ตอน 5: Exclusive Interview: Part 1

(22nd January 2004)

(NDTV studio, Mumbai)

"Welcome to NDTV. Today, we are face to face with Shreya Gandhi. Shreya ji, thank you for agreeing for the interview."

"No no no no! Thank you for having me here."

"Hahaha! Shreya ji, before we start the interview, please tell us about your life before politics. You completed your 12th at the age of just 15, with 93%. And then went to Harvard. How did you do that? How was the experience? And, did it have any affects on your family dynamics?"

"Well, there are all kinds of children. Some experience their growth spurt in mind early, and some later. I just experienced my growth spurt a little bit early.

And regarding college, I actually tried to get into IIM first, but wasn't able to. I was able to get into Harward though. I majored in Political Science, and Management there.

There are some things that I noticed by going to a foreign country.

In the world, our image is not good. I had to face severe racism, with slurs like 'Cow piss drinker', 'smelly Indian', and when I complained to the authorities, they didn't do anything.

If an African or Jew faced racism like this, strict action would have been taken immediately. But Indians are exploited easily because of our tolerance on such issues.

When slavery was abolished, it was replaced by unindentured labor by Indians. Our great grandparents and their previous generations were essentially slaved away in colonies with false promises of pay, threatening and violence, not much different from the condition of slaves. You can see ask the Indian diaspora in Africa and South America.

But, these things are never discussed. Forget about western education which wants to hide their atrocities as much as they can. Our own education system doesn't ever discuss these things, and also whitewashes many things.

Anyway, if we leave things like Political Science and stuff, which are mostly dominated by eco-chambers like JNU, the tech things were actually good.

I talked to a lot of people there, many Indians as well who were doing their masters after mostly IIT.

I got to know that the main difference is that our education system is just full of useless shit that will never be useful. Useless assignments that the schools and colleges give to the students to waste all their time. And we have all theoretical things, but nothing practical.

In our country, practical means writing long, lengthy, useless, trash lab records, which most people just copy anyway.

I returned back to India when I was 19, and became eligible for local body elections. I wanted to contest for the Mumbai Municipal corporation election, and improve things in Dharavi.

But I was denied. In my family, I think a sort of mentality has taken over that they are 'National Leaders'. My brother Rahul, who is contesting elections for Lok Sabha, doesn't know anything about ground reality. Even my father and grandmother didn't.

Anyway, what do you think foreigners recognise India with?"

"Taj Mahal?"

"Slums."

"..."

"There is a thing called 'poverty porn' that foreign media shows. They will ignore 75% India, and show the 25% poor. You will never find anything positive about India."

"Why do you think it happens?"

"Because they, like the New York Times, BBC, are racist media networks. In USA, New York Times was heavily responsible for creating the bad perception for Blacks.

Like, if two people commit murder, a white and a black person, the black person will be mentioned like 'Black man murdered a family guy' or something.

Now they can't say things like this anymore. But it's not like the people in the media houses changed? So they have found a new target. Indians.

They will go to the deepest areas of slums where illegal stuff like gangs, illegal alcohol, things like these happen. Show the people sitting on Mumbai local, and all these things. Not a single thing positive.

And when I returned here, I wanted to change things, starting from Mumbai. I have even confronted my family about many of the downright stupid decisions made.

But, the Gandhi family is only interested in winning elections and being at the top of the party. They dismissed my criticisms.

Look at China. When we got independence, we had better technology, more skilled people, bigger economy, everything. And see the difference now.

The main problem with my family, and Congress as a whole, is that they can't consider criticisms and suggestions. They are deaf. They don't know how to listen.

They have shut off their eyes and ears, and only know to taste power and speak lies after lies. They think that what they do is best for the country.

I would say that another thing that changed me was a debate I had about the Kashmir issue in college.

I reiterated the fact that UN solution was to first, completely withdraw Pakistani troops, which they haven't followed until now, and they weren't pressured by the international community and even India.

Pakistan was created on the base of hating India. Muslim league carried out genocides, like the Direct Action Day.

Peace and friendship doesn't happen with a person who openly shows its guns to us, and fires at us unprovoked for getting our daughter.

In 1948, Great-grandfather shouldn't have gone to the UN. We didn't have the UNSC seat, so we shouldn't have even joined it until we were given the seat we deserve. It's not like people didn't try to stop him. But, an idealistic person who forgets about reality, is idiot, and dangerous if he is the Prime Minister.

Grandmother had the opportunity to correct his mistake in 1971. But she also didn't do anything.

Kashmiri Hindus, which we are, kept getting genocided, but no one raised a single voice. Pakistani sympathesizers and pro-genociders continue to make the heaven on earth a bloody hell.

But no. According to them, keeping Article 370 intact is more important than the blood that is painting the white ice red everyday.

Even media is silent on this, including you. This left leaning has destroyed our country. No voice for development. No voice for bringing justice.

Our history books are written by Pakistani sympathesizers, who glorify Aurangzeb, and write Chhattrapati Shivaji Maharaj as a local king.

No one raises voice against vices like Triple Talaq. No one raises voice against Sharia. Even Islamic countries don't follow Sharia. Why should Hindus be the only one benefiting from better laws?

Why the discrimination against Muslims? Do Muslim women deserve to be faced with legalising their husbands and fathers beating them? Why doesn't anyone cover child marriage still happening? Why was the privilege of child protection only given to Hindus and the minorities, and not muslims?

Despite having all the money to develop the country, to provide homes in high rise buildings for people living in unhygienic slums, why waste it all on scams and corruption?

Why the hell does my family have more money than it should add up to?

When I was at college, having the debate, it was the first time I felt that people and institutions don't listen. I am a privileged girl, who always got what I wanted. But there, I was just a random rich 'Cow-piss drinking smelly dirty Indian'.

People have gotten so used to being not listened to that they either complain all day and still vote for the same party, or straight up leave instead of trying to create their own party and be more involved in politics.

'Politics is dangerous. Politics is for only criminals.'

Then join BP. Doesn't your BP go high with the continuous state of mismanagement, corruption and poverty? I am well-known across the country and have political power just because of my lineage. Instead of superficially denying it, I will use it to protect any and every innocent party member of mine if they are threatened by the gundas.

And ah! Please don't get the idea that high BP is good. Its actually really, really bad. Go see a doctor if you have it, and eat less salt and processed food and drinks."