shows. I had simply too much on my plate. So while I’m very involved in strategising, question setting, show design and backroom operations, the 2,400 live shows Derek O’Brien & Associates does every year are conducted by my able colleagues. The one quiz event for which I made an exception was the Brand Equity Quiz. This was special, it was very dear to my heart.

Now, close to its 25th birthday, the Brand Equity Quiz is being put to bed. It’s the company’s decision and I respect it. I can’t do the Brand Equity Quiz without Economic Times and Economic Times has promised it will not attempt to revive it without me. So maybe one day we’ll be back. For the moment, it’s time to say goodbye – and thank you for the memories.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

Electoral Reality of Bengal versus The BJP Hype

Ever the master of hype, the BJP is feeding news channels in Delhi that it is a “big force” in West Bengal. Innocent of ground realities in West Bengal, these channels are dutifully reporting this joke as a fact. What is the reality? Consider the two recent assembly by-elections in West Bengal, Chowringhee and Basirhat South. These took place in September and tested the limits of the BJP’s advance in the state.

When I was growing up, it was often said that Chowringhee was one of the Congress’ safest seats in the country. Located in the heart of Kolkata, it represented and still represents the urban core of our cosmopolitan state capital. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Congress led in the Chowringhee segment with 35,998 votes. Trinamool was close behind with 34,440 votes, the BJP had 29,503 and the CPI(M) 10,796.

The by-election numbers throw up an interesting contrast. The CPI(M) has declined still more, to 8,890 votes and finished fourth again. The Congress has slipped badly and declined to 23,317 votes, a loss of 12,600 votes or about 35 per cent of its Lok Sabha tally. The BJP has slipped to reach 23,984 votes and finish second. Trinamool ran away with the seat, getting 38,328 votes.

How Chowringhee voted is an indicator of the continued popularity of Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool in urban areas, particularly in the context of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election of summer 2015. It put paid to the BJP’s hopes of a spectacular show in the city. The party had invested a lot of hopes on Chowringhee. Amit Shah, BJP national president, had even cancelled a meeting in north Bengal to come for a canvassing event in Chowringhee.

In the end, it wasn’t enough. Not even the smear campaign run by a section of the media could shake the popular trust that Mamata Banerjee enjoys. In fact, it may have worked to her advantage.

Basirhat South too has not been a traditional Trinamool seat. It was won by a CPI(M) candidate in 2011. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP lost in the overall parliamentary constituency but led in the Basirhat South assembly segment by 32,000 votes. When the CPI(M) MLA died, and a by-election resulted, political analysts were predicting a BJP-CPI(M) fight.

We kept a low profile and picked Dipendu Biswas, a popular local boy and former captain of India’s football team, as our candidate. He campaigned hard and reduced the BJP’s lead to a mere 1,700 votes. The CPI(M), which had won the seat in 2011, ended up third. Seeing the response to Dipendu Biswas, in a typically emotional reaction Mamatadi announced him as Trinamool candidate for the 2016 assembly election. I must point out here that the winning BJP nominee was gracious in acknowledging Trinamool’s improved performance and our ability to cut the margin.

All in all, the battle for the opposition space is between the CPI(M) and the BJP. The 2016 West Bengal election has only one frontrunner: Trinamool. As for the television channels in Delhi, they can continue living in cloud-cuckoo land.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

The Black Money Fiasco

... The BJP has made a laughing stock of itself.

The higher they rise, the harder they fall. Narendra Modi’s crack communication strategy, which served him so well in the past few years and hyped and exaggerated his achievements in Gujarat to an extraordinary degree before the 2014 Lok Sabha election, suddenly seems to have deserted him.

Like Karna, his government cannot seem to recall the crucial mantras when it needs them most. With the black money fiasco, the government, so cocky and hubristic till the other day, has made a laughing stock of itself.

By taking over the black money case from the Finance Ministry and saying it will directly monitor the investigations, the Supreme Court has expressed a deep lack of confidence in the Modi regime. This has only confirmed that the government was not and is not serious about unearthing the truth about illegal funds lying abroad.

