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Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Kasauli, October 6
Former BJP minister and noted journalist and author Arun Shourie on Friday hit out at the NDA government’s claims on job creation.
Speaking at the sixth edition of the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival here, he candidly termed a section of politicians as sociopaths and self-seeking.
“Politicians should be judged by their actions and what they have condoned, not merely by what they have said. Claims made by them should be examined by the people,” he shared.
He aptly used the opportunity to question NDA government’s claim of having generated 5.5 crore jobs through the much-publicised MUDRA scheme, when, in fact, 1.5 million jobs had been lost in the first quarter of this year alone.
He said the government, on the contrary, had promised 2 crore jobs, annually. He even rubbished the figures presented in the economic surveys and said a large section of the media was playing to the galleries.
He was addressing a session on ‘how to recognise rulers for what they are’. He gave the audience nuances of how a politician adroitly uses public goodwill to camouflage his failures.
Shatrughan defends Yashwant Sinha
Veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha defended fellow party leader Yashwant Sinha’s critical remarks on the economy and said such concerns have been voiced by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram among others.
He said PM Narendra Modi has always maintained that the nation is bigger than the party.
The sixth edition of the much-awaited Kasauli literature festival got off to a colourful start with a bevy of writers, cine-stars and noted journalists descending on to this pristine cantonment town at the historic Kasauli Club.
Lending the characteristic zing to the proceedings were Shobhaa De, author and columnist, Vijay Tankha, former head of Department of Philosophy, St Stephan’s College Delhi, Pavan K Verma, diplomat, writer and politician, and Shourie.
Bold topic
In the session ‘Karma and the difficulty of doing good’, writers like Shobha De and Amrita Narayanan, actress Divya Dutta, and Chief Executive Officer, Harper Collins, dwelt on the connotations of bold themes in literature. Shobha noted that when women write on bold themes like pornography, they are viewed differently.
Divya shared her initial inhibitions while enacting an amorous scene before the camera, but later saw it as an opportunity of looking at the camera and making love to it.
She spoke about her various roles including one of Milkha Singh’s sister, who was sexually abused by her husband.
70 & going strong
Marking 70 years of the nation’s independence, “70” has been chosen as this year’s theme for the festival. It also symbolises seven decades of achievements, challenges and battles still to be won against problems like poverty, illiteracy and corruption, deteriorating environment fuelling climate change and the malaise of terrorism and fundamentalism.
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