Sanjay Jha is an Indian politician, author, and public speaker. He is the Executive Director of Dale Carnegie Training operations in India. Previously a member of Indian National Congress, Jha was suspended from the party for “anti-party activities breach of discipline” in June 2020, a week after his opinion piece criticising the inner-party democracy was published in The Times of India.
Wiki/Biography
Sanjay Jha was born in Pune, Maharashtra in 1969; however, his ancestors hail Bihar. Sanjay Jha completed his schooling from the Bishops School in Pune in 1974. In his school days, Sanjay Jha was not only good at sports but also who won several prizes and awards for academic excellence and proficiency. He graduated with distinction in Economics from Fergusson College, Pune in 1980. While studying at Fergusson College, Sanjay was also elected as the head of Dramatics Society. He did post-graduation in Economics from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, University of Pune. He holds a PhD in Economics from Patna University. He also did an MBA in HR from XLRI – Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur in 1986 and then ventured into the corporate world and later into politics.
Family
His elder brother, Vibhuti Jha, is Principal at a corporate firm Ashcroft Sullivan & Jha.
Sanjay Jha (left) with his elder brother, Vibhuti Jha
Sanjay Jha is married to Pallavi Jha, Chairperson and MD of Walchand PeopleFirst Ltd.
From Left: Sanjay Jha, Salim Khan (Bollywood writer), and Pallavi Jha
Corporate Career
Sanjay Jha started his career in the sales department with Bharat Petroleum and worked there for two years. He worked as a vice president at Alliance Capital, a mutual fund company, from 1993 to 1996. He then worked at another mutual funds company, ITC Threadneedle plc, as the senior vice-president for a year. While working there, he contributed in the launch of a joint investment mutual fund company in partnership with BAT plc, London. His interest in sports encouraged him to launch a cricket news web portal CricketNext.com in 2000. The venture was later sold to Network 18 Media Group in 2012. In 2003, he joined Dale Carnegie, a platform for personal & professional training, as the Executive Director of its operations in India. He is in charge of the Business Strategy, Market development, building reputational capital and attaining financial goals and metrics for the company.
Political career
A Gandhi-Nehruvian idealist, Sanjay Jha served as a National Spokesperson for the Indian National Congress (INC) from 2013 to 2020 and represented the party in TV debates and panel discussions.
He was suspended from the party in June 2020. The suspension came a few days after Sanjay’s opinion piece criticising the leadership and inner-democracy was published in an English daily.
INC COMMUNIQUE
Important Notification pic.twitter.com/fnXef53B7A
— INC Sandesh (@INCSandesh) June 17, 2020
Controversies
Sanjay Jha has been engrossed in numerous controversies and most of them have been due to his social media posts. Here are a few of them.
- On 25 April 2014, Sanjay Jha posted a tweet claiming Subramanian Swamy was a CIA agent. In the aftermath, Swamy filed a 3 crore defamation lawsuit against Jha. Consequently, Jha tendered an apology for his “CIA remark”. [1]Oneindia
- In November 2017, Sanjay Jha retweeted a Twitter post showing a morphed picture of a police office kneeling before BJP leader, Rajnath Singh. Sanjay deleted the post and apologised for the same after he was heavily trolled on the internet. [2]Alt News
- On 28 March 2019, Sanjay Jha posted a derogatory tweet about Indian PM, Narendra Modi. Consequently, the post drew wide criticism and Sanjay Jha faced a heavy backlash on the internet for passing the sexiest jibe at Narendra Modi. Here is the Tweet.
He has white hair. But he sounds more like a blonde.
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) March 28, 2019
Publications
- 11 Triumphs, Trials and Turbulence: Indian cricket, 2003-2010
- he Superstar Syndrome: The Making of a Champion
Author of two books, Sanjay frequently writes articles for a number of prominent media houses, such as Huffington Post, National Herald and the Daily O of the India Today Group.
Facts/Trivia
- Sanjay was inclined to drama during his college days. He headed the college dramatics group in his graduation and post-graduation days.
- Alongside working in the corporate world, Sanjay transitioned himself as a public speaker. He has addressed audiences at giant institutions, including Dell, Columbia Business School (New York), ICICI Pru, IBM, University of California (Los Angeles), Axis Bank, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Oracle, British Gas, Brookings, The Doon School, Toastmaster, St. Xavier’s College, Dainik Bhaskar, Crompton Greaves, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Bajaj Electricals, SHRM, United Nations Young Achiever’s Conclave, SRCC, IIT, Standard Chartered, Tata Motors, CII, IMC, Venture Capital Association, NHRD, Apple, Bharat Petroleum, Citibank, Mahindra & Mahindra etc.
- Even after being ousted of the INC, a Gandhi-Nehruvian idealist, Sanjay Jha describes himself as a Congressi by DNA. [3]Sanjay Jha Twitter
| 1. | ↑ | Oneindia |
| 2. | ↑ | Alt News |
| 3. | ↑ | Sanjay Jha Twitter |