One is India's most combative interviewer; a pitbull terrier who doesn't let go if he gets into your flesh. The other is an acid-tongued devil-may-care industrialist with a gift of the gab, who can give as good as he gets. Little wonder, then, that when Karan Thapar engaged Rahul Bajaj on Devil's Advocate on CNN-IBN last night, it was compelling television. As the old adline went, 'You just can't beat a Bajaj'.
Karan Thapar: You have just got into politics.
Rahul Bajaj: I have not got into politics. If I got elected in a party ticket or if I decided to work for a political party if I decided to work in villages if I decided to make slogans of garibi hatao, with no desire to do that, all that I will not do. I have not taken any obligations from any party. I don’t want to be obligated.
Thapar: Mr Bajaj you are wonderful with words but the problem is that you are short on logic. Parliament and being an MP is part of politics.
Bajaj: Where did you go to school Karan?
Thapar: Is that relevant?
Bajaj: It is very relevant because your logic is illogical.
Thapar: If it is relevant I will tell you. I went to Doon School, Cambridge, Oxford and I know a lot about politics.
Bajaj: I went to Cathedral, St. Stephen's, and Harvard, slightly better than you in every respect. So I understand logic. But I am a humble man unlike you.
Isn’t that great… suddenly all Rahuls r in news: Bajaj, Mahajan, Dravid, Gandhi. and it’s hay time for churumuri!!
Pingback: /India/Bangalore/things » Hamaara Bajaj!
Ye of superior breeding! Name dropping, even of alma maters, is the proof of how nepotist we can get. Old Boy unions can rejoice in glee that in the Rahul Bajaj’s words Cathedral, St Stephens and Harvard are one-up over the Doon, Cambridge and Oxford (They of inferior class?)! Wonder what he would have said to those of us who went to local schools and goverment-aided colleges. Branded us unfit to talk to and walked out of the show perhaps. Rahul Bajaj has revealed the other caste in India–the Indian Ivy-Leagued class, who take the moral high ground by the strength of their schooling (not education necessarily).
‘Reminds me of the saying – ‘Serige sava seru’.