Derek O'Brien (born 13 March 1961) is an Indian politician, television personality and quiz master. He is a
Member of Parliament in the
Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...
from
West Bengal
West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
and member of the
AITC. He is the chief national spokesperson as well as leader of the AITC Parliamentary Party in the Rajya Sabha. He has been suspended several times from Parliament.
Prior to his Parliamentary career, he became well known as the quizmaster for the
Bournvita Quiz Contest and other shows.
Personal background
O'Brien comes from an
Irish family and can trace his paternal origins to an Irish soldier who came to India in the early 1860s and whose descendants married into the
Bengali community. O'Brien is based in Kolkata and speaks, reads and writes
Bengali as his mother tongue. O'Brien's grandfather, Amos O'Brien, was the first Christian to serve as head of the Department of English,
Banaras Hindu University
Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...
, and also taught at
Ravenshaw College in
Cuttack
Cuttack (, or officially Kataka in Odia language, Odia ), is the former capital, deputy capital and the 2nd largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. It is also the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised f ...
.
O'Brien went to
St. Xavier's Collegiate School in
Kolkata
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
and, for a short period,
St. Columba's School in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
, and then spent two years at
Scottish Church College
Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in Asia. ...
, Kolkata.
O'Brien is the eldest of three sons of Joyce and
Neil O'Brien (19342016).
Neil O'Brien worked and retired as the chairman and managing director of
Oxford University Press India as well as leading the
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...
community for two decades.
He is married to Tonuca Basu, who is practising medicine in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. He was earlier married to Rila Banerjee and the couple has a daughter.
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
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generall ...
Ogilvy in 1984 and became its Creative Head for Kolkata and Delhi. Simultaneously, he embarked on a career as a
quiz
A quiz is a form of mind sport in which people attempt to answer questions correctly on one or several topics. Quizzes can be used as a brief Educational assessment, assessment in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abil ...
master 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.
Derek O'Brien has conducted quizzes in the
UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi),
Bahrain
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...
,
Kuwait
Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...
,
Qatar
Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
,
Oman
Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...
,
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. In 2008, he travelled to
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
to host a television quiz for schools from
Islamabad
Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...
,
Lahore
Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...
and
Karachi
Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...
. 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
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
,
Yale
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
and
Columbia universities in the United States, as well as several
Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and
Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the
National Law School of India University
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), commonly referred to as the National Law School (NLS), is a Public university, public State university (India), state law university established under the National Law School of India Act, 19 ...
,
Bengaluru
Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
,
Hindu College, and
Shri Ram College of Commerce
Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) is an Indian higher education institution in the fields of commerce, economics and business management. A constituent college of the University of Delhi, it was founded in 1926 by seven leading businessmen na ...
in Delhi, and
Loreto College,
Kolkata
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
.
He has served as president of the Dalhousie Institute Club.
Political career
O'Brien joined the
Trinamool Congress
The All India Trinamool Congress (; AITC), simply known as Trinamool Congress, is an Indian political party that is mainly influential in the Federated state, state of West Bengal. It was founded by Mamata Banerjee on 1 January 1998 as a Lis ...
in 2004, when the party was still in opposition in West 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
Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 2 ...
, and felt she was the only one who could defeat the then
CPI(M)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the six national parties of India. ...
-led government in the state.
Spokesperson for the Trinamool Congress
O'Brien soon became a spokesperson for the Trinamool Congress and was identified as the rare
white-collar,
English-speaking
The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...
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 West Bengal since 1977.
He pioneered his party's
social media outreach.
O'Brien is frequently seen on news television shows and is a regular commentator on political and policy issues. He wrote a weekly column for ''
NDTV
New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy.
NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...
'' and his articles have appeared in ''
Times of India
''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...
,'' ''
Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...
'' and
''Indian Express''.
In 2011, following the Trinamool Congress victory in the West Bengal assembly election, O'Brien was sent to the
Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...
.
First term in Rajya Sabha
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
A whip is a blunt weapon or implement used in a striking motion to create sound or pain. Whips can be used for flagellation against humans or animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain, or be used as an audible cue thro ...
in the Rajya Sabha.
In 2012, O'Brien cast a vote in the
presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The p ...
to elect the 13th
President of India
The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...
. 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
The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...
and other assemblies and are not eligible to vote.
In 2012, he addressed the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...
as a member of the Indian parliamentary delegation.
Parliamentary Committee assignments
He was the Chairman of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture from September 1, 2017, to September 12, 2019. Presently, he serves as a member of the following key parliamentary committees: the General Purposes Committee, the Business Advisory Committee, the Ethics Committee, the Transport, Tourism and Culture Committee, and the Human Resource Development Committee. He served on the Railway Convention Committee
and 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
Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering User (computing), users and online content providers consistent tra ...
,
Jammu and Kashmir,
railways
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...
and
juvenile justice
Juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal systems, chi ...
, and participated in the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President of India's address to Parliament.
Second term in Rajya Sabha
His second term as an MP of the Rajya Sabha began on 19 August 2017 and is slated to end on 18 August 2023.
On 20 September 2020, when the Farm Reform Bill was placed in the Rajya Sabha for passage, Derek O'Brien protested, tore and threw the Rule Book as he, along with other members, heckled the
Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha
The Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (IAST: ) presides over the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha in the absence of the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha (vice president of India). The deputy chairperson is elected internally by the Rajya Sabha.
L ...
Harivansh Narayan Singh. Apparently, in the ensuing melee with other members also protesting and papers being flung in protest towards the deputy chairman, the rule book in question was torn by Derek O'Brien. Media verifiable sources mention that the house was in complete chaos and unrest to protest the bill.
This chaos led to the 10-minute suspension of the house.
Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs sought his suspension, along with some other members, as a consequence for his actions under rule 256 of procedure and conduct of business. He along with eight other MPs were suspended for one week on account of his unruly and unparliamentary behaviour.
He was suspended once again on 21 December 2021 for allegations of throwing a rulebook, as he was protesting against the
Elections Law (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
On 14 December 2023 he was suspended again from the Rajya Sabha following a confrontation with the Chairman,
Jagdeep Dhankhar
Jagdeep Dhankhar (; born 18 May 1951) is an Indian politician and lawyer serving as the vice president of India since 2022. He previously served as the List of governors of West Bengal, Governor of West Bengal from 2019 to 2022. He also serve ...
Parliamentary Committees
He is a member of the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Home Affairs.
On 6 January 2022 he wrote to
Anand Sharma, head of the committee, to discuss the alleged app "
Tek Fog" that "has serious ramifications and could jeopardise national security.". He wrote, "This application is capable of penetrating encrypted messaging platforms and secure social media conversations in order to heavily manipulate and exploit narratives on said platforms."
Other work
O'Brien is also an author. His books include the bestseller ''Inside Parliament: Views for the Front Row'', ''Derek Introduces the Constitution and Parliament of India'', ''My Way'', a motivational book, ''Speak Up Speak Out'', a compilation of elocution pieces, and several reference, quiz, and text books''.''
References
External links
Official websiteDerek O Brienat
PRS Legislative ResearchDerek O'Brienat
Penguin India
Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a smal ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Derek
1961 births
Trinamool Congress politicians from West Bengal
Living people
Indian television presenters
Politicians from Kolkata
Indian Christians
Scottish Church College alumni
University of Calcutta alumni
Indian people of Irish descent
St. Columba's School, Delhi alumni
Rajya Sabha members from West Bengal
Anglo-Indian people