Derek O'Brien (born 1961) is an Indian politician, author, television personality, public speaker and quiz show host. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of India's Parliament) from Bengal, representing the Trinamool Congress. He is national secretary and chief national spokesperson of his political party, as well leader of the Trinamool Congress' parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha.
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Personal background
O'Brien went to St. Xavier's Collegiate School in the city and for a short period, St. Columba's School in Delhi, and then spent two years at Scottish Church College, Kolkata. O'Brien is the oldest of three sons of Joyce and Neil O'Brien (1934-2016) . His father was a publisher. He retired as chairman and managing director of Oxford University Press (OUP) India.
O'Brien is based in Kolkata and speaks, reads and writes Bengali. He belongs to the Anglo-Indian community, which was led by his father for two decades. He has served as president of the Dalhousie Institute(DI). O'Brien comes from an Anglo-Indian family and can trace his origins to an Irish soldier who came to India in the early 1860s and whose descendants married into the Bengali community. O'Brien's grandfather, Amos O'Brien, was the first Christian to serve as head of the Department of English, Banaras Hindu University, and also taught at Cuttack's Ravenshaw College.
Maps Derek O'Brien (politician)
Professional and quizzing career
O'Brien's first job was as a journalist at Sportsworld magazine. After a short stint there, he joined the advertising agency Ogilvy in 1984 and became its Creative Head for Kolkata and Delhi. Simultaneously, he embarked on a career as a quizmaster and quiz show host, having been introduced to quizzing by his father, Neil O'Brien, who had conducted the first open quiz in India in 1967. In 1988, O'Brien hosted his first all-India quizzes as a professional quizmaster: the Bata North Star Quiz and the Maggi Quiz for Schools. In 1990, he joined hands with Economic Times for the Brand Equity Quiz for business corporations. In 1991, he finally quit Ogilvy and set up his own knowledge, education and publishing company, Big Ideas - since renamed Derek O'Brien and Associates.
O'Brien conducted quizzes in the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the United States. In 2008, he travelled to Pakistan to host a television quiz for schools from Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. For three years in a row (2003-05), O'Brien won the Indian Television Academy award for Best Host in a Television Gameshow.
O'Brien has spoken at, among others, Harvard, Yale and Columbia Universities in the US, several Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology(IITs), the National Law School of India University in Bangalore, Hindu College and Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi, and Loreto College, Kolkata.
O'Brien authored the Dunlop Cricket Quiz Book (with Indian cricketers), along with co-author Andy O'Brien, in 1992.
Political career
O'Brien joined the Trinamool Congress in 2004, when the party was still in opposition in Bengal. He later wrote that he was drawn to the charisma and personality of the Trinamool Congress leader (now chief minister of Bengal) Mamata Banerjee, and felt she was the only one who could defeat the then CPI(M)-led Communist government in the state.
O'Brien soon became a spokesperson for the Trinamool Congress and was identified as the rare white-collar, English-speaking politician in the party. He came to national media attention during Mamata Banerjee's protest against the CPI(M) government's land acquisition attempt in Singur(2006), and then in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha election, in which Trinamool Congress handed the CPI(M) its first defeat in Bengal since 1977. He pioneered his party's social media outreach.
In 2011, following the Trinamool Congress victory in the Bengal assembly election, O'Brien was sent to the Rajya Sabha.
He currently serves on parliamentary committees relating to Home Affairs, IT, Telecom, HRD, the Business AdvisoryCommittee and the Ethics Committee. He also serves on the Railway Convention Committee. O'Brien has also been a member of parliamentary Select (specific issue) Committees, on the Goods and Services Tax Constitutional Amendment Bill, the Insurance Bill, the Land Acquisition Bill, the Citizenship Act Amendment Bill, He has spoken in Parliament on a range of issues, from demonetisation, to net neutrality, Jammu and Kashmir, railways and juvenile justice, and participated in the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President of India's address to Parliament.
In 2012, he addressed the United Nations General Assembly as a member of the Indian parliamentary delegation. O'Brien is frequently seen on news television shows and is a regular commentator on political and policy issues. He writes a weekly column for ndtv.com and his articles have appeared in Times of India, Hindustan Times and Indian Express.
He has also written several books, including Derek Introduces the Constitution and Parliament of India, My Way, a motivational book, besides several quiz and reference books, such as successive volumes of the Bournvita Book of Knowledge.
He was sworn in as Member of Parliament on 19 August 2011 and is one of 16 MPs elected to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. In 2012, Trinamool Congress named him as its Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha.
In 2012, O'Brien cast a vote in the presidential election to elect the 13th President of India. His vote is believed to be the first presidential vote cast by an elected member of the Anglo-Indian community--as members of the community have previously been nominated to the Lok Sabha and other assemblies and are not eligible to vote.
References
External links
- Derek's Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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