11 takeaways from Hina Rabbani Khar & Ram Madhav’s interviews with Mehdi Hasan for desi politicians

Because ‘combat’ requires preparation.

WrittenBy:Abhinandan Sekhri
Date:
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Having watched two episodes of Head-to-Head, back-to-back, what struck me was how ill-prepared political guests are on what old-timers would call “the art of the interview” and I call “combat”. That is after all the more appropriate description of what these conversations are now, which is great actually. The two I watched were Mehdi Hasan in combat with Hina Rabbani Khar, the former Foreign Minister of Pakistan from the Pakistan Peoples Party and Mehdi Hasan in combat with Ram Madhav, the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

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Here are 11 takeaways from the two interviews:

1. Try and be aware of what the interview format is. Not every interview is the same and very few are benign, feel-good chitchats. Some are super-combative. Know what format you’re getting into.

2. Trashing a previous government or leader on an international platform doesn’t mean you look good (even though Modi did it a couple of times in his speeches abroad). Hina Rabbani Khar’s constant running down of other Pakistani ministers and governments made her look even more foolish and amateurish than she normally appears (which is hard). Ram Madhav flirted with that line but was wiser in staying away from such an error. And a takeaway for Indian news media: Remember how you were gushing over Khar and her wardrobe when she came to India? Makes you look pretty foolish, no, that no one here could question her like Hasan did.

3. A super-aggressive interviewer is his own worst enemy if you allow him the space to damage himself. Like Aikido, use his/her own energy and aggression against him or her. For that, never let the interviewer set the pace of the interview. Don’t get hurried or cornered into answering on his or her terms. Use silences. Silences work. If the interviewer comes with all guns blazing and after a long and spirited rant ends with a question, pause a few seconds. It will make his hysteria look ridiculous. If he interrupts, don’t try to drown him out by talking over him. Stop for a few seconds again. Keep doing this. His constant interruptions will be underlined making him or her self-conscious and on the back foot.

4. Related to the previous point, try to determine the pace of the interview rather than be hurried or slowed by the pace set by the interviewer. Like basketball or football, the team that controls the pace of play controls the game.

5. Try not having a liability on your team who is full of bombast. Ram Madhav could have done well without his sympathiser Dr Gautam Sen on the sidelines. He did more damage than good. The ideal interview (from the guest’s perspective) is to get more people around to your point of view. Not make the hysterical fringe elements applaud your aggression and bravado (they will do that no matter what).

6. International forums have audience members whose questions are better informed and smarter than many of our Indian prime-time star anchors. Do not let your Indian experiences be the reference points of what to expect overseas or the base line where you draw your practice runs from.

7. Don’t expect “unbiased” or “agenda-free” chats. This is not math or science. It’s politics and social studies. Nothing is objective or agenda-free. Whether the bias is political or personal or the agenda is of a party or of a family, expect it. Don’t go to a gunfight armed with a garland expecting the same at the other end (unless you have fixed it already).

8. When you sense a flaw in the interviewer, exploit it to the maximum but don’t become a bully or overdo it. Mehdi Hasan was quoting incorrect data and leaning on hyperbole using “thousands” when that wasn’t the case. Each time he does that, use that silence mentioned earlier. Use the pause and gently point to the error. It accentuates the factual inaccuracy and puts the interviewer on the defensive, especially if done more than once.

9. Don’t defend the indefensible. I have read Golwalkar’s A Bunch of Thoughts (even interviewed Madhav about it) and the world knows Pakistan’s history with democracy, radicalism and terrorism. Both Madhav and Khar were trying to unsuccessfully defend some of that history. Can’t be done. Say it is in the past and contexts change, realities change and get on with it. A Bunch of Thoughts has some pretty bigoted crap, which cannot be defended, so why try? Set it aside with something like things-from-the-India-of-the-early-1900s-does-not-hold-true-for-India-of-now. That’s true for literature and even for science across nations. Even if you value Golwalkar’s spirit and what he stood for (which according to me is hard), you don’t have to defend his every word. He’s not Modi.

10. Every question need not be answered. All questions do not merit an answer. Especially because many are framed in a way that forces you into a corner of how to answer it. While in life it’s great to answer the questions asked, in an interview one can reject the question. Strike at the assumed axiom of the question.

11. Don’t attack the interviewer after an interview (or encourage your supporters to). Nothing makes you look more loser-like than that. Discrediting an interviewer or journalist who you think is compromised is okay, but to do that in response to a battering on his platform is more loser-like than saying the umpire cheated because you lost. No one buys it (except the extreme fringe loyal to you, which is not the target group for you in any interview) and it is not relevant to the immediate.

So dear desi politician, the next time you decide to give an interview (in phoren land especially), go prepared. After all, Akhand Bharat ki izzat ka sawaal hai.

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