How does that go with heading a captialist organisation, doing business with America?
When I left the French software company where I first worked, I kept $450 for hitchhiking from Paris to Mysore, and donated the rest to the organisation “Brothers of the Third World”. I’m a capitalist in mind, a socialist at heart a compassionate capitalist, because we need clear thinking about the creation of wealth and jobs. But for those of us who live in a poor country where the gap between the haves and have-nots is large, where suffering is visible, we need to have our hearts in the right place. I see no conflict in being a capitalist and a socialist at the same time. As Bernard Shaw said, “If you’re not an idealist in your 20s you have no heart, if you’re an idealist in your 40s you have no brain.” Who was your role model? We Indians have a powerful role model in Mahatma Gandhi. He was a rare leader who walked the talk. He spoke about his concerns for the poor and led the life of a poor man even though he didn’t need to. Whatever he preached, he practised. In India, we need more
