Modi calls for constant dialogue; leaders, entrepreneurs, experts debate challenges and expectations of new India

On Friday, ministers, political leaders, entrepreneurs, adventure sports experts, film personalities and singers discussed the expectations, possibilities and challenges before India in the changing era, while participating in the Manorama News Conclave 2019 in Kochi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick-started the conclave themed 'New India' via video-conferencing from New Delhi. It was followed by eight sessions that delved deep into topics such as nationalism, politics, new boundaries of belief, youth and opportunities for Kerala.

Prime Minister Modi's inaugural speech hit national headlines when he urged people to hear each other's point of view. “There must be a constant dialogue between individuals and organisations irrespective of one's thought process. We need not have to agree on anything but there must be enough civility in public life to hear each other's pint of view,” he said.

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar, while speaking on 'New India: Government and Media', said freedom of the press is the essence of democracy and the NDA government“will never restrict media freedom”. He said restrictions on media in Jammu and Kashmir, imposed after the abrogation of the Article 370, are being lifted progressively. “All newspapers are being printed in Kashmir. News reporters are on the field. Restrictions are being lifted everyday,” he said.

Debate on 'The New Indian Nationalist' saw some sharp exchanges from the far corners of the political spectrum thanks to strong arguments from BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Mohammad Salim. Rao said the new Indian nationalism is rooted in cultural nationalism or what he termed “spiritual nationalism”. “For the BJP, the nation was the new deity. Rao argued that the country had lost its nationalistic spirit in its pursuit of modernism post Independence.”

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra spurned Rao's concept emphatically. “The new Indian nationalist is trying to thrust patriotism upon all of us. The new nationalist says your country is greater than everybody. I don't believe my country is greater than justice, definitely not greater than my allegiance to humanity,” she said.

CPM's Mohammad Salim took on Muralidhar Rao for equating the new nationalism with Swami Vivekananda's ideals. “There is a lot of difference between Swami Vivekanada and Sakshi Maharaj,” he said. “Patriotism is not something to be forcibly demonstrated,” he said.

Varun Gandhi put the spotlight on the rural India with his session on 'New India: The Rural Divide'. Sprinkling his session with anecdotes and real-life stories, he portrayed a detailed picture of the Indian villages and narrated several stories of survival and success. “Rural India should not be looked at as the 'other' but as a pool of immense talent and courage,” he said.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and Communist Party of India national secretary D Raja gave fitting replies to BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi's assertion that BJP government at the centre has done away with 3Cs - Corruption, Casteism and Communalism - while participating in the session on 'New Politics: What is New'.

Tharoor said three Cs that were actually done away with by the BJP dispensation were: Consensus, Cooperation and Compromise. Raja found Lekhi's statement outrageous.

Talking on 'Ideas, Business Unlimited', Byju Raveendran, the educationist and founder of Byju's Learning App, asked parents not to put too much pressure on their children. “Don't protect them too much. Children should know what happens in the real world,” said India's most successful entrepreneur.

The session on 'What's Up New Kerala?' discussed the impact of social media on youth, which saw diverse views from actor Parvathy Thiruvoth, Alappuzha district collector Adeela Abdulla, the first Indian to complete solo circumnavigation of the world in a yacht Abhilash Tomy, Alathur MP Ramya Haridas.

Parvathy sounded deeply let down by the social media. She is proud that the younger lot, including herself, had become aggressive in many ways. “Such a stand was the result of certain realisations.”

Alappuzha district collector Adeela Abdulla felt it was good that the new generation is independent minded. “It was also nice to follow one's thoughts. But in an age of artificial intelligence you have to ask whether your thoughts are your own thoughts. Personal conscience is good but what if our thoughts are actually thought by algorithms or artificial intelligence.”

Tomy looks at the social media churn as just a transition phase. “When steel was first discovered, it might have been used to kill somebody. Social media is new to us. Eventually people will reach a maturity level when they will realise what is right and what is wrong.”

Ramya Haridas is a bit wary of the social media. Ramya is concerned about the substitution of healthy personal interactions with social media activity. “A friend of mine recently told me that a child she knew had no idea what his grandfather says but is clear what Donald Trump has said.”

Kerala Minister for Higher Studies K T Jaleel, Kollam MP N K Premachandran, RSS ideologue R Balashankar and writer S Saradakutty took part in the debate on the topic, the new boundaries of belief.

The panelists at the discussion on 'New Kerala: The Opportune Moment' differed widely on many aspects of the Kerala growth story but had no doubt about one thing: this was the most ideal moment for the state to change its growth paradigm. Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac said the New Kerala would emerge in 15 years. He said the paradigm shift had already begun. “Till now we had used redistributive justice to improve people's quality of life. But then basic production sectors had never changed. Now, along with redistribution, we would like to focus on a growth that is pivoted on appropriate industries.”

Aruna Sundararajan, the secretary of the Union Department of Telecommunications, said there were two things that no one could disagree. One, environmentally destructive practices are going to be increasingly costly. Two, technology has to be used in a big way to secure competitive advantage. “We have missed the manufacturing bus and even the start-up bus. But now we are in a position to leapfrog. Some time last year, the backbone of infrastructure has shifted from physical to digital. More goods are now transported in the form of data than in physical form,” she said.

Dr Viju Jacob, the managing director of Synthite Industries, warned the minister that Kerala was not giving tourism the needed impetus. “Our roads are very bad. Lots of people are complaining about the roads,” Viju Jacob said. Adeeb Ahamed, the CEO of Lulu International Exchange, too felt this was the right time for Kerala to change. “Even while saying this, there is age-old problem. Infrastructure. It is the largest problem that is crippling Kerala's economy.”

Despite representing two generations of Malayalam filmmakers, Priyadarshan and Aashiq Abu agreed on one classification – there are only good films and bad films – after an intriguing discussion on new-generation films. Besides the two, actor Tovino Thomas and singer Sithara Krishnakumar participated in the concluding session of the conclave. All the panellists agreed that star power was a reality in Malayalam cinema.

The conclave also saw Shashi Tharoor launching a language challenge on twitter - #LanguageChallenge – to help 'people learn one word each from languages other than their mother tongue.'

The initiative began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the media to unite India with the help of language. "We can simply start with publishing one word each day in 10-12 different languages spoken across the country. In a year, a person can learn over 300 new words in different languages,” Modi had said while inaugurating conclave.

For more details, visit: www.manoramanewsconclave.com