It’s up to each one to trust and help each other to conquer old hatred and build a better world for future generations. This will need hard work, both within the country and with all our neighbors, but if we, the intelligentsia of the country do not take it upon ourselves, who will?
The joy of living in India is that every month there is a new development and quite often a new opportunity that is created for people who are living and working to build this country and make it a great place to live in for all Indians. The second half of July surprisingly provided three completely different sources of excitement and opened my eyes to new possibilities.
The first was in Parliament where the expected attack by Rahul Gandhi and the even more expected counter-attack by Prime Minister Modi happened during the No Confidence motion moved against the Government. The hug and the wink of Rahul Gandhi of course garnered more than its fair share of headlines but one allegation that created major ripples has been the Rafale deal with France and collateral controversies around local production and defense offsets. Having been part of Indian industry for a long time, I always sympathize with industrialists who indulge less in Delhi lobbying than a few veterans and often find themselves at the brunt of CEO bashing by some cynical politicians. Hence it was good to hear the strong statement by Prime Minister Modi and many members of the political community that industry is an important part of the country. Long may that be the narrative.
The second was in Lucknow where the anniversary event of India’s Smart Cities movement was led by Pune’s former Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar who is now the Mission Director of Smart Cities at the Centre. For us at Pune City Connect, which has built such a productive Public Private Partnership with the Government, it was truly encouraging to be invited to present a 3-D model of our City Skills Lighthouse project which was seen by the Prime Minister, Minster for Urban Development and most of the Smart City CEOs looking for inclusive projects in their own city. The award for best project in the social category has also been a boost for our young team as they systematically track each family in the city and seek to make a difference through Education, Digital Literacy and Skills.
The award for best project in the social category has also been a boost for our young team
PM Modi visits the 3D model of the Pune City Skills Lighthouse in LucknowThe third interesting development was the success of Pakistan’s Tehreeq-e-Insaaf and the erstwhile cricketer-playboy Imran Khan becoming Prime Minister. While everybody in India has a point of view on the election, Imran’s backers and the future of Indo- Pak relationships, my friends in Pakistan, mostly IT leaders and senior members of the Lahore and Karachi community seem to be united in their view that the elections were fine, Imran is his own man and it would be great if we in India took his “you take one step, I take two” seriously. Of course, with his former wife always willing to appear on Indian channels, allegations of “Taliban Khan” and his frequent attacks on India during the election campaign being trotted out with regularity, it will take a lot for many Indians to take a new Pakistan seriously.
Why am I an eternal optimist for an India where inclusion, camaraderie and love prevail and for relationships with our neighbors which are built on mutual trust? Take the case of “Aman ki Asha” with Pakistan first, the bonding with some friends across the border started when I was Chairman of NASSCOM in 2008 and we welcomed a delegation led by IT veteran Jehan Ara to our annual Leadership conference. Shortly after, there was an invitation through CII to lead a business delegation to Karachi and Lahore to which we said “throw in a visit to Mohenjodaro and we are coming.”
Our delegation itself consisted of several women and was hosted by the very urbane and sophisticated Amin Hashwani. Every day of the five days we spent in Karachi Lahore and Islamabad was pure delight—outstanding hospitality by multiple hosts, encounters with men and women who have been friends ever since and the highlight was sitting on the fence at Mohenjodaro, where my friend Pradeep Udhas and I joined a group of young guitar strummers and sang Bollywood songs to everybody’s heart content. It was a pleasure last year to be introduced by a good friend Beena Sarwar who now lives in Boston to Talat Rahim an author who included a chapter on my work in her book.
To state the obvious, all of us are equal and our hearts beat as one, whether it is the South Mumbai industrialists, my friend Jamnadas Thakur aka Funtoosh in Tatisilwai Jharkhand or any of our similars— Nadeem Elahi IT CEO and Humayun Bashir long time IBM Chief of Pakistan. It’s up to each one to trust and help each other to conquer old hatred and build a better world for future generations. This will need hard work, both within the country and with all our neighbors but if we, the intelligentsia of the country do not take it upon ourselves, who will?
Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect and Social Venture Partners, India.
Ganesh Natarajan
