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Congress, BJP now more open to recruiting politics students
21 Dec, 2009, 0232 hrs IST, Writankar Mukherjee & Sreeradha D Basu, ET Bureau
KOLKATA: Damasthapuram Vasanth Kumar says he is nobody's son. Well, he means his parents are not political worthies. His parents' political activity is limited to voting at the local polling booth at Zaheerabad in Andhra Pradesh's Medak district, letting go of half-a-day's work at their sugarcane field. Yet, Vasanth managed to contest the recent assembly poll in Andhra Pradesh as an official candidate of film-star Chiranjeevi's newly-launched Praja Rajyam Party.
What worked in this 29-year-old's favour was an academic background, unusual for a farmer: a post-graduate diploma in politics from Pune's MIT-School of Government (MIT-SOG). Impressed, Chiranjeevi handpicked him for his party's power gambit.
If Vasanth studied in a new institution set up by Harvard-returned Rahul Vishwanath Karad, Varad Pande comes in from the Ivy League campus itself.
Jairam Ramesh handpicked Mr Pande from the Harvard Kennedy School when he became the minister for environment and forests. He is now a part of the minister's core team, serving as an officer on special duty. "Sure, I'd dabble in the policy space before, but the minister gave me a real opportunity," says the 31-year old.
A farmer-turned-politician and a wannabe policy wonk may not constitute a trend, but they represent a new desire among India's youth to discard their cynicism of all things political and take the levers of power into their own hands.
MIT-SOG counts LK Advani, Digvijay Singh and TN Seshan among its faculty, and around 40 students are currently enrolled in its one-year post-graduate programme on governance. Over 150 have graduated in the past four years, and according to the institute, over 50 of its alumni occupy senior positions in political parties. Among them are Balwan Arya, state vice-president of the Haryana unit of BSP, and Zubair Motiwala, Maharashtra state secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party.
Top leaders of the Congress and BJP told ET that they are now much more open to the idea of 'recruiting' students of politics. These parties have started offering internship opportunities to such students, and the BJP is considering employing them for back-office operations like political research and electoral analysis.
According to Oxford University's department of politics and international relations' head Neil MacFarlane, such courses give students a good sense of the major problems politicians are likely to face.
"It helps them understand how these have been addressed historically," he says.
That realisation seems to be seeping into the country's political families too. For instance, Akhilesh Tiwari, son of Rajasthan BJP leader Ghanshyam Tiwari, is pursuing a course at Harvard University's political school.
"There seems to be an overall feeling among the youth that 'I am much better qualified, and given a chance, I can change things for the better'," says MIT-SOG's chief initiator and dean Rahul V Karad.
Agrees Anirudh Suri, now a student at Harvard. An MBA from Wharton, Mr Suri feels that the Indian political system is undergoing a transformation, making it easier for people to become politically-active or even form their own parties.
Representatives from Oxford, Harvard and Queen's University told ET that the number of Indian students signing up for courses in politics and governance is increasing. For instance, Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government has seen the number of Indian students joining it go up to 20 this year from 14 in 2008.
Senior CPM leader and former student activist Nilotpal Basu feels the entry of young, qualified people into active politics is a good sign for the Indian political system. Yet, he throws in the customary caveat.
"While a theoretical course in politics may help them understand the rumbles of Indian politics, they need to associate with practical politics to come to electoral politics," says Mr Basu.
In fact, CPM is one of the few parties that still pays its cadres so that they can function without the worry of earning their daily bread. Mr Basu says that the salary, fixed at around Rs 4,000, is similar to what unskilled workers earn in a month, but too low to attract the best brains.
The Congress Party's national spokesperson and MP from Ludhiana Manish Tewari says that not many parties have a fixed remuneration structure in India.
"There is undoubtedly a fresh influx of younger people into mainstream politics," he says, adding that they would, however, need to have their own income streams.
Mr Pande and Vasanth mark a good beginning for a country that desperately needs its youth to take a pro-active role in the running of this country, if it is to achieve its Vision 2020 of becoming the next Superpower. But the numbers are still very low, rues senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
"Politics, unfortunately, is still not perceived as something very respectable," he says. He feels that the new entrants can be groomed for future roles provided they possess a keen political sense.
As for Mr Pande, he is hopeful of his place in the world's largest democracy, pointing to the rise of 'unconventional' political leaders like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram, HRD minister Kapil Sibal and his own boss Jairam Ramesh.
"One has to possibly work harder to make it, but it's possible. Work hard, dig deep," he says, from Paryavaran Bhavan in New Delhi, India's environment headquarters.
As for Vasanth, he lost the election. But he is in for the long haul.
