first begin by thanking you for having
like given us the time to come and see
you and we duly understand that you have
constituency obligations and the fifth
so you were not able to attend the event
so I must say it’s a pleasure to be with
you and thank you for having us over so
I think you have some words for the
audience who are awaiting your lovely
speech thank you very much I’m told that
the theme of this entire event is taking
time to think taking a moment off to
think and being under that injunction I
did give myself a moment to think and
you have succeeded very effectively in
your introduction in leading us into
that theme by referring to my having to
be in my constituency on the 1st of
November which is why we are recording
this rather than my personally
participating the one profession on
which I think almost everyone in the
audience would be agreed in which they
should not be this politics for the
widespread view is that politicians are
really a filthy lot and that therefore
to follow them into a profession that
involves black money involves cheating
people
undermining them during all ethics in
order to ensure progress of the
political ladder it’s not the kind of
thing that a decent dual school boy
should do which is why perhaps there are
so very few Doon school boys who have
gone into politics my own memory is that
dr. Karan Singh was more or less forced
to go into politics by being made thus a
dreary asset of Kashmir just a few years
after he’d left school I myself worked
as private secretary to dalip Singh who
I didn’t belong to the 1942 senior
Cambridge batch he became Minister of
Commerce and Minister
industry and most distinguished of all
minister of External Affairs I can’t
think of very many more who went into
politics at least not those whose names
still resonate there was of course then
an era when it suddenly seemed as if
doing school and politics were
synonymous when Rajiv Gandhi became the
prime minister in 1985 which happened to
be the golden jubilee year of the dual
school he was the chief guest and I told
him a story about myself which he then
recounted in his speech which was that I
went into a tutorial at Cambridge
wearing my Doon school old boys blazer
and the tutor looked at me very
disapprovingly
and pointing to my breast pocket he said
what is that so very proudly I replied
that sir is the lamp of knowledge he
replied a pity they didn’t light it
while you were at school so Rajiv
recounted the story and then the
newspapers attributed the whole story to
him as what happened to him so his time
resulted in people saying that politics
is full of dust goes actually it wasn’t
they were as I don’t sing who went in
with him didn’t remain for very long and
I can’t think of anybody else was from
doing school who figured their but
that’s why I think till now you can
count on your fingers don’t school boys
who are in Parliament so what I would
like to ask this younger generation is
whether they would be prepared to go
into politics for after all in British
politics Eton and Harrow Oxford and
Cambridge are not only prominent they
were often very dominant
apart from Rajiv Gandhi there’s no other
Prime Minister who’s been to do in
school I forgot to mention Komal not and
I should have mentioned Joe thira did
scindia Saudis this handful are there
and I think it’s a huge loss to Indian
politics that don’t school boys keep
away from politics and what I’d like to
urge you to do is to think of this again
after all why has politics got such a
bad name in India when perhaps India’s
greatest achievement since independence
has been to become the world’s largest
democracy and thanks to another Doon
school boy Rajiv Gandhi has also become
the world’s most representative
democracy through panchayati raj why is
it that we don’t want to participate but
the answer I usually get is because
politics is a dirty business
I say no politics becomes the dirty
business when dirty people become
politicians and if people who have got
ability intelligence morality and they
don’t need to make a commerce of
politics because they have sources of
income that they’ve inherited or which
they have earned on their own accord and
that’s the kind of person who should be
going into politics and why don’t they
it’s because of another don’t school
trait that I deplore you want to win
you’re primed to say that tomorrow you
should be higher on some ladder than you
were yesterday
I think that is an attitude that should
be rooted out of the school mentality
you have to learn to take risks now a
lot of doom school boys have learned to
take the risk of being in business where
they succeed in sometimes they have
setbacks and at other times they bounce
back but the vast majority wish to make
a career where it is determined on in
year one exactly where they will be in
year 36 and prefer to take that path
whether it is as business executives
whether it is as engineers or other
technical people or going to the civil
service
of going to teaching nice safe
professions success when it comes is
staggering it’s more dramatic than
success in any other walk of life but at
the same time being dropped from the top
of the mountain to the bottom of the
valley is a very disturbing experience
which you can take only if you have the
ability to treat as Kipling said triumph
and disaster as two Impostors the
triumph is also an impostor and failure
is also an imposter there was the great
political scientist of the 19th century
Walter Paget when Walter Paget said the
democracy means sensible men of
substantial means now I don’t have to
use my usual coda of saying sensible men
and women because alas there are no duel
school women but sensible men of
substantial means now I think there’s
quite a creamy layer of intelligent
people at Doon school who are usually
ignored at school in favour of brawny
guys who know how to punch someone else
or wrestle someone to the ground or
catch a ball or kick a ball I don’t
