This column is about lee Kuan Yew’s attempt to coach Rahul Gandhi – and potentially impact the India Story. Here’s how I came to know. My interview with the former Prime Minister of Singapore (and Senior Minister when I got to see him) had taken nearly 15 years to materialize.
“That’s the way Singapore works,” I was told. Also, that one could reach Mr lee only after serious due diligence, especially if one wasn’t a white man. Not just that, the civil service would try and assure itself that you won’t bowl a googlee!
I hoped to test this assessment. As the years passed by, I had migrated between The Times of India (when I first visited Singapore), to TV18, Zee and The Financial Express.
One day the high commissioner in New Delhi set me up with Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong**. Then came a meeting with Mr Goh’s successor, and Mr lee’s son, the then deputy prime minister, lee Hsieng loong***. And finally, the 25 minutes with Mr lee Sr were granted sometime in 2006-end.
But there seemed a slight problem. I had moved to India TV, a hindi channel. Here, an enterprising deputy head of mission, lee lorling, helped me. “We’ll go with you,” she said with finality.
Rajat Sharma, my then editor, was supportive too. We knew the lee interview won’t fetch ratings, but Mr Sharma instructed Chintamani Rao, the CEO, to do whatever he could. Mr Rao promptly formed a partnership with CNBC-TV18!
So, there I was, in a large banquet room at Delhi’s Taj Mansingh, the temperature famously at 66 degree Fahrenheit, and an army of Singapore ministers and econocrats seated in a neat semi circle. I hadn’t expected a baraat, but I did remember reading that some of them might have a Black Belt!
Expecting everything to go as clockwork, I mused about the elaborate questions that lorling had in her hand. I had no plan to ask a single one of them – my bet was that Mr lee won’t stop midway and the judokas amidst the audience wouldn’t jump in either!
But the clock ticked but with no sign of the stickler for punctuality. That’s when the resourceful newsman in me figured out: Mr lee had forfeited a previous slot and mine to a young man called Rahul Gandhi!
A quick recce led me to the realization that Mr Gandhi would be trooping out. So, I bet on a handheld camera and managed to ambush him, fresh from an hour with Mr lee!
Once the lee interview was over (India TV, very graciously, ran it, and CNBC’s Haresh Chawla used the full interview for an entire day) I spoke to Sanjaya Baru, the media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Mr Baru wasn’t surprised about my Rahul Gandhi story.
The previous night, at a private dinner, Mr lee had Sonia Gadhi, Prime Minister Singh, Montek Ahluwalia and Mr Baru for company. Mr Ahluwalia requested the visiting Minister Mentor to speak on “India vs.China.”
Mr lee apparently did, for more than an hour. While Mrs Gandhi listened in rapt attention, the only thing she reportedly said in the end was, “Can you please say all this to RahulIJ!” Mr lee was happy to do so – my slot next day being the obvious candidate for being bumped down.
At the end of my own interview, Mr lee signed both editions of his book – a Singapore bureaucrat told me that each one is worth about $5,000. This is what Mr lee would charge and then donate the proceeds to public welfare!
I also heard that the Singapore statesman offered to continue his tutorials with Mr Gandhi, hoping to mentor who he thought would be the eventual ruler of India. I don’t know whether the tutorials ever happened again. But suffice to say, the one(s) that did weren’t terribly effective.
(The columnist is is a former editor and now group head of communication at RIl. The views are personal. Tweets @therohitbansal. Hastag #dailypioneer)
Notes:https://storify.com/rohitbansal/a-chat-with-singapore-s-goh-chok-tong *** https://storify.com/rohitbansal/interview-with-singapore-s-lee-hsieng-loong