Pavan Varma has worn many hats in his long career: he was a Rajya Sabha MP, an advisor to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, a writer, a seasoned diplomat, an official government spokesperson, the press secretary to the President—and that’s just to name a few. Currently, he’s the national general secretary of the Janata Dal (United) and the author of a new book, Chanakya’s View: Understanding India in Transition, a collection of essays ranging from the issues of Ram Mandir and the Sardar Patel statue to India’s position at the international level.

In conversation with Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Pavan talks about Article 370, the bigotry in party politics and the importance of facts in this day and age, among other things. He believes that national symbols serve a purpose in society and although thousands of crores could be spent elsewhere if not on the statue of Sardar Patel, the hegemony of the Nehru-Gandhi family should be dealt with properly. 

Discussing the Ram Mandir dispute, Pavan says, “Every year we have the Ramleela which costs lakhs of rupees. One argument could be you could use that money to distribute dal and bread to the poor who can’t have two meals a day. But then there are things that happen in practised faiths where you do require certain symbols of devotion, of prayer, of assurance—and a temple is essentially a repository of all three of these.”

Location Courtesy: Quorum