Politics- A game of old? More youth joining politics
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 21 December 2009, 15:19 IST   |    7 Comments
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Politics- A game of old? More youth joining politics
Kolkata: It seems that the future of Indian politics is bright, as the number of Indian youths entering the politics went up in the last few years. Even university like Oxford reported 50 percent growth in Indian students signing up for politics course. Damasthapuram Vasanth Kumar contested the recently concluded assembly poll in Andhra Pradesh as a candidate of film-star Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party, is no body's son. It means that 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. Still, Vasanth managed to contest the election. What worked in this 29-year's old son was, 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, reports Economic Times. MIT-School of Government is set up by Harvard-returned Rahul Vishwanath Karad and Varad Pande. Jairam Ramesh handpicked 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 Pande. 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 Economic Times 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. Oxford University's Department of Politics and International Relations' Head Neil MacFarlane says, "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." Anirudh Suri, now a student at Harvard agrees with it and says, "Indian political system is undergoing a transformation, making it easier for people to become politically-active or even form their own parties." Oxford, Harvard and Queen's University reported the number of Indian students signing up for courses in politics and governance has gone up in the last few years. 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 that 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. As for Vasanth, he lost the election. But he is in for the long haul.

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