00:01Good evening. Last year I stood here and spoke of a world in flux and flex mode.
00:09Tonight it just feels like flux and flex hyperscaled and we have a world order in freefall and global trade
00:19in chokehold.
00:21We watch almost hypnotized as war strategy is decided on the fly.
00:27Everything we thought was sacrosanct is suddenly negotiable.
00:32Borders, decorum, safety, ethics, rule of war, the currency of goodness, the semblance of peace and prosperity.
00:45Theocracies and monarchies were always shrouded in a veil of absolute power.
00:50What is under siege now is this century's most revered political system.
00:58Democracy itself. Its institutions unable to contain the big personalities of their leaders.
01:06The checks and balances within which democratic leadership operated have been breached.
01:12We have now what I am calling personocracies.
01:17Democracies that revolve around a personality.
01:20It seems democracies can also legitimize absolute power.
01:26Some may even say that is the need of the hour.
01:29On the eve of this war, Saturday 28th February, we had just returned from Tehran.
01:36We had gone to do an exclusive interview of Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Arachi, who is today a household name.
01:45After his interview with us in a mesmerizing hall of mirrors, he left for the peace talks to Geneva.
01:52Our flight was a day later, so we wandered the streets of Tehran.
01:56A window into Iran has been restricted and we were very curious.
02:00A dusty city moving to the holy rhythm of Ramzan, unaware of the epic fury that was about to be
02:09unleashed.
02:10Tehran is not a pretty or historic city like a postcard demands.
02:15Its people are the real attraction.
02:18Warm and poetic, answering our questions in verse and anecdotes.
02:24Maybe you think I am taking sides.
02:27And yes, I am.
02:29The side of all of us.
02:31The side of humanity.
02:33Of all people.
02:35The side of our brilliance.
02:37The side of little laughter that lights up the room.
02:41The side of clear blue skies.
02:42The side of houses that become homes.
02:45The side of love that binds families.
02:48The side of flowers that bloom.
02:50The side of prayers that are answered.
02:53The side of those that hope when all else fail.
02:57The side of invisible strings that bind us together.
03:02Or should bind us together.
03:05There are so many truths and sides to this world.
03:08And we tried to bring you multiple perspectives.
03:12Over the last two days, you have heard from ten foreign envoys.
03:18So that you can have an informed point of view.
03:22In fact, that is always our effort with the conclave and our newsroom.
03:27And everyone doesn't always agree with our guest list.
03:30We invited Yasin Malik and an ideological section had an issue.
03:35We invited Salman Rushdie and the Congress had an issue.
03:38We invited Dalai Lama and the Chinese had an issue.
03:42This year too, some sections have questioned our speaker choices.
03:46We believe that democracies and newsrooms are strengthened, not by silencing, but by challenging controversial figures and putting their views
03:56up for scrutiny.
04:04We don't shy away from difficult conversations.
04:07We believe engagement, not exclusion, is the way to resolution.
04:12And maybe if more of us thought so, we could have avoided this war.
04:18So many countries are now scarred by this war, thrust upon them.
04:23Just see the dead toe.
04:25Everyone counting their own.
04:28Yet this war doesn't care for nationalities.
04:31It reduces all, yours and theirs, to rubble.
04:36PM Modi has often spoken of one Earth, one family, one future.
04:41Others need to pay heed.
04:43Over the last fortnight, our fragile planet has been pounded with three times the explosive yield of the atomic bombs
04:54of World War II.
04:55Just think about that.
04:57Yuval Noah Harari, modern day historian, has warned,
05:01Could it even be that we are already in the midst of World War III and we just haven't realized
05:09it yet?
05:09If you ask people, let's say in May 1941, they would not tell you that they are living in the
05:17midst of the Second World War.
05:19Only with hindsight we understand it.
05:23In hindsight, this war against Iran could be seen as one that protected all of humanity from bad actors, oppression
05:32and nuclear Armageddon.
05:34Or it could just be World War III.
05:37I want to end with the words of celebrated poet, Mahamud Darwish.
05:42The wars will end and the leaders will shake hands.
05:47And that old woman will remain waiting for her martyred son.
05:51And that girl will wait for her beloved husband.
05:55And the children will wait for their heroic father.
05:58I do not know who sold the homeland, but I know who paid the price.
06:07It's a reflective note to wrap Conclave 2026.
06:14But in the end, we celebrate what we have.
06:18This moment.
06:20And this moment is alive because of us.
06:24And we must honor it by living it in full.
06:28Today, we are immersed between the joy of being T20 champions and the magic balm of a Bollywood heartthrob, Akshay
06:37Kumar.
06:38Enjoy the moment to the fullest.
06:42Until next time.
06:44May peace be upon us all.
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