Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson and Executive Editor-in-Chief of the India Today Group, delivered a reflective closing address at the India Today Conclave 2026, warning that the world may be entering an era where powerful personalities overshadow democratic institutions — what she termed “persona-cracies.” Drawing from her recent visit to Tehran and conversations around the escalating global conflict, Kalli Purie spoke about a world in flux where long-held norms — from borders to the rules of war — appear increasingly negotiable. Calling for empathy, open dialogue, and a commitment to humanity amid geopolitical turmoil, she ended on a poignant note about the human cost of war and the need to cherish moments of peace.
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Here’s Kalli Purie’s full speech:
Good evening
Last year, I stood here and spoke of a world in flux and flex mode.
Tonight, it just feels like flux and flex, hyper scaled and we have a world order in free fall and global trade in a choke hold.
We watch almost hypnotised as war strategy is decided on the fly.
Everything we thought was sacrosanct is suddenly negotiable.
Borders.
Decorum.
Safety.
Ethics.
Rules of war
The currency of goodness.
The semblance of peace and prosperity.
Theocracies and monarchies were always shrouded in veil of absolute power.
What’s under siege now is this century’s most revered political system, DEMOCRACY itself.
It’s institutions unable to contain the big personalities of their leaders.
The checks and balances within which democratic leadership operated have been breached.
We have now what I am calling
PERSONA CRACIES.
It seems democracies can also legitimatise absolute power. Some may say that’s the need of the hour.
On the eve of this war, Saturday 28th February, I had just returned from Tehran.
We had gone to do an exclusive interview of Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi who is today a household name.
After his interview with us in a mesmerising hall of mirrors, he left for the peace talks in Geneva.
Our flight was a day later so we wandered the streets of Tehran. A window into Iran has been restricted, and we were curious.
Tehran is not pretty or historic like a post card demands.
A dusty city moving to the holy rhythm of Ramzan, unaware of the epic fury that was about to be unleashed.
Its people are the real attraction. Warm and poetic, answering our questions in verse and anecdotes.
Maybe you think I am taking sides.
Yes, I am.
The side of all of us
The side of humanity, of all people
The side of our brilliance
The side of little laughter that lights up a room
The side of clear blue skies
The side of houses that become homes
The side of love that binds families
The side of flowers that bloom
The side of prayers that are answered
The side of those that hoped when all else failed
The side of invisible strings that bind us together.
Or SHOULD bind us together.
There are so many truths and sides to this war and we tried to bring you multiple perspectives.
Over the last two days you have heard from 10 foreign envoys, so that you can have an informed point of view.
In fact that has always been our effort with the conclave and in our newsroom.
And everyone doesn’t always agree with our guest list. We invited Yasin Malik and an ideological section had an issue, we invited Salman Rushdie and the Congress had an issue, we invited Dalai Lama and the Chinese had an issue.
This year too some sections have questioned our speaker choices.
We believe that democracies and newsrooms are strengthened not by silencing but by challenging controversial figures and putting their views up for scrutiny. We don’t shy away from difficult conversations. We believe engagement, not exclusion, is the way to resolution.
And maybe if more of us thought so, we could have avoided this war.
So many countries are now scarred by this war thrust upon them and this is the current death toll. Everyone counting their own.
Yet this war doesn’t care for nationalities it reduces all, yours and theirs, to rubble. PM Modi has often spoken of One earth, One family, One future. Others need to pay heed.
Over the last fortnight our fragile planet has been pounded with three times the explosive yield of the atomic bombs of world war 2.
Yuval Noah Harari, modern day historian has warned “could it even be that we are already in the midst of the third world war, and we just haven’t realised it yet? If you ask people, let’s say, in May 1941, they would not tell you that they are living in the midst of the second world war. Only with hindsight we understand it.”
In hindsight, this war against Iran could be seen as one that protected all of humanity from bad actors, oppression and nuclear Armageddon, or it could just be world war 3.
I want to end with the words of celebrated poet Mahmoud Darwish.
“The wars will end and the leaders will shake hands,
and that old woman will remain waiting for her martyred son,
and that girl will wait for her beloved husband,
and the children will wait for their heroic father,
I do not know who sold the homeland but I know who paid the price.“
It’s a reflective note to wrap conclave 2026.
But in the end, we celebrate what we have
because this moment, it is alive because of us
and we must honour it by living it in full.
And today you are immersed between the joy of being T20 champions, and the magic balm of Bollywood with timeless Icon Akshay Kumar.
Enjoy the moment to the fullest.
Until next time may peace be upon us all.
Thank you.
– Ends
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
