From quizmaster to arch-protester: The emergence of Derek O’Brien

Suspended for a week for his “unruly” behaviour in the Rajya Sabha during the passage of the contentious farm Bills, O’Brien says he consciously chose not to be tame in protest

At 43, the sports journalist-turned-ad man-turned-quiz master was seriously thinking about another career switch. He was leading a successful quiz company by then, but the political bug had bit him hard. Derek O’Brien decided to follow his instincts.

He started meeting Mamata Banerjee occasionally to discuss politics. The year was 2004. At that time, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was still restricted to just two seats in the Lok Sabha and the Left continued to dominate West Bengal.

But O'Brien was coming to believe that Mamata was an agent of change. His father, Neil O’Brien, an Anglo-Indian credited with conducting the first formal quiz competition in the country, was nominated to the state Assembly three times by the Left Front government (he later became a nominated Lok Sabha MP in 1996 during the term of the United Front government). But the junior O’Brien decided to strike out on his own and joined the TMC formally in 2005.

He was eventually proved right. And how. ‘Didi’ went on to win the 2011 Assembly polls in Bengal hands down, setting a historic record of sorts by outsing the Left Front after an uninterrupted 34-year rule. The first thing Mamata told him after the 2011 elections was that she was sending him to the Rajya Sabha. Nine years later, Derek O’Brien is now the Trinamool's face and voice in Parliament.

Last week, the 59-year-old MP made it to the front pages for doing what sounds unthinkable by his standards and many others. He rushed into the Well of Rajya Sabha, flashed the Rule Book at the Deputy Chairman during the passage of two contentious agriculture Bills. This was after Deputy Chairman Harivansh ignored the Opposition’s protests over extending the day’s session until the Bills were passed. The Bills were later passed by a controversial voice vote.

Floor leaders seldom rush into the Well of the House. But that day, more Opposition MPs joined O’Brien in the Well, and the next day, he along with seven other MPs were suspended from the House for “unruly” behaviour. “That was a conscious decision I made. It was not the time for dainty gestures. When you pervert the rules of democracy, we have to rewrite the rules of protest and opposition” he told DH. He insists that he did not tear the rule book as alleged and dares the BJP to show a single footage to prove it.

He sounds very much like a seasoned political hand now. But it has taken him years of work to get here.

As Mamata plunged into the Singur-Nandigram protests back in 2006-07, O’Brien’s stock slowly rose within the party he had recently joined. She wanted to leverage his communication skills to attract the educated elite and appointed him a spokesperson to address the English media. After all, as a journalist, ad-man and a quiz master doing TV shows, his forte was communication. He, however, chose to remain in the back-room till 2011. “I did not contest the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and 2011 Assembly elections. I did not want to be parachuted. I wanted to first earn the love and respect of the party cadre,” he says.

Since then he has seen a steep rise. After entering the Rajya Sabha in 2011, he became Chief Whip in 2012 and by 2015, he was in the front row leading the party after veteran Mukul Roy fell out with Mamata. Then 54, he was the youngest among Opposition leaders, sharing space with the likes of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Pawar, Sharad Yadav, Ramgopal Yadav and Sitaram Yechury. He definitely lacked their stature, experience and political tact but was a quick learner.

While he has earned his space among the Opposition leaders, all are not in awe of him. Some MPs would say he is “theatrics personified”, “lacks a nuanced approach”, that Bengal politics “restricts” him and that he is not a mass leader. However, it can be said of O’Brien that what he lacks, he makes up in enthusiasm. This was on ample display last week.