PENDOWN

Experiential travel stories from India and 31 other countries!

Agenda AajTak- Hindi Jagat Ka Mahamanch- Day 2

My Experience at Day 1 of Agenda Aajtak Mission 2014

After the first day big moments, I was all set to pick memories and experiences from Day 2 of the Big event organized by India Today group. Agenda Aaj Tak is one of the rare shows where roaring personalities come up and political discussions happen centrestage. Day 1 rocked amidst star presence like Sonu Nigam, Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan and many impressive political persona. Some of the burning issues were put in focus through engaging and interesting panel discussions in the big hall at Le Meridien, New Delhi and as my first experience here, I felt glad to be a part of it as a blogger. We bloggers enjoy to write and are meant to have our own views. Event. dialogue, sessions and exposure of this scale was a rich learning platform for me. Here comes the exciting capture of Day 2 happenings…

Smriti Irani, Vice President BJP and Digvijaya Singh, General Secretary Congress came face to face in the flag-off event of the day Rajneeti Ka Dharam Karam. The lady looked serene and elegant and I must say I quite liked the way she carried off herself in focus. She was absolutely confident in her arguments. Digvijay ji was polite in presenting his points. However, there were moments of clash and critique too. Smriti Irani boldly accepted that the spark in her eyes was due to the exit poll results and she could foresee the expected change in government. Digvijay Ji at the same time was heard appreciating Mr. Modi, on his changed approach towards secularism versus hardline thinking. I wonder if the appreciations were meant to be real or sarcastic! On the Snoopgate controversy, Madam Irani was neither convincing nor confident.

Vikas Ki Rajniti happened next. Bhupinder Singh Hooda- CM Haryana, Hemant Soren- CM Jharkhand and Manohar Parrikar- CM  Goa came together to discuss the development models of their states. Mr. Manohar had lots to say about Goa’s progress and Tejpal case, he said there would be a fast track court to deal with it. Soren ji said there has been progress in Jharkhand and his present focus is to take the developments from cities to the villages.( A good thought definitely and need of the hour and I hope he does) Hoodaji said that politics had both negative and positive aspects to it but positivity should be shown in bright lights. In addition he absolutely denied giving land to his favorable people. He fumed on the allegation of selective land conversion. He said he was there to discuss  state’s progress and was not there to malign anyone. It was good to see media being unbiased and trying to unearth the truth. The session ended on a heated note.

I was disappointed when Kapil Sharma of Comedy Nights fame did not turn up. I love his comedy absolutely. Sunil Grover aka Guththi was back to entertain over Masala Chai.    It was tea and coffee tea!!

Desi Girl,  Priyanka Chopra turned up looking ravishing in red and cream dress. Though I am not a great fan of hers but was glad to hear her talk. She is definitely a youth icon. Versatility was evident in her when she sang, danced and interacted engagingly. She spoke about her wonderful relation with her father and also told that he was known as the singing surgeon. She said she is a great foodie and has never been to a gym…. Really?  She revealed about her passion, talents, learning ABCD through singing, her story of grabbing the role of Barfi, about her new film on Mary Com. And definitely she takes pride in being the chosen one as the brand ambassador of GUESS and we all should be proud of it. Enjoy the click of hers from my cam…

RPN Singh, Jay Panda, Anurag Thakur and Tejashwi Yadav formed the Lunch Panel of Youngistan.  Truly speaking it was only Anurag Thakur who was worth a hear in my view. If they actually make the young stars of politics, then I am disappointed. I wonder how Tejashwi Yadav is dealing while his father is in jail for scam though he said the support was immense. Anurag Thakur pointed out quite rightly that Narendra Modi is atleast coming in the crowd and facing the country men while Rahul Gandhi is missing from the mainstage in times of crucial issues. Why should the youngsters look forward to him? I concur!

A grand luncheon treat awaited us post the above session. Enjoy the shot as I enjoyed the lunch and the break.