Congress, BJP now more open to recruiting politics students - The Economic Times on Mobile
@kurup @Abingdonboy @SpArK @Guynextdoor2 @Nair saab
@sreekumar @Echo_419
21 Dec, 2009, 0232 hrs IST, Writankar Mukherjee & Sreeradha D Basu, ET Bureau
KOLKATA: Damasthapuram Vasanth Kumar says he is nobody's son. Well, he means his parents are not political worthies. His parents' political activity is limited to voting at the local polling booth at Zaheerabad in Andhra Pradesh's Medak district, letting go of half-a-day's work at their sugarcane field. Yet, Vasanth managed to contest the recent assembly poll in Andhra Pradesh as an official candidate of film-star Chiranjeevi's newly-launched Praja Rajyam Party.
What worked in this 29-year-old's favour was an academic background, unusual for a farmer: a post-graduate diploma in politics from Pune's MIT-School of Government (MIT-SOG). Impressed, Chiranjeevi handpicked him for his party's power gambit.
If Vasanth studied in a new institution set up by Harvard-returned Rahul Vishwanath Karad, Varad Pande comes in from the Ivy League campus itself.
Jairam Ramesh handpicked Mr Pande from the Harvard Kennedy School when he became the minister for environment and forests. He is now a part of the minister's core team, serving as an officer on special duty. "Sure, I'd dabble in the policy space before, but the minister gave me a real opportunity," says the 31-year old.
A farmer-turned-politician and a wannabe policy wonk may not constitute a trend, but they represent a new desire among India's youth to discard their cynicism of all things political and take the levers of power into their own hands.
MIT-SOG counts LK Advani, Digvijay Singh and TN Seshan among its faculty, and around 40 students are currently enrolled in its one-year post-graduate programme on governance. Over 150 have graduated in the past four years, and according to the institute, over 50 of its alumni occupy senior positions in political parties. Among them are Balwan Arya, state vice-president of the Haryana unit of BSP, and Zubair Motiwala, Maharashtra state secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party.
Top leaders of the Congress and BJP told ET that they are now much more open to the idea of 'recruiting' students of politics. These parties have started offering internship opportunities to such students, and the BJP is considering employing them for back-office operations like political research and electoral analysis.
According to Oxford University's department of politics and international relations' head Neil MacFarlane, such courses give students a good sense of the major problems politicians are likely to face.
"It helps them understand how these have been addressed historically," he says.
That realisation seems to be seeping into the country's political families too. For instance, Akhilesh Tiwari, son of Rajasthan BJP leader Ghanshyam Tiwari, is pursuing a course at Harvard University's political school.
"There seems to be an overall feeling among the youth that 'I am much better qualified, and given a chance, I can change things for the better'," says MIT-SOG's chief initiator and dean Rahul V Karad.
Agrees Anirudh Suri, now a student at Harvard. An MBA from Wharton, Mr Suri feels that the Indian political system is undergoing a transformation, making it easier for people to become politically-active or even form their own parties.
Representatives from Oxford, Harvard and Queen's University told ET that the number of Indian students signing up for courses in politics and governance is increasing. For instance, Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government has seen the number of Indian students joining it go up to 20 this year from 14 in 2008.
Senior CPM leader and former student activist Nilotpal Basu feels the entry of young, qualified people into active politics is a good sign for the Indian political system. Yet, he throws in the customary caveat.
"While a theoretical course in politics may help them understand the rumbles of Indian politics, they need to associate with practical politics to come to electoral politics," says Mr Basu.
In fact, CPM is one of the few parties that still pays its cadres so that they can function without the worry of earning their daily bread. Mr Basu says that the salary, fixed at around Rs 4,000, is similar to what unskilled workers earn in a month, but too low to attract the best brains.
The Congress Party's national spokesperson and MP from Ludhiana Manish Tewari says that not many parties have a fixed remuneration structure in India.
"There is undoubtedly a fresh influx of younger people into mainstream politics," he says, adding that they would, however, need to have their own income streams.
Mr Pande and Vasanth mark a good beginning for a country that desperately needs its youth to take a pro-active role in the running of this country, if it is to achieve its Vision 2020 of becoming the next Superpower. But the numbers are still very low, rues senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
"Politics, unfortunately, is still not perceived as something very respectable," he says. He feels that the new entrants can be groomed for future roles provided they possess a keen political sense.
As for Mr Pande, he is hopeful of his place in the world's largest democracy, pointing to the rise of 'unconventional' political leaders like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram, HRD minister Kapil Sibal and his own boss Jairam Ramesh.
"One has to possibly work harder to make it, but it's possible. Work hard, dig deep," he says, from Paryavaran Bhavan in New Delhi, India's environment headquarters.
As for Vasanth, he lost the election. But he is in for the long haul.
Congress, BJP now more open to recruiting politics students - The Economic Times on Mobile
@kurup @Abingdonboy @SpArK @Guynextdoor2 @Nair saab
@sreekumar @Echo_419
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