Dhruv Chitgopekar

Excellent speech. Tough on terror and terrorists- uncompromising in fact. Tough on those who back terrorists. If cross border terrorism persists there will be consequences - so should there be. Reiterates the commitment to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance. Praises the targeted action by the armed forces - they did a commendable job. In my view the cease fire was the right thing to do for the Indian Govt. After the first night of action the Indian govt had maintained that our objectives have been achieved - we had got the terrorist camps and if Pakistan did not retaliate there would be no further attacks. Pakistan however did retaliate and the conflict got extended. As things stand we have achieved what we set out to and this current conflict is over. And that’s good. A prolonged conflict would have medium term deleterious impact on investments (especially FDI) and consequent impairment on economic growth and employment. From here on in my view India stood more to lose than Pakistan by prolonging the conflict. A good decision to take the action that India did on the night of May 6. And a good decision to end the action with the cease fire. Hopefully the Pakistan military understands that there is a new normal and if they repeat terror attacks such action by India will be repeated - the PM made that clear. PM Modi Speech | PM Modi Address To Nation Today | Operation Sindoor- In... youtu.be/VXUEdiDS-Vk?si=eptT… via @YouTube

On the Ashoka WhatsApp group there is a discussion on the convocation speech and what kind of convocation speakers we should look for. Most people are posting videos of commencement speakers from US universities. I posted the following message 👇 A random thought on convocation speeches. We want a convocation speech that is slick. One that is delivered by a speaker in polished sophisticated English. With the right accent using the right words. The convocation speaker in my graduating class at IIMA was V Krishnamurthy. Chairman of SAIL. He said all the right things but guess what - thirty four years out I don’t remember a word of what he said and I don’t think what he said made any difference to the lives of any of my classmates. That speech did not change anyone’s behaviour or influence any of the choices we made in our lives. However I vividly remember remember the speech made by the chief guest at IIMA in the previous year. Being in the junior batch I was not invited to the event so along with several others from my class I watched the function from the first floor of the building on the side. The chief guest was Dr Verghese Kurien Chairman NDDB. He was not polite. He was downright rude. He was condescending. He was sarcastic. He was caustic. He was insulting. He spoke a few home truths to the graduating class. He taunted us. He opened by congratulating the graduating class. He then said that this is not the Indian Institute of Management. This is the Indian Institute of Management for Shampoo Salesmen. And that the entire graduating class could now look forward to a life where they spend their time selling soap and shampoo. For that is the limit of our aspiration and ambition he said. We just wanted to work for Multinational Corporations peddling their wares to Indian consumers. Such a collosal waste of talent he called it. And throughout his speech he repeatedly used the term “shampoo salesmen” derisively to describe the graduates of IIMA. He challenged us to do something more meaningful with our lives and try and make a difference. But then he lamented that his words were going to fall on deaf ears and that we would take the safer option. Now it requires some guts to go as a chief guest to a function and then make a 30 minute speech berating and insulting your hosts. But that was Dr. Verghese Kurien. In your face. Blunt. Calling a spade a spade. By the end of it our ears were burning. But guess which speech we remembered. And Some of us did do something different. The class of 1989 has produced the most number of entrepreneurs in the history of IIMA. Sometimes warm fuzzy convocation speeches don’t make lasting impact.