So you want to be a politician ?
By any measure, India needs lots and lots of scrupulous politicians today.
And people seem to have started noticing, wanting to become an MLA/MP is, refreshingly, not so rare an ambition among fresh graduates as it was.
Given the high demand and low supply, a good elected representative can expect to get a lot - A lot of goodwill, popularity and some money to go with it.
And a lot of chaps from India's elite colleges seem to be up for it. For chaps from the IITs and IIMs with whose infinitely stretching career horizons I tend to be familiar with, the standard route's as follows -
1. Get a foreign degree to get credibility,
2. Make some/lots of money working for a few years/starting something,
3. Hit the road running ten odd years from graduation.
And voila! You are going to be there, waving your V for victory to the crowds!
The ambition is noteworthy, but it stops short of being noble if it has no clue about what changes you want to bring about. And if it's a career as a politician that you fancy more than bringing about a few changes that you really want to bringabout, rest assured that you are in low demand. We've got loads of those already.
Well, you might say, you know that the chaps around now are pretty bad, and that you are better and that's all that counts. (given that you went into an IIT/IIM and your major readings were Tom Clancys and Robert Ludlums and the Econ times now and then and of course, your leadership has been proven time and again organizing pop/rock shows)
If you have won an election at college before, that's great too but the real difficulties begin much later.
I quote a few to give an idea of the monumental task that lies ahead.
1. After Tehelka exposed the corruption in the defence ministry and the Army, the following happened
a)The Judicial commission had a retired judge to look into the motives of those who published the news ie Tehelka's journalists etc.
b) Income tax inspectors raided Tehelka's offices.
c) First Global, Tehelka's biggest investor, had its licence to trade cancelled by SEBI and all its offices except one were shut.
2. The Neta Babu raj, commonly used to talk about the nexus between the bureaucrats and the politicians, takes in on average 60% of all government expenditure meant for rural development. Given the size of India's bureacracy that's a lot of people who'll see their income cut and leisure taken away - Not really good , if they include teachers and other government officials who man polling booths.
As some distiguished lawyer remarked, " It takes a superhuman effort to keep India poor and that effort is made by the government servants.
3. And lots of things that can only be summed up in one word - a big mess.
And these include reservations for backward castes, farmer suicides, water shortages, pollution among others.
It would be a good idea to get started atleast on one of these problems, there's a long way to got and lots of things to do unless you are happy with one small appearance in the big and long Indian political theatre.
And people seem to have started noticing, wanting to become an MLA/MP is, refreshingly, not so rare an ambition among fresh graduates as it was.
Given the high demand and low supply, a good elected representative can expect to get a lot - A lot of goodwill, popularity and some money to go with it.
And a lot of chaps from India's elite colleges seem to be up for it. For chaps from the IITs and IIMs with whose infinitely stretching career horizons I tend to be familiar with, the standard route's as follows -
1. Get a foreign degree to get credibility,
2. Make some/lots of money working for a few years/starting something,
3. Hit the road running ten odd years from graduation.
And voila! You are going to be there, waving your V for victory to the crowds!
The ambition is noteworthy, but it stops short of being noble if it has no clue about what changes you want to bring about. And if it's a career as a politician that you fancy more than bringing about a few changes that you really want to bringabout, rest assured that you are in low demand. We've got loads of those already.
Well, you might say, you know that the chaps around now are pretty bad, and that you are better and that's all that counts. (given that you went into an IIT/IIM and your major readings were Tom Clancys and Robert Ludlums and the Econ times now and then and of course, your leadership has been proven time and again organizing pop/rock shows)
If you have won an election at college before, that's great too but the real difficulties begin much later.
I quote a few to give an idea of the monumental task that lies ahead.
1. After Tehelka exposed the corruption in the defence ministry and the Army, the following happened
a)The Judicial commission had a retired judge to look into the motives of those who published the news ie Tehelka's journalists etc.
b) Income tax inspectors raided Tehelka's offices.
c) First Global, Tehelka's biggest investor, had its licence to trade cancelled by SEBI and all its offices except one were shut.
2. The Neta Babu raj, commonly used to talk about the nexus between the bureaucrats and the politicians, takes in on average 60% of all government expenditure meant for rural development. Given the size of India's bureacracy that's a lot of people who'll see their income cut and leisure taken away - Not really good , if they include teachers and other government officials who man polling booths.
As some distiguished lawyer remarked, " It takes a superhuman effort to keep India poor and that effort is made by the government servants.
3. And lots of things that can only be summed up in one word - a big mess.
And these include reservations for backward castes, farmer suicides, water shortages, pollution among others.
It would be a good idea to get started atleast on one of these problems, there's a long way to got and lots of things to do unless you are happy with one small appearance in the big and long Indian political theatre.
posted by Mohanakrishna C at 12:03 AM
1 Comments:
My thoughts exactly when this lok paritran thingie came and went...
As long as politics provides the oppurtunity to make easy money, not even the richest of the rich shall stay pure...
Addressing the middle class with lofty promises of clean governence, is not going to take things anywhere.
The man who goes to the polling booth and actually votes (ignoring the booth capturing menace) is the one who sees the chance to make use of the money he gets by doing so for his next meal. Convince him, that you shall provide him three meals a day and more.
Then we can address issues.
Guess this comment is quite delayed..Stumbled upon your blog jus now...
Loved your post on reservation as well. Had similar thoughts. Guess voices of moderation are seldom heard.
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