While senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha added spice to Difficult Dialogues, the event facilitated valuable interaction among thinkers from across the globe in areas of global finance, infrastructure, civil society and foreign relations
Difficult Dialogues’, the title itself can put off even the most avid listeners and professional ‘talkers’. A host of participants shared the same apprehension during the three-day eponymous event at the International Centre Goa. Difficult Dialogues, an independent, non-partisan forum curated in collaboration with the South Asia Centre of the london School of Economics, and Television Trust for Environment, brought leading thinkers, activists, academicians and economists from across the globe on one platform, to give food for thought to policymakers in areas of global finance, infrastructure, civil society, India and West Asia.
When Goa Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar consumed more than 30 minutes of the forum, delivering a monotonous speech that had no connection with the event, apprehension deepened that it was going to be a tedious affair. But what followed was a feast for eyes and ears.
Well-known Serbian political thinker Srdja Popovic’s talk, ‘People Power: How Non-Violent Strategies are Shaking and Shaping the World’, was heard with rapt attention. The lanky Serb, who spoke fluent English, was a great performer, mixing action with words, well-rehearsed pauses with rapid fire words and impact-making geniculations to enthrall the audience. Mr Popovic made a powerful case against military intervention by the West and the US for imposing democracy in several parts of the world by presenting a research that showed how fragile such regime could be.
According to him, the chances of survival of military-imposed democracy was only four per cent, where as in 51 per cent cases, democracy ushered in by non-violent means survived and flourished.
The next evening saw another captivating presentation this time by award winning author Amitabh Ghosh on opium trade between India and China. The subject was titled, ‘From Bombay to Canton: Traveling the Opium Route to 19th Century China’. On the lavish beachside of Cidade Goa, Mr Ghosh made a fabulous audio-visual presentation, presenting some of the rarest paintings that captured the different demission of the opium trade.
A separate panel discussion on the plight of street children and the crying need for their rehabilitation was also an eye-opener. The discussion highlighted how little was being done to address the problem faced by over 11 million such children, who are forced to embrace drug and crime.
The session on global finance brought some of the best known speakers on one platform. They included Mr Erik Berglöf, Director of the Institute of Global Affairs and Professor in Practice in Economics at the lSE; Mr Nasser Munjee, lSE alumnus and also chairman of DCB Bank; Mr Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Chair Professor in Economics and Government at the lSE; and telecom industry expert and entrepreneur Sam Pitroda.
At the end of the discussion, when the panelists invited questions, from the rear of the room came a voice: “I’m Yashwant Sinha, and I’ve run the finance of this country for years. May I ask a questionIJ” Mr Sinha disagreed with a lot of propositions put forward by the panelists and pointed out how the big bosses of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund treated with contempt Prime Ministers and Presidents of smaller countries. Mr Sinha also called for a permanent institution to deal with recurring financial crisis.
In the closing session, Mr Sinha grabbed the attention when he slammed the absence of ‘dialogue’ in the country and said, “Those who do not believe in dialogues are decimated by the forces of democracy.” Though he did not name anyone, in the context of the nature of discussion and preceding remark made by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, it was clear that BJP leader, Mr Sinha was taking a potshot at the bosses of his own party-led Government at the Centre.
In the lead-up to its first year’s programme, the festival mobilised youth into engaging with critical issues, through daring debated. Talking about the event’s objective, Ms Surina Narula, Founding Director, Difficult Dialogues said, “Difficult Dialogues is aimed at working with individuals, organisations, think-tanks, media, Government to encourage multi-faceted dialogue and debate to position South Asia as a dynamic global region influencing wider changes and powers. We hope these dialogues will lead to meaningful actions by people across sectors and policymakers that will bring about the desired change in the society.”
Ms Surina went on to add, “Difficult Dialogues is premised on the conviction that knowledge sharing is the cornerstone of progressive change in this fastest growing, volatile region of the world.”
The closing ceremony included a curtain-raiser on Difficult Dialogues 2017 by Sridhar Venkatapuram who on medical ethics, remarks by Difficult Dialogues Steering Committee Chairman, Anil Gupta and ICG President, Yatin Kakodar.