San Jose: Reporter Hari Sreenivasan and Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations Shashi Tharoor sat down together at the Tech Museum of Innovation here Feb. 6 for what was billed by the program’s organizer, the American India Foundation, as a discussion in “an entertaining chat show format.” As part of the organization’s new AIF Distinguished Speaker Series, the interview with Tharoor launched what AIF president Lata Krishnan hoped would be marked as the beginning of an extraordinary series. Although Tharoor was officially slated to discuss his new book, “Nehru, the Invention of India,” he also discussed at length his role in the UN and the world, and his love of India. The book is a sweeping biography of secularist Jawaharlal Nehru, who along with Mahatma Gandhi, led the movement for India’s independence from British rule and shaped modern day India. He describes the legendary leader’s life as a child born into a wealthy, politically influential family and the only son of a man who provided him with careful guidance and undying love. When asked how far he thought India had gone from Nehru’s ideal, Tharoor explained, “Nehru left a legacy of four pillars that included a democratic institution built on social economics, a foreign policy of non-alignment, secularism, and a desire to leave behind four million people capable of governing themselves.”
Name of Source: Economic Times