Scholar of Strategy

He’s a scholar of strategy. Temperate, to many politicians’ temperamental. Reasoned, rather than rhetorical.

And at this stage in the Congress’ rather battered existence, he is an essential voice.

He took the Algebra stage to reinforce the Congress’ commitment to the core constitutional values on which the party – and indeed the idea of India itself – was founded.

In a mild but no less implacable conversation than Subramanian Swamy, who preceded him on this evening, he pointed out that much of the shape of modern India, from modern mobile communications to the shape of our public freedoms, have been reinforced through decades of his party’s governance. He took on the BJP’s Hindu agenda (“The true test of a democracy is not how you treat the majority. It’s how you treat your minorities”), and their obsession with correcting what he sees as historical irrelevances (“I find the BJP is trying to re-fight the mandate of 1947 that made India a plural state rather than a theocratic one”). In a voice of political maturity, he lauded the government’s move on GST, and agreed that triple talaq was a gender equality issue rather than a religious one.

Both conversations this evening were intense, captivating, urgent, and it is imperative that we as a community and as individuals engage with them.

Watch the full session above.