Scion Scindia
The charming scion of the illustrious Scindia clan, Mr. Jyotiraditya Scindia, is currently on an upswing in Parliament. The man, who had become the cynosure in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the Union Budget proposals, was on a lightning visit to Mumbai when ROMMEL RODRIGUES caught up with his address at a Rotary meet.
It is indeed rare for an educated enlightened and wealthy person at least in India to enter the rigmarole of politics but the Scindia family has done so over three generations. They have come out of not merely ivory towers but beautiful palaces, so much out of the heat and dust of the political arena. But, for a person like Jyotiraditya Scindia, who has been well qualified in finance with core experience with some of the best financial institutions of the world, Morgan Stanley, Merill Lynch, and some in the Silicon Valley, becoming a politician might not have been his remotest ambition.
He was comfortable with his business in Mumbai but destiny took a sudden turn and changed the entire course of his future after the death of the young and dynamic Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia, his father, who had been a great support for the Congress high command, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.
With the entry of Jyotiraditya Scindia (a brilliant student from four of the best institutes, Doon School, St. Stephens College, Harvard University from where he graduated in economics and Stanford University), the Congress now has more young (and clean) blood to adorn the corridors of its oft-tainted image.
Some excerpts from an interview conducted with Jyotiraditya on his way home after he addressed the Rotary Club of Bombay on the 'Status of the Indian Economy':
How did you take your fathers death?
Well that's a vacuum which cannot be filled at any cost. He was more than just a father to me. He was like a mentor and a friend. I will never be able to come out of this grief. Nevertheless, I nurture his teachings and want to do all that he has taught us to do. He taught us the mantra of 'sarvagya vikas', all over development of the people and that is what I am planning to do.
Can we trace your past upto being a parliamentarian?
Till I was 13 I was in Bombay, studied at Campion School and then I moved into the famous boarding school the Doon School and later I was in St. Stephen College. I went to the Harvard School from where I graduated into economics and latter came the Stanford University from where I did my MBA.
What's your view about the state of the economy today?
Today the country is passing through a bleak economic phase and if we do not correct the situation right now, we might lose the industrial development race to China. The government must prepare for a planned blueprint for economic growth. Unless we go in a planned manner we will remain way behind other countries in the Asian continent, where other countries are growing at a faster pace.
Finally, did the royal tag status ever came in your way?
Our father always taught us that the royal tag has nothing to do with what you want to do in life. We were imbibed from our birth that we have to excel into whatever profession we decided to pursue.