think these are qualities that anyone
needs in later life unless he becomes a
Test cricketer these qualities are what
get emphasized in the school but
nevertheless whether you’re a sportsman
or whether you are a kind of
intellectual or a geek when you come out
of Doon school that tends to be a fairly
widespread commonality of ethics and
morality that you carry with you for the
rest of your life I just thought of RPN
Singh his son
I’m Linda who was never without a red
card while we were at school we were in
the same serving detail and the only
time I broke bounds was with him when we
went behind the Rose Bowl into Patiala
house
called and I gave myself the excuse that
after all I was only reading his lychees
and his mangoes so that could be counted
thievery
anyway Amarinder is there you’re
absolutely right I should have thought
of him very much earlier on but compared
to the potential that dual school has to
raise our democracy to an altogether
higher level
I’m afraid the achievement of the school
in the field which I regard as the
single biggest achievement of India
since independence has been pathetically
low unfortunately unlike the IAS exam
you can’t sit in exam to become a
politician and there is no system no
organized system of recruitment into any
political party and certainly not into
mine which incidentally is I think the
only political party worth joining and
my apologies to Kali kesh who has joined
a tiny little regional party and has
little hope of fulfilling himself as a
national leader but that’s the separate
question I’m sure our doors are always
open to him there are 32 lakh positions
in the local government system which can
enable you to get in and since there may
be some random girls in the audience
alas the tragedy of my life was that
Wellum girls started in the last term of
my stay in Doon school so I just didn’t
know what the other half looked like
anyway since there are some of them let
me tell them that 50% reservation exists
in 15 states in the panchayat raj system
and the presence of women in our
Parliament is tragically just about 8%
so even if it’s really difficult for a
woman to make it to Parliament it’s much
easier to get into the panchayat system
and with the experience thereby gathered
I think the qualification to come into
the state assembly or Parliament
increases and therefore whether it’s
Doon school well
where I had my preparatory schooling Oh
random girls where alas I was never
allowed to enter the gates in all these
places there is this large body of
Dehradun trained young men and women who
could make all the difference
apart from all these which could be a
beginning I think at least some of you
should start thinking in terms of moving
from private success to public service
and in the field of public service there
is no way you could make a bigger
difference than by getting into politics
and whether you remain in the opposition
or come into government whether you
remain in the state or you come into the
parliament opportunities of really
repaying this nation for all that it has
given you all the privileges it has
given you is I think almost a national
duty the dual school boys of my
generation were loath to take up but
which I hope those of you are listening
to me with at least consider even if you
don’t actually take the lead don’t you
think you’ve missed out on some ones
yeah oh gosh I will never forgive me I
forgot to mention Kemal na who is just
about the most senior congressman we
have on the front bench of the
Opposition today in Parliament and he
has not only a very distinguished career
behind him but possibly who knows I mean
even more distinguished career in front
of him I certainly wish him all the best
so I want to ask you what is your take
on the drug issue in Punjab and how it’s
plaguing the state it’s tragic that
there was no drug problem in Punjab
until very very recently and I think it
has some connections to the horriston
movement which disrupted normal
administration in the state and a much
stronger connection to the winding down
and to the war in Afghanistan which
started in 1979 because that route
through Pakistan and it was eased by the
on hawk of arms ammunition and drugs
from Afghanistan through Pakistan into
Punjab had a very deleterious effect
there’s so much prosperity in Punjab
compared to the rest of the country that
farmers in places like Rajasthan found a
huge ready market and therefore where a
drug trade didn’t really exist between
Sri Gondwana girl and places in Punjab
but India it’s now well established
route it’s strange that it is not so bad
in Haryana but it’s grown to the most
frightening proportions in Punjab and
under in the same of our school has
pledged himself to reading his state of
this menace and if he succeeds it’s not
just this generation of Punjabis but I
think generations and generations to
come of Indians who will come a
Melinda’s name in letters of gold and
that I hope is what happens but how
would you like connect colistin which
was a movement in the eight years to the
drug issue because it was a very
disruptive movement right it was doomed
to fail
but it spread with guns and terror
absolutely everywhere in the state and
when you have a complete breakdown of
law and order in the face of a rising
tide of terrorism then obviously along
with that terror come the drugs that is
why in Afghanistan which started getting
disturbed at almost exactly the time the
Holliston movement began here because
that started along with that fight
between an Iran car easily
in 1978 and 1979 was when the Soviet
Union moved into Afghanistan and those
disruptions were in a sense linked one
with the other in just one sphere this
ghastly sphere of ruining the lives of
young men by hooking the amount of drugs
or various kinds that’s yes thank you
it’s been a pleasure speaking to you
today I think you’ve truly enlightened
all of us all of sure so thank you and
we hope to see you soon thank you so
much thank you