Note the government’s actions in the past few days. It began by mimicking its predecessor, the discredited UPA government, and refusing to release the names shared by foreign governments and agencies. Its excuse was exactly that of the previous government, an excuse the BJP had pooh-poohed while in opposition.

Then it said it would “leak” names, following that it said it would “share” some names. What finally appeared were three names of inconsequential businesspersons – with very little money in their bank accounts.Between the Congress and the BJP, the black money account-holders have been given ample time to withdraw their money and park it elsewhere.

Meanwhile the government began leaking names of rival politicians to “friendly journalists”, again following the very skulduggery and cloak-and-dagger use of the media that Modi had criticised with such venom and mocked as part of the so-called “Delhi culture”. Had the Supreme Court not come down so hard, in the coming weeks, more names would have been “revealed” to more “elite journalists” and “pseudo-secular news channels”. And chargesheets and convictions, or actual return of black money (promised in 100 days)? You thought the BJP was serious?

Read the feedback on Twitter. Modi’s biggest backers are cursing his government. What a communication and perception mess. And so quickly.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

Blessing the right to love: Pope Francis’ revolutionary attempts

[This article was carried by The Times Of India | Thursday, October 16, 2014]


I don’t discuss religion or wear it on my sleeve. It’s not part of my usual social interaction or professional and friendship choices. I’ve been married twice, both times to Hindus. Having said that, i’m a fairly devout Catholic.

I practise my religion in my own quiet way — going to Church every Sunday, praying for a minute in the morning and a minute at night, saying grace before and after meals, and fasting, as the devout do, on two days in the year: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

My religion has been unobtrusive and has never interfered in my daily life. Yet, i must confess three things about the Catholic Church have troubled me. First, it makes no allowance for the breakdown of a marriage, and for irreconcilable differences to come up in a couple. This is unrealistic. A divorced person cannot take communion in Church. Neither can the child of a divorced person or a live-in couple be baptised. The full blessing of the Church is denied to them.

Second, the Church’s views on abortion and contraception are too extreme. Finally, the Church’s position on gay and lesbian people has similarly been unfair, at least to my mind.

If these issues have troubled me, it is not because i see myself as any sort of a rebel. Rather they seem to contravene the freedom and liberty that Christ preached and that his work was all about. The Bible, at least the Bible as i was taught it by my grandmother years ago, tells us only the Lord can judge people. People cannot judge people.

For years i kept my opinions to myself, sharing them with only a few friends and family members but unwilling to rock the boat within the broader Catholic community. Now i find courage to do so from none else but the leader of the Catholic Church, the Pope himself.

In September, Pope Francis presided over an extraordinary wedding event in the Vatican. The 20 couples who got married by him included divorcees, live-in couples and out-of-wedlock parents. For me it was a very emotional and moving message from the Pope.

The Pope has summoned an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which is currently meeting in Rome. This is just the third such convening of the Synod in 50 years and it is discussing the Church’s attitude towards the modern family. The Vatican has released a preliminary document calling for the Church to welcome and accept those who have divorced and their children, as well as gay people and unmarried couples.

What Pope Francis is attempting is revolutionary. It is also essential, i feel, for the Church’s renewal and continued relevance to the millions who cherish it, and cherish an association with it, but cannot get themselves to agree with all its doctrinal principles. Indeed, other Christian orders have been quicker to coordinate their faith with modern lives and mores and the Catholic Church is making up for lost time.

There is a feeling that the Church is in a moment of dramatic transition, not unknown in its history but still worth taking note of. Pope Francis himself is from Argentina, the first Pope from the southern hemisphere and the first non-European Pope since the middle of the 8th century. In the years to come efforts of Pope Francis and the current Synod, as and when these reach fruition, could be considered even more far-reaching than deliberations of the Second Vatican Council, which began in 1962 and explored the relationship of the Church with the contemporary world.

It is useful to remember that the First Vatican Council had been summoned as far back as 1868 and for a century, the Church had neither approached nor addressed issues of renewal. Of the many changes Vatican II (as the Second Vatican Council came to be known) led to, the most important was the legitimisation of local and regional languages. It came to be belatedly recognised that all Catholics were no longer Latin speaking and not even European or aspiring to speak a classical European language.

