Qualified Politicians!

It started with Mr.Maken’s (Congressman) tweet “What a Cabinet of Modi? HRD Minister (Looking after Education) SmritiIrani is not even a graduate! Look at her affidavit at ECI site pg 11 (sic)”

Congress party is not against this question, but they told “Hello Maken, why are you opening up a Pandora’s box? What should be our reply if they ask about RAGA and Madam’s qualification? 

Uma Bharati (passed 6^thStd) responded swiftly and defended Ms.Smriti Irani, stating that 12^th Std. is good enough in politics.

A whole lot of panelists (ESIC People) in all the TV debates were of the opinion that qualification is irrelevant for politicians.

Some of the newspapers quoted the examples of 16 world famous people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc, who excelled in their field without any qualification.

Thus the story ended with the conclusion that qualification is not a criterion to do well in politics. No minister needs an educational qualification to be qualified to do his work; In fact, qualified ministers were a big failure in the past.

Thank you all for your great interpretation. Okay, English Speaking Intellectual Class (ESIC) guys; I heard you all talking; Please read this article.It will not take more than 3 minutes. I know you won’t agree with my idea, but for my satisfaction, please read –

How about setting up a school for politics? Say, like National Law School (NLS)? You can call it as National Political School (NPS); some of the rules can be –

• Basic qualification 10+2
• Entrance Exam: In line with CLET or CET or Civil Service (Prelim)
• Duration: Make a course of 5 years
• Training (Classroom and Project Work) the students in the areas of –

o    The Indian Constitution

o    Economy, population

o    Geography

o    Indian Civic Problems and the methods to address them

• Internship of one year with NGOs or Government Agencies
• Campus Placements: Absorb them into political parties; pay them well. Politics should be a well paid profession. (Good payment is an incentive for not becoming corrupt)
• Political Trainee: Conduct Recruitment Test and place them in Union and State Governments as  Political Trainee under Council of Ministers and Parliamentarians.
• Tickets to contest elections: Reserve 15% of the seats in Assembly, LokSabha and Rajya Sabha for those qualified candidates
• Short Term Courses: Offer Part time courses, weekend courses or PG courses ranging from 3 weeks to 2 years for senior politicians.
• Retirement Age: Fix retirement age of politicians at 70 years and they can serve as trainers or Professors in NPS

This is just a sample of thoughts. You can do a lot like this. For the sake of convenience, let’s not argue in favor of No Qualification for politicians. An MBBS doctor can’t perform a surgery the way MS surgeon can perform.

We can’t consider 16 people (without any qualification) who are successful in the world of 700 Crore people and boast that qualification is immaterial

Secondly, look at the fate of our country; even after 67 years of independence, we have not progressed the way many other countries have grown. Can we count the number of large dams, bridges, sustainable infrastructure development done by the free India Vis a Vis the work done during British Raj?

Consider Bangalore; When Lalbagh was created during British Raj, the population of Bangalore was less than 5 lakhs. Now it is over One Crore and twenty Lakhs. You may be surprised to know that the circumference of Bangalore city is 114 Kms! Can’t the government think of creating parks like Lalbagh in all four corners of Bangalore? They sanction thousands of acres for IT parks, SEZs and layouts. Think of Bangalore having Lalbagh of 500 acres each at 4-5 locations!

According to me, the qualified politicians with 5 years of training and another 5-10 years of practical experience can surely contribute much to the development of this country than our regular politicians.

I am of the strong opinion that the Merit and vigorous training is very much required for the Political class in India.

Let me conclude with Kofi Annan’s statement – ‘Knowledge is Power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family”

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