like given us the time to come and see
you and we duly understand that you have
constituency obligations and the fifth
so you were not able to attend the event
so I must say it’s a pleasure to be with
you and thank you for having us over so
I think you have some words for the
audience who are awaiting your lovely
speech thank you very much I’m told that
the theme of this entire event is taking
time to think taking a moment off to
think and being under that injunction I
did give myself a moment to think and
you have succeeded very effectively in
your introduction in leading us into
that theme by referring to my having to
be in my constituency on the 1st of
November which is why we are recording
this rather than my personally
participating the one profession on
which I think almost everyone in the
audience would be agreed in which they
should not be this politics for the
widespread view is that politicians are
really a filthy lot and that therefore
to follow them into a profession that
involves black money involves cheating
people
undermining them during all ethics in
order to ensure progress of the
political ladder it’s not the kind of
thing that a decent dual school boy
should do which is why perhaps there are
so very few Doon school boys who have
gone into politics my own memory is that
dr. Karan Singh was more or less forced
to go into politics by being made thus a
dreary asset of Kashmir just a few years
after he’d left school I myself worked
as private secretary to dalip Singh who
I didn’t belong to the 1942 senior
Cambridge batch he became Minister of
Commerce and Minister
industry and most distinguished of all
minister of External Affairs I can’t
think of very many more who went into
politics at least not those whose names
still resonate there was of course then
an era when it suddenly seemed as if
doing school and politics were
synonymous when Rajiv Gandhi became the
prime minister in 1985 which happened to
be the golden jubilee year of the dual
school he was the chief guest and I told
him a story about myself which he then
recounted in his speech which was that I
went into a tutorial at Cambridge
wearing my Doon school old boys blazer
and the tutor looked at me very
disapprovingly
and pointing to my breast pocket he said
what is that so very proudly I replied
that sir is the lamp of knowledge he
replied a pity they didn’t light it
while you were at school so Rajiv
recounted the story and then the
newspapers attributed the whole story to
him as what happened to him so his time
resulted in people saying that politics
is full of dust goes actually it wasn’t
they were as I don’t sing who went in
with him didn’t remain for very long and
I can’t think of anybody else was from
doing school who figured their but
that’s why I think till now you can
count on your fingers don’t school boys
who are in Parliament so what I would
like to ask this younger generation is
whether they would be prepared to go
into politics for after all in British
politics Eton and Harrow Oxford and
Cambridge are not only prominent they
were often very dominant
apart from Rajiv Gandhi there’s no other
Prime Minister who’s been to do in
school I forgot to mention Komal not and
I should have mentioned Joe thira did
scindia Saudis this handful are there
and I think it’s a huge loss to Indian
politics that don’t school boys keep
away from politics and what I’d like to
urge you to do is to think of this again
after all why has politics got such a
bad name in India when perhaps India’s
greatest achievement since independence
has been to become the world’s largest
democracy and thanks to another Doon
school boy Rajiv Gandhi has also become
the world’s most representative
democracy through panchayati raj why is
it that we don’t want to participate but
the answer I usually get is because
politics is a dirty business
I say no politics becomes the dirty
business when dirty people become
politicians and if people who have got
ability intelligence morality and they
don’t need to make a commerce of
politics because they have sources of
income that they’ve inherited or which
they have earned on their own accord and
that’s the kind of person who should be
going into politics and why don’t they
it’s because of another don’t school
trait that I deplore you want to win
you’re primed to say that tomorrow you
should be higher on some ladder than you
were yesterday
I think that is an attitude that should
be rooted out of the school mentality
you have to learn to take risks now a
lot of doom school boys have learned to
take the risk of being in business where
they succeed in sometimes they have
setbacks and at other times they bounce
back but the vast majority wish to make
a career where it is determined on in
year one exactly where they will be in
year 36 and prefer to take that path
whether it is as business executives
whether it is as engineers or other
technical people or going to the civil
service
of going to teaching nice safe
professions success when it comes is
staggering it’s more dramatic than
success in any other walk of life but at
the same time being dropped from the top
of the mountain to the bottom of the
valley is a very disturbing experience
which you can take only if you have the
ability to treat as Kipling said triumph
and disaster as two Impostors the
triumph is also an impostor and failure
is also an imposter there was the great
political scientist of the 19th century
Walter Paget when Walter Paget said the
democracy means sensible men of
substantial means now I don’t have to
use my usual coda of saying sensible men
and women because alas there are no duel
school women but sensible men of
substantial means now I think there’s
quite a creamy layer of intelligent
people at Doon school who are usually
ignored at school in favour of brawny
guys who know how to punch someone else
or wrestle someone to the ground or
catch a ball or kick a ball I don’t
think these are qualities that anyone
