The Come-To-Tea Committees
Ea r l ie r this year, those who followed the activities of Rajiv Gandhi when he came to the city, noticed that while for most of the time he remained in the shadow of his mother, he made one deviation. He agreed to attend a tea-party hosted in his honour by an organisation—hitherto unheard of—called the Economic Forum. The inquisitive, who ventured to find out who was present, speculated on the nature of this forum, which included people as disparate as the ageing politician S.K. Patil, textile magnate Nusli Wadia and film producer B.R. Chopra.
The more uncharitable concluded that the forum was an instant concoction put up so that a bunch of influential
people could meet the potential politician.
The Economic Forum, convened by Y.P. Trivedi which has since been engaged in diverse activity, arranged a discussion with S.S. Mahopatra, and belongs to a class of committees numerous in the city that specialise in
such ‘meetings’.