It’s my pleasure to continue a tradition we started in Walk the Talk featuring the two youngest MPs in the newly elected Parliament. Last time, we had Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora. Now, we have Agatha Sangma from the Northeast and Hamdullah Sayeed from Lakshadweep. They are from different parties — the NCP and the Congress — which are allies at the Centre, but adversaries in these MPs’ constituencies.

•(To Hamdullah) You had an NCP candidate against you.

(To Agatha) You had a Congress candidate against you.

Agatha: Yes.

•You studied in the same college.

Hamdullah: Yes, we studied in the same college, Indian Law Society, Pune.

•Both lawyers and worked for the same law firm.

Agatha: That’s right, FoxMandal.

•When you studied together, did you know this was your destiny?

Agatha: I think both of us knew each other in college and we did discuss once in a while the prospects of joining politics later. We didn’t expect to be part of politics this early. But it so happened and it’s really great to be colleagues here now.

•Why did you say later years? Did you see politics as an old people’s profession?

Hamdullah: No. If you see my father’s record, he was the baby of the House in the fourth Lok Sabha in 1967.

•If I may add, (to Hamdullah) your father, late P M Sayeed, distinguished himself as the ambassador of a region so far away. (To Agatha)And your father is my old friend, Purno Sangma, our former Speaker and one of our liveliest politicians.

... contd.