The conclave started with a high-voltage session with two controversial politicians — Swamy and Owaisi taking over the stage.
The day-long Zee India Conclave, spread over nine sessions, was marked by thoughtful debates and trailblazing ideas shaping the polity.
Newsmakers such as BJP chief Amit Shah, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, BJP's in-charge for Tripura Sunil Deodhar and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi refreshed the audience, whose mood swung form emotive to composed.
The conclave started with a high-voltage session with two controversial politicians — Swamy and Owaisi taking over the stage. While both of them touched upon various issues including poverty, development and rising unemployment and terrorism.
They also charged the atmosphere with their opposing views on Muslim issues.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, before leaving the stage, had something more for the audience. He had brought with him the original copy of the Constitution, which contained sketches by Nandalal Bose illustrating the ideas the chapters conveyed. As examples, he flipped to the section on Citizenship which is illustrated with a sketch on the 'Vedic life in India'; In Fundamental Rights is a visual of Rama returning to Ayodhya from Lanka with Sita and Lakshmana; Finance, Property and Suits is illustrated by a dancing Nataraja.
He asked the audience to "remember" that Akbar is in the illustrated edition, "but not Aurangzeb". Summing up his short foray into art history, he noted that the illustrated Constitution was signed by all members of the Constituent Assembly.
While trying to argue that India's traditions and culture were imbibed in its nationalism, he said today's 'secular' constitutional nationalists would have objected to such illustrations by dismissing them as communal. Allying fears on curbs placed on media, he said most of the Cabinet ministers had experienced the Emergency in 1975 and fought for freedom of expression. "Be assured, we have suffered for raising the flag of freedom of expression and the press," he said.
Known for their temperament and histrionics, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Amar Singh, in two separate sessions, kept the audience on tenterhooks. Dr Abdullah began by shouting and blaming everything on media and his political rivals, but ended the session on an emotional note by singing a Ram bhajan sending the message of peace and love amid a standing ovation from the audience.
Yogi Adityanath was asked about a persisting myth: Whether it is true that a UP CM's visit to Noida is followed by bad luck; and whether his visit was a bad omen too. He replied that he doesn't believe in such things, and that "There is no such thing as 'unlucky'. We have come to power to get rid of all wrongs."
Sunil Deodhar, considered the architect of the BJP victory in the recent Assembly election in the northeast, sang in the Khasi dialect of Meghalaya, Manipuri and Bengali showcasing his connect with the region. He also translated the slogan 'Bharat Mata ki jai' into Khasi, amid an applause.
Union Minority Affairs minister, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, had a word of caution for his own party: Do not to allow the agenda of development to derail. "Don't derail out development agenda. It inculcates fears and our opponents put oil in the fire," he said. "Unfortunate incidents such as Pehlu Khan or hate speeches damage BJP's development agenda."
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 "Amit Shah at Zee India Conclave")
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