Delhi's new power elite? - Shri Ram College of Commerce

Copyright (C) 2001 The Times of India; Source: World Reporter (TM)
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Has the old schoolboy network of Doon been replaced by the tie that binds students of the 70s at Shri Ram College of Commerce? Whether it is Arun Jaitley, Vijay Goel or Ranjan Bhattacharya, the new power elite of the Capital has one thing in common: the c

When Union law minister Arun Jaitley, three-time Delhi MP Vijay Goel, TV anchor Rajat Sharma and one-half of India's First Couple, Ranjan Bhattacharya, went to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in pre-Tehelka times to ask him to be chief guest at the 75th anniversary celebrations of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), he was struck by the coincidence: all four were former students of an institution that is quickly replacing St. Stephen's-Doon School in the city's pecking order.

If Doon School was the old tie that bound the men around Rajiv Gandhi and led to the products invariably being associated with the Congress, it's SRCC that's produced Delhi's new power elite. Though they may have their common points (Rajiv Gandhi had to wish away Bofors, they are trying to do the same for Armsgate), their rise from student politics in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) mirrors the change in Indian society. Their school tie didn't matter. Jaitley, the son of an advocate, went to St Xavier's School, New Delhi. Goel, a champion of the unglamorous sport of kho kho, was a student of Dhanpatlal A.S. Higher Secondary School, Roopnagar. None of them, except Sharma who stayed in college till 1980 doing his M.Com, knew Ranjan Bhattacharya, a boarder, who did his schooling in Patna. "Ranjan was much too junior," says Goel, who says he did know his wife Gunnu (Namita Bhattacharya), a student of Daulat Ram College. So who are these guys, who have 30 years between them?

But it's not only in politics that SRCC students have thrived. Three judges of the Delhi High Court are from SRCC. As are most of the partners of Arthur Andersen in India. Bollywood's bad man Gulshan Grover is an old student from their era and an active alumnus. So is hotelier Lalit Suri, the man who has taken the lead in organising college get-togethers, and whose lawyer daughter Divya trained under Jaitley. "But many things have changed since we were students there," says Jaitley, who points to two SRCCs in his time: the commerce graduates who made it as executive directors of private banks and partners of top CA firms. And the others who stayed as middle-of-the-road Old Delhi CAs. "Now the bulk of the toppers are girls and there's more emphasis on academics," he says. Politics has taken a backseat. A lament echoed by Sri Ram Khanna, who insists that they never bothered about careers in their time. He quit politics in disgust in 1980 after three years as secretary of the New Delhi Janata Party. "Later events have only supported my belief that politics can never be an instrument of social progress." He doesn't think the SRCC products can be compared to those from St Stephen's and Doon. "There's no new power elite. They were just a set of leaders involved in issues larger than themselves." Dyed-in-the-wool Dosco-Stephanians also refuse to admit to it. Ask Mani Shankar Aiyar and all he'll say is: "God forbid. It is either a tragic coincidence or an equally tragic conspiracy."

The class of the '70s

RANJAN BHATTACHARYA (1976-79): A low profile political economics graduate of SRCC, he met Namita (Gunnu) Kaul, Vajpayees foster daughter when she was the secretary of her college. Went to the Oberoi School of Management. Sudhanshu Mittal (1979-82), friend of Pramod Mahajan, BJP activist and DUSU president from SRCC in 1981, met him when he married Namita.

ARUN JAITLEY (1970-73): The most senior in the group, the urbane legal eagle face of the BJP, requisitioned for a variety of roles, from trouble-shooting on Kandahar to strategising over Tehelka. He entered college in 1970 and was persuaded by Sri Ram Khanna, now a professor of international business at the Delhi School of Economics and founder of a consumer activist organisation, VOICE, to join the ABVP. Khanna, who was Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) president in 1972, recalls that the traditionally bania college suddenly became the hub of all turbulence "that makes a college the barometer of public opinion". Jaitley excelled in debating in Hindi and English. And in academics, so much so that he won all three awards the college had to offer. He was elected DUSU president in 1974, two years after becoming the college president.

RAJAT SHARMA (1975-78): One of the youngest of the lot, everyone remembers him as a "scrawny kid" whom Jaitley encouraged to debate in Hindi. From a modest background, he would walk to college from the dingy bylanes of Sabzi Mandi. Sharma became general secretary of the DUSU when Goel was president in 1977. He didnt make it to the elections the next year as he and Goel got rusticated after a students agitation.

VIJAY GOEL (1973-76): The most political of the group, his father Charti Lal Goel was deputy mayor of the Delhi Assembly and is now its speaker. Quite fond of declaiming about Vajpayee, hes proud of the picture where the PM is holding the reins of the horse at his 1985 wedding to Preeti. From coming to college on a scooter to a thriving business in supplying paper, the voluble Goel is never shy of seeking out the media. "And in all our years together, you know weve never fought," says Jaitley. "Not even Arun and I," says Goel, with a laugh. But the college was where they earned their political spurs. The day Emergency was proclaimed, Goel, Sharma and Jaitley burnt an effigy of Indira Gandhi. When the national satyagraha was announced, Goel led the protest the first day and Sharma the next day.

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