Rishi sent over an interesting link today. The Economic Times ran a story on Paritrana, a political party created by 5 young men with an extensive technical education from respected institutions including the IIT’s. Please note that this is not an endorsement of the party. Personally, while I am impressed by their willingness to sacrifice attractive jobs for their new positions, I only hope that their interests are aligned with that of the nations. I hope that they will not turn into career politicians. I also hope that they will be popular and elected to office soon. A tough set of requirements that seem to conflict with each other. Can they really pull it off? Only time will tell.
The core team of “Paritrana’ ’ comprises Rajpurohit , Shukla, Amit Beesen, also the vice president and a B Tech (Mechanical) from IIT Bombay and a LLB graduate, Chandrashekhar (national treasurer), B Tech (computer science) from IIT Kanpur, Bharat Sundaram, the PRO of the party and B Tech from IIT Kanpur and PhD in electronics from Melbourne.
“Paritrana means complete relief from the various causes of distress, and that is what we want to do for our people,’’ added Chandrashekhar. Low funds have not discouraged them in their efforts of holding door-to-door campaigns in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and parts of Maharashtra.
“We strongly feel that the politicians of today are no longer the voice of the common man but instead they voice their own personal agendas through which they can fetch maximum votes,’’ said Shukla.
In order to get an idea of the background of the party, I hopped over to the party Internet page. Without doubt, Tanmay Rajpurohit’s profile stands out when compared to other politicians of repute (except perhaps our Honorable Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh). Tanmay has a B.Tech, M.S. and M.A. Specifically, he completed his M.A. in Economics with the New York University, NY state. There is also a short paragraph that serves evidence that he is politically active.
Over the years he has been involved in lots of social and political activities and organizations both in India and abroad. He was illegally detained and tortured in police custody in Saira while working in rural areas of Rajasthan on false charges on 27th July 2005.
Cannot help but remember the movie “Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi”. Let me take a step back, it would be unfair of me to define him through a common character from a movie. As always, actions speak louder than words (or degrees), I will be watching this one closely.
Update (2/16/2005): Why does India have such terrible politicians? Prashant Kothari at the Indian Economy Blog delves into the game of politics in India. He concludes that the term honest politician is at best an oxymoron. Further, politicians cannot survive the game without bending morality and ethics. This is an important blog in the context of Paritrana. The founders are relative outsiders to politics and their idealism is appreciated. If we were to consider them to be really honest at the outset, the questions are – Can they continue on and survive the political race? Can they stay true to their goal without comprimising their integrity? Finally, can they make a significant impact?