Rather they were as diverse as human society — happy to follow their faith, worship as part of the Catholic Church, and still remain true to the mainstay culture and traditions of their society and country. In the larger scheme, Vatican II acknowledged that the days of European missionaries turning up in a distant land, disembarking from a boat, and preaching an alien, European way of life, had long ended.

If the Catholic faith had to survive, it had to make sense to adherents in their local contexts. In any case, Catho-lic communities such as those in Kerala are far older than European Catholicism.

I live in hope that the ongoing Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will bring the Church into conformity with 21st century society and the human instinct for individual freedom and choice as much as — or even to a greater extent than — Vatican II did. Vatican II recognised geographical and linguistic diversity. Today, the time has come to recognise and validate social and familial diversity.

That is why, this Sunday morning, when I go to Church, i will say a special prayer for the Pope and the Synod. The Lord bless them.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

[This article was carried by The Times Of India | Thursday, October 16, 2014]

Kolkata diaspora and its delusions

1. Did the writer spend a significant time of his or her early and formative years in Kolkata?

2. Was the writer educated in Kolkata in one of the city’s best-known and elite institutions of learning?

3. Is the writer an exile from Kolkata and West Bengal, pushed out during the wasted years of Communist rule (1977-2011) or in the tumult that immediately preceded it?

4. Is the writer now a distinguished professional, usually in the media, academia, literature or a related field?


The four questions above comprise my Kolkata Diaspora Test. If the answers to three of the four questions are “Yes”, I tend to take what the writer has put down – and it is usually a put down – about contemporary Kolkata with a bucketful of salt.

There is a type of person who once lived in Kolkata, now visits it for 10 days in a year – generally in the Christmas season and the final week of December – but travels the world parading himself or herself as a specialist on not just Kolkata as it once was but Kolkata as it still is and Kolkata as it must always be.

More often than not the person has no clue about contemporary reality in the city or of the immediate issue – controversy, protest, achievement, anything – that is exercising the city. Yet, the writer will happily churn out a series of indignant articles, essays or at least tweets.

It is not that these people are not talented or that I don’t respect them in another context. The best example I can think of is Swapan Dasgupta, the columnist in Delhi and a forceful voice for right-wing political opinion. I invariably disagree with Swapan and his politics but do admire his felicity of prose, his cogency of argument and his scholarship. Not everybody is this engaging. There are some also-rans in the Kolkata diaspora who do nothing but troll 24/7.

What is common to many of these folk is a complete absence of informed perspective about today’s Kolkata. Their views are shaped by what the afternoon copy of The Telegraph tells them or what headlines Anandabazar Patrika, in its whimsical and oh-so-dynamic wisdom, has chosen that morning.

If one were to believe a couple of tendentious papers and the diaspora intelligentsia that seems to be an important target audience for these papers, Kolkata is as broken as Berlin in 1945, there is an Afghanistan-style civil war on in West Bengal, and Amit Shah is about to come riding on a white horse to sweep the 2016 election. It is a make-believe world that exists largely because of Twitter and Facebook, and is exaggerated and magnified by re-tweets and Facebook 'likes'.

A recent episode that worked on similar lines was the unrest in Jadavpur University, where initial student anger, shaped by the perception of an incident, was deftly exploited. The facts of the case have come out now and the truth has emerged. It is very different from the horrific and morbid pictures that were being painted.

It is worth noting that social media unwittingly fanned the fires. This is especially so since many JU alumni, who are following fine careers in other cities and other countries, conflated news from the campus with happy memories of the idealism of their student days. They took strident positions – with Facebook posts and tweets and re-tweets – without knowing the situation on the ground.

Those raising revolutionary slogans on Facebook and Twitter, from distant locations in Gurgaon or the West Coast of America, need to embrace a few lessons. Such emotionalism from afar, such a sometimes misleading mix of nostalgia, the play of memory and political prejudice, can lead to perfectly rational people adopting outlandish stances.

This happens to so many Kolkata diaspora intellectuals, who answer “Yes” to at least three of the four questions posed at the beginning of my blog. It’s sad.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

Bengal Bypolls: Of frontrunners, crow and whine.

