Susan and Ramesh Kapoor(President Medical-Technical Gases) hosted a fundraising event for the America India Foundation at their residence in Winchester, MA on Sunday, Nov 16 2003. The guest of honor for the evening was author diplomat Shashi Tharoor.

The event began with a welcome by the host Ramesh Kapoor. “We are so pleased that AIF has caught the attention of second generation Indian-Americans.They form the bulk of the volunteer base for this organization” said Kapoor. Bharat Nath (son of Shashi & Dr.Dwarkanath of Andover, MA) who is the president of the Boston chapter spoke about AIF programs. “We are very excited about our two core programs - the Digital Equalizer and the Service Corps. The Digital Eqaulizer project is making great strides in bridging the digital divide in India. Our hope is to have computers used in every school in India. We have made a great deal of progress in this arena. The Service Corps program builds bridges between America and India by sending talented and skilled young Americans to work with leading non-governmental organizations in India for a period of nine months.” said Bharat Nath. Nath applauded the work done by the volunteers of the Boston chapter. “The Boston chapter is the strongest chapter of AIF. Our dedicated crew of volunteers has done so much” said Nath. Chirag Shah, the former president spoke about the overarching goals of AIF.

Drew Prasad introduced the guest speaker, award winning author and the Under-Secretary-General for communications and Public Information for the United Nations, Shashi Tharoor .

Here is an excerpt from his presentation that was based on his latest book "Nehru - The Invention of India"

In the recent years Nehru – who can be credited with the Invention of India has been repudiated in India and forgotten everywhere else. Jawaharlal Nehru's impact on India is too great not to be re-examined periodically. His legacy is ours, whether we agree with everything he stood for or not. What we are today, both for good and for ill, we owe in great measure to one man. Today, nearly four decades after his death, as an India still seemingly clad in the trappings of Nehruvianism steps out into the 21st Century, little of Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy appears intact. That is why I undertook my short biography: to examine this great figure of 20th Century nationalism from the vantage point of the beginning of the 21st.

Nehru: The Invention of India is not a scholarly work; it is, instead, a reinterpretation — both of an extraordinary life and career and of the inheritance it left behind for every Indian. I hope it will make for some good dinner table conversations about this great man.....

I have sought to analyse critically the principal pillars of Nehru's legacy to India — democratic institution-building, staunch pan-Indian secularism, socialist economics at home and a foreign policy of non-alignment — all of which were integral to a vision of Indianness that is fundamentally contested today....

Nehru’s commitment to Democratic ideals was unswerving. He could have very easily become a dictator as did many leaders in other countries which gained independence. By not moving away from democracratic ideals he set a strong example that inspired others – especially people from the army to steer away from dictatorial ambitions.

Whatever may be said of India, we are a free country where a woman from an untouchable caste can become Chief Minister. We have complete freedom of the press – perhaps the only democratic country to have communist newspapers. I think we owe a lot of that to Nehru.

In the question answer session that followed, Tharoor set the record straight on a few issues. On the question of Kashmir he explained that the accession of Kashmir to India was orchestrated by Lord Mountbatten who was still the Viceroy of India during that and not Jawaharlal Nehru (as is popularly believed). On the question of education he agreed that Nehru paid little attention to primary education and focused on the higher education with mixed results. On the issue of “Dynasty building” he said he had found no evidence anywhere that suggested that Nehru had intentions of starting a dynasty. His answers to other questions were precise and thoughful. The event ended with a book-signing by Tharoor and a dinner catered by Bombay Club.

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