Luncheon Treat at Le Meridien

Beta Bada Naam Karega had a special guest Akhilesh Yadav- CM Uttar Pradesh. I wanted to hear him talk having been born and brought up in the state and must confess he failed to impress as a speaker. The spark in him was not there, though he bragged about the good done by his party. I do like it personally that he did not spend time in demolishing what Mayawati had wasted money on. He has taken his decisions which even his father has complained about. At the same time he too accepted that some mistakes were made definitely. CM ji, how long can we just ignore the mistakes. Newys he gave a pick up line, Mayawati ji ko Behenji nahi Buaji kahiye.

One of the best sessions in my view was Vote Apna Mazhab Paraya. Elimination of religions from politics was taken up between Maulana Mahmood Madani, Dr Praveen Togadia, Raashid Alvi, ShahNawaz Hussain  and Arif Momaamad Khan. Mr. Togadia felt a minority among the lot. Jokes apart this was some serious discussion. Vote bank and favours to minority groups were discussed openly and closely. The dialogues and defensive interactions were juicy. Mr. Arif Mohammad was good with his orative prowess. He said there should be nothing like majority and minority, everyone should be treated as a human. He also instigated Mr. Togadia on reincarnation and said what if in next birth he was born a Muslim. There is no reservation of souls.

BJP and Congress came face to face again when Veterans Kamal Nath and Arun jaitley took the stage in the session named Kinka Hoga Raj Tilak. One was ready to accept the defeat and believed that the people knew what the party had done. The other one was not banking on exit polls but was confident of the win. I was surprised to see how these people talked candidly and cordially. Basically politics is fight if ideologies and not people. Indeed a good discussion, not sure how honest they were and why they dont behave so well when in parliament.

Everyone knows and loves to talk about the social activist Anna Hazare. I was anxious to hear him speak in the session Hum AAP ke hai Kaun but to my disappointment. We really look towards him but somewhere I felt he was not clear whether Arvind Kejriwal had cheated him or not. And also how does he want to get the Lokpal bill, yes the government has cheated him even after giving a promise but I guess its important that one has to take a strong stand. He maintained on one thing that he will not allow Mr. Kejriwal to join him in his next Aandolan, no parties allowed to be with him stage.

Yo Yo Honey Singh was impressive in the next session Aunty Police Bula Legi. Wow! this man has guts and knows what he is doing. There was passion and confidence in his work, in his rap and in his talk. I am not very fond of his songs except Lungi dance but I must say this guy will go places. There was so much conviction in him and he clearly faced his criticism and justified his lyrics strongly.

Rajneeti ki Gandi baat was a session that was important and quite relevant. Why bad words have to be used? Politicians should behave soberly, I wonder why they speak rubbish for each other and in return tarnish their own names. The discussion happened between Ajay Maken and Ravi Shankar Prasad. The unwarranted comments should not come and they discussed it. But they also said media should no be focusing on it but then who will show the real face to the public. Somewhere it felt they would continue to do it further as well… he he..

After the Tea break, Quaisar Jani as Mahatma Gandhi in the following session Satyagraha 2014 failed to impress. I would let it pass. No Gandhiji should not be taken in a light mode. Dint quite enjoy neither do I appreciate this version of Father of Nation. Cocktails were more interesting and ones to look forward to. 🙂
MahaManch par Mahila Shakti was a rejuvenating session indeed. Call me a feminist but I loved the Deviyan of politics come and talk together. Sheila Dixit was not very supportive to the idea that women reservation is needed in politics but Sushma Swaraj and Brinda Kalat made sense absolutely. They said that since the ticket givers are men, women have to struggle a lot. Women folks should not be rejected outrightly in any case. They have amazing calibre and have proved themselves in all fields. The last but not the least session was power packed and I really wish something concrete comes out on this some day. But I must add male dominance thrives in all fields and I just hate it when women have to prove themselves both at home and work everyday…
A gala dinner to conclude with and some great networking with India Today Group made my day worth it. The experience was awesome because I got a chance to hear many personalities whom I had never bothered to look up to. Its important to know people, hear their mind and then make views about them.
Happy Blogging!!!

One thought on “Agenda AajTak- Hindi Jagat Ka Mahamanch- Day 2

  1. I blog quite often and I really thank you for your information. The
    article has really peaked my interest. I’m going to bookmark your site and keep checking
    for new information about once per week. I subscribed to your RSS feed too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.