Opinion The Outside Insider

The strength of the show is that people who actually have something to say are given the chance to be heard,and even to be indiscreet. On the corruption debate,Manjeet Kripalani,executive director of Gateway House,had no reservations about saying that corruption is led by the corporate elite,who reach out to the new business maharajahs – politicians who have cornered the right to distribute resources and inputs. But she balanced it out by admitting that the phenomenon was a reaction to the trammelling of business by over-regulation and requirements to over-report across jurisdictions. Air Deccan founder Captain Gopinath admitted to having cut corners once in an otherwise straight career. The MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar admitted that his telecom ventures had gone bankrupt twice because all that the industry did was to lobby for free spectrum. “I wasn’t good at it and decided not to do it,” he said. Noted criminal lawyer Satish Maneshinde (Shahid Balwa’s counsel,incidentally) wryly opined that this was a good decision,or he would have run into Chandrashekhar in the 2G court.

Sebastian is a fair moderator but for his eagerness to generalise or particularise according to the debating advantage. For instance,his response to Gopinath’s admission of an apparently trivial corrupt act was: “So the system broke you?” Gopinath insisted that he had a small dent but was otherwise intact,Sebastian was most reluctant to give up his sweeping observation. Similarly,Sebastian may focus on the particular – in a sea of shades of grey,he could obsess on a black spot and draw everyone’s attention to it.

But otherwise,he is extremely fair,except when facing serious provocation. The only time his show degenerated into a fight was when the issue was revolution and three substantial citizens,Mani Shankar Aiyar,Aruna Roy and Tim Sebastian leapt upon the debonair sociologist Dipankar Gupta. But maybe that was a natural reaction. Dipankar Gupta does set himself up provocatively.

Despite the painstaking research that goes into his programmes,Sebastian sometimes loses the plot on really basic stuff. “What is this chalta hai?” he had to ask,for instance. But maybe that’s a ploy to reassure the audience that despite having a firm grip on Indian issues,he is indeed the Outsider.

pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com

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