SHASHI THAROOR
Sat Nov. 3rd, 2007 @ ICC, Milpitas, CA
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Milpitas, California: The latest meeting of the newly named Indian American Council (IAC) was held on November 3rd at the ICC Mallavali , titled ‘ Meet sam and Shashi”, referring to Telecom pioneer Sam pitroda and former UN Undersecretary General and authir Shashi Tharoor. With many in the SF Bay area eagerly awaited to hear Sam Pitroda, who has not been very voluble recently, Shashi Tharoor is always a big draw with his articulkate commentary and also given the light of his presence and commentary as a diplomat and author on the stagnant US-India civilian Nuclear agreement. Unfortunately, Sam Pitroda was a no show because of his wife’s complications from an operation; disappointing many in the audience, however, Pitroda did make an appearance of sorts via a land line telephone. It was ironic that a pioneer in the Indian Telecom industry was saddled by a poor phone connection and technical hook up at the ICC auditorium. Unfortunately, even in Silcon Valley, with the presence of all technology giants, not even a simple web camera or webcast or video feed was hooked up, reducing Pitroda to a communicate via a recaptcle on the table with his voice barely audible. This was in marked contrast to the articulate and dashing Tharoor, who had the audience lapping up his every utterance, especially on the US-India Nuclear agreement Accompanied on stage by moderator Anil Kumar, director of McKinsey and Co., Tharoor was willing to speak on a wide ranging set of issues and even support Sam Pitroda’s effort to promote the IAC and articulate about India as a Knowledge economy. However, as expected, the 300 member NRI audience were quite interested in Tharoor’s take on the US India civilian Nuclear Agreement, especially as many NRI’s who had worked on bringing this agreement to the negotiating table by lobbying in the USA. Further several NRIS present expressed their feelings, “ as being felt let down and being kept in the dark” and “not shown any respect” by Government of India officials. Tharoor also based his talk on his recently published book on India, “The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone,” as he was spoke mostly upbeat about India’s current status and future in the World, although cautioning about several stepsthat need to be taken to make this a realization. Tharoor began by saying, “ India is an amazing place to be these days, there is a distinct air of confidence among the population and especially youth, that they will lead better life than their parents. And this is seen across the country in India”, although he qualified by saying a lot of work needs to be done in rural India. Speaking on the US –India Civilian Nuclear agreement, Tharoor acknowledged the good work done by many in the NRI community, and also observed that it was understandable in the recent aftermath of the faltering of the agreement that “the NRI community feel let down as they have been involved especially as many had invested considerable time, money and resources to get the agreement to the negotiating table.” Articulating his personal beliefs on the subject, he said, “ As an UN man, I am not a great fan of Nuclear weapons. But what ever our attitude has been, we know that, some countries have them, some would like to have them and some want to have them. This has affected the world and actually since India’s nuclear test in 1998, we still have 45 countries which still impose sanctions on India.” Tharoor observed that even today Indian scientists could not get visas to at least 45 countries as a result of thee sanctions, and reiterated that one of the best things about all the lobbying and attention leading to the agreement was that US had certified that indeed India was an exception as opposed to Pakistan, Iran and others- with never any record of proliferation, a stable civilian rule and a vibrant democracy.” The removal of India’s pariah state label in nuclear issue was the aftermath and a welcome sign indeed. Tharoor also revealed about a private meet with PM Manmohan Singh and high ranking officials in which they said, “If we were told that whatever agreement we came up, the Left opposition would be against it, then we wouldn’t have wasted our time.” Tharoor observed that as far as the Left parties are concerned, looks like any agreement with US would be unacceptable. Tharoor said that the future for India looks bright with India having the largest number of youth under the age of 35, so that the next 30 years, the India workforce will enter their most productive years. Contrasting with china, where one youth will have to support four grandfathers for the next 50 years, a result of their draconian 1 child per family law.” Again, sounding a not of caution Tharoor observed, “All this will work only if we can educate and employ these youth.” Striking a somber note, Tharoor spoke about the abject poverty that still exists in India, saying, “ India’s definition of poverty line is drawn just this side of the funeral pyre, with millions living on Rs 360 or 30 cents a month.” Issues of chronic hunger, malnutrition and ill health remain and the dichotomy exists of “ India producing the world’s largest pool of trained Engineers and professionals but again more kids in India not seen inside of a school than anywhere else in the world.” Answering questions from the audience mostly on the Nuclear agreement, Tharoor observed that there was a small window for the agreement to be revived in 2008, as the next year was also the year for US Presidential elections. A question posed by Ro Khanna, a failed candidate for US Congress, about the “seeming lack of respect and acknowledgement of NRI’s who had lobbied hard for the nuclear agreement”, resulted in a retort by Tharoor that while acknowledging the many contributions of Indian-Americans, it was advisable for the Indian-American community to make an impact in the US, rather than hope to make a mark in India. In couple of humorous anecdotes, Tharoor spoke on the changing image of Indians around the globe, pointing to the spread of the Bollywood culture to all confines of the globe; from the West to Middle East to villages in Africa, sans any translation. Tharoor also spoke of his friend who was accosted at an international airport by a man who pleaded, ‘ you are Indian, please fix my laptop”- a departure from the erstwhile stereotypical image of an Indian as a snake charmer or fortune teller indeed. Highlighting his latest book,”The elephant, the Tiger and Cellphones,” which were snapped by many in the audience, Tharoor spoke on the technology and economy ascendency of India, saying, India is changing even as we speak, At the time of my entering graduate studies in the U.S. in 1975, there were about 2 million land lines and in 1991, there were a reported 8 million land phone lines. Now in April 2006, a record 7.1 million cell phones were sold and in October 2007, latest figures indicate 8.5 million cell phones were snapped up by Indian consumers.” This pace has already outdated figures in his recently published book Sam Pitroda spoke briefly about his current stint as Chairman of India’s National knowledge commission, articulating some of the vision and goals in different sectors as laid out by several 10 member blue ribbon commissions. The broad scope outlined by Pitroda encompasses education, vocational training, rural development and infrastructure etc. Pitroda highlighted that while higher education institutes are needs, so are vocational training school with an immediate need for nearly 500.000 trained truck drivers etc. Pitroda and Anil Kumar , as directors of the IAC, also urged the audience to join the IAC and participate in small and large projects in India and champion the cause to improve the lives of millions in India. |
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