Open dialogue: When Anand Mahindra's tweet about Somnath Chatterjee sparked a debate

By Shannon Tellis

When Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra tweeted about the death of former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee last week, he probably didn’t anticipate the debate it would spark. But the auto tycoon took it in his stride and used it as an opportunity to comment on the need for an open dialogue.

“My leanings are clearly not to the left, but I’ve always found conversations with an intelligent communist more interesting than the usual fare.. Somnath Chatterjee was one such fascinating conversationalist. And a gentleman to boot. The political landscape is emptier without him,” Mahindra had tweeted.



Calling attention to a fellow tweeter who claimed that no one intelligent would have believed in socialism, Mahindra remarked that it was sweeping statements like these that worried him. He further said that sweeping statements preclude any type of dialogue.



This spawned a flurry of tweets on the merits of different economic models — socialist, capitalist and controlled economy — in creating robust first-world economies and the fine line between rationality and political correctness.