needs in later life unless he becomes a
Test cricketer these qualities are what
get emphasized in the school but
nevertheless whether you’re a sportsman
or whether you are a kind of
intellectual or a geek when you come out
of Doon school that tends to be a fairly
widespread commonality of ethics and
morality that you carry with you for the
rest of your life I just thought of RPN
Singh his son
I’m Linda who was never without a red
card while we were at school we were in
the same serving detail and the only
time I broke bounds was with him when we
went behind the Rose Bowl into Patiala
house
called and I gave myself the excuse that
after all I was only reading his lychees
and his mangoes so that could be counted
thievery
anyway Amarinder is there you’re
absolutely right I should have thought
of him very much earlier on but compared
to the potential that dual school has to
raise our democracy to an altogether
higher level
I’m afraid the achievement of the school
in the field which I regard as the
single biggest achievement of India
since independence has been pathetically
low unfortunately unlike the IAS exam
you can’t sit in exam to become a
politician and there is no system no
organized system of recruitment into any
political party and certainly not into
mine which incidentally is I think the
only political party worth joining and
my apologies to Kali kesh who has joined
a tiny little regional party and has
little hope of fulfilling himself as a
national leader but that’s the separate
question I’m sure our doors are always
open to him there are 32 lakh positions
in the local government system which can
enable you to get in and since there may
be some random girls in the audience
alas the tragedy of my life was that
Wellum girls started in the last term of
my stay in Doon school so I just didn’t
know what the other half looked like
anyway since there are some of them let
me tell them that 50% reservation exists
in 15 states in the panchayat raj system
and the presence of women in our
Parliament is tragically just about 8%
so even if it’s really difficult for a
woman to make it to Parliament it’s much
easier to get into the panchayat system
and with the experience thereby gathered
I think the qualification to come into
the state assembly or Parliament
increases and therefore whether it’s
Doon school well
where I had my preparatory schooling Oh
random girls where alas I was never
allowed to enter the gates in all these
places there is this large body of
Dehradun trained young men and women who
could make all the difference
apart from all these which could be a
beginning I think at least some of you
should start thinking in terms of moving
from private success to public service
and in the field of public service there
is no way you could make a bigger
difference than by getting into politics
and whether you remain in the opposition
or come into government whether you
remain in the state or you come into the
parliament opportunities of really
repaying this nation for all that it has
given you all the privileges it has
given you is I think almost a national
duty the dual school boys of my
generation were loath to take up but
which I hope those of you are listening
to me with at least consider even if you
don’t actually take the lead don’t you
think you’ve missed out on some ones
yeah oh gosh I will never forgive me I
forgot to mention Kemal na who is just
about the most senior congressman we
have on the front bench of the
Opposition today in Parliament and he
has not only a very distinguished career
behind him but possibly who knows I mean
even more distinguished career in front
of him I certainly wish him all the best
so I want to ask you what is your take
on the drug issue in Punjab and how it’s
plaguing the state it’s tragic that
there was no drug problem in Punjab
until very very recently and I think it
has some connections to the horriston
movement which disrupted normal
administration in the state and a much
stronger connection to the winding down
and to the war in Afghanistan which
started in 1979 because that route
through Pakistan and it was eased by the
on hawk of arms ammunition and drugs
from Afghanistan through Pakistan into
Punjab had a very deleterious effect
there’s so much prosperity in Punjab
compared to the rest of the country that
farmers in places like Rajasthan found a
huge ready market and therefore where a
drug trade didn’t really exist between
Sri Gondwana girl and places in Punjab
but India it’s now well established
route it’s strange that it is not so bad
in Haryana but it’s grown to the most
frightening proportions in Punjab and
under in the same of our school has
pledged himself to reading his state of
this menace and if he succeeds it’s not
just this generation of Punjabis but I
think generations and generations to
come of Indians who will come a
Melinda’s name in letters of gold and
that I hope is what happens but how
would you like connect colistin which
was a movement in the eight years to the
drug issue because it was a very
disruptive movement right it was doomed
to fail
but it spread with guns and terror
absolutely everywhere in the state and
when you have a complete breakdown of
law and order in the face of a rising
tide of terrorism then obviously along
with that terror come the drugs that is
why in Afghanistan which started getting
disturbed at almost exactly the time the
Holliston movement began here because
that started along with that fight
between an Iran car easily
in 1978 and 1979 was when the Soviet
Union moved into Afghanistan and those
disruptions were in a sense linked one
with the other in just one sphere this
ghastly sphere of ruining the lives of
young men by hooking the amount of drugs
or various kinds that’s yes thank you
it’s been a pleasure speaking to you
today I think you’ve truly enlightened
all of us all of sure so thank you and
we hope to see you soon thank you so
much thank you
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