I haven’t been following the set of by-elections in different states and have no real inferences to draw from results elsewhere. My focus has been very much on West Bengal, which saw two assembly by-elections: Chowringhee and Basirhat South.

When I was growing up, it was often said that Chowringhee was one of the Congress’ safest seats in the country. Located in the heart of Kolkata, it represented and still represents the urban core of our cosmopolitan state capital. In the May 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Congress led in the Chowringhee segment with 35,998 votes. Trinamool was close behind with 34,440 votes, the BJP had 29,500 and the CPI(M) 10,000.

The by-election numbers today throw up an interesting contrast. The CPI(M) has declined still more, to 8,890 votes and finished fourth again. The Congress has slipped badly and declined to 23,317 votes, a loss of 7,000 votes or about 25 per cent of its Lok Sabha tally. The BJP has slipped to reach 23,984 votes and finish second. Trinamool ran away with the seat, getting 38,328 votes.

How Chowringhee voted is an indicator of the continued popularity of Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool in urban areas, particularly in the context of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election of Summer 2015. It put paid to the BJP’s hopes of a spectacular show in the city. The party had invested a lot of hopes on Chowringhee. Amit Shah, BJP national president, had even cancelled a meeting in north Bengal to come for a canvassing event in Chowringhee.

In the end, it wasn’t enough. Not even the smear campaign run by a section of the media could shake the popular trust that Mamata Banerjee enjoys. In fact, it may have worked to her advantage.

Basirhat South too has not been a traditional Trinamool seat. It was won by a CPI(M) candidate in 2011. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP lost in the overall parliamentary constituency but led in the Basirhat South assembly segment by 32,000 votes. When the CPI(M) MLA died, and a by-election resulted, political analysts were predicting a BJP-CPI(M) fight.

We kept a low profile and picked Dipendu Biswas, a popular local boy and former captain of India’s football team, as our candidate. He campaigned hard and reduced the BJP’s lead of 32,000 to a mere 1,700 votes. The CPI(M), which had won the seat in 2011, ended up third. Seeing the response to Dipendu Biswas, in a typically emotional reaction the party announced him as Trinamool candidate for the 2016 assembly election. I must point out here that the winning BJP nominee was gracious in acknowledging Trinamool’s improved performance and our ability to cut the margin.

All in all, there is now only a battle for the opposition space in Bengal. The 2016 West Bengal election has only one frontrunner: Trinamool. As for some media groups, they can eat crow. It would go well with their whine.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

The heart and soul of Derek O’Brien & Associates...

Today’s blog is a non-political one and dedicated to a bunch of fine men and women – my 60 colleagues at Derek O’Brien & Associates. They are the heart and soul of my company and have seen it through 25 years of ups and downs, and even a name change!

In the past few days, as political commitments and Parliament have kept me busy, my colleagues have been hard at work. They run 2,500 preliminary events at 1,200 schools across 45 cities for two of our flagship projects: the Vodafone Derek’s Faster, Smarter, Better Challenge and Derek’s YiPPee! Challenge in association with Oxford Bookstore.

Both are knowledge-based shows that test general awareness, soft skills, communication and team-building capabilities and generally seek to equip young boys and girls for the contemporary world. The first of these events is for senior children – classes VIII-XII. The second is for middle-school children – classes V-VII. In February 2015, I will conduct the final rounds of these events.

In the coming weeks, we will also be entering the final stages of the Bournvita Quiz Contest (BQC). An old Indian tradition, which began as a radio programme before migrating to television, the BQC has evolved over the years. The ground-level events are over, having been conducted by my colleagues in 80 cities – who have also researched and set the questions, with constant interaction with me.

In October, we will shoot the 14-episode Tamil version of the finals of the BQC for schools in Tamil Nadu. To be broadcast on Sun TV, this is a challenge for me as my Tamil is very basic. Fortunately, my co-anchor Nisha Krishnan, is an accomplished young lady who helps me out.

After that, we move to the all-India BQC. This year the BQC is set to make a quantum leap. From radio to television was an orbital jump; in 2014, another dramatic change, a world first (I think) awaits it. Do watch out for it. Hopefully my colleagues (with some help from me) will not let you down.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress