Rajdeep Sardesai, IBN Network's Editor-In-Chief, says here that India lacks involvement of young politicians at the highest levels. He says that the recent cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did almost nothing to suggest otherwise either, and rightly so. He also goes on to cite examples of US President Barack Obama and English Prime Minister David Cameron as prominent world leaders who are still to cross over into the latter half of their lives, but are already leading respective countries. Whereas the young guns of India, the likes of *Rahul Gandhi, Varun Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and many others, are either just unable to or are reluctant to join and raise the level of national conversation as is desired of them.
Most of the young breed of Indian politicians have just been parachuted into their roles as leaders. They never had to work their way up through the ranks. No wonder that not many beyond their immediate posse are in their awe. Come to think of it, their lineage seems to be the only qualification that they possess to be a politician. Most of them, if not all of them, may have chosen to be in politics because most of the work had already been done for them. They had the right last names, the parliamentary constituencies were invariably set aside for them without any competition, the organizational structure of respective political parties was already in place, and all they had to do was show up.
I think it is because of their lack of experience as grass roots activists and the fact that they did not have to work hard to rise through the ranks that they are having a hard time connecting with people. They should have a hard time getting to the top jobs as politicians, shouldn't they? If this is the reason they are reluctant to begin participating wholeheartedly, then I don't blame them. In fact, I am encouraged that they know their limitations and are willing to work hard to overcome those limitations. May be this baptism by fire will help them grow not just as politicians, but as leaders too.
Without doubt, with age comes experience and wisdom, and it may be especially true of politicians. But, on the job training that these young politicians are getting by virtue of being MPs and leaders in their respective parties may not be enough to make quality politicians out of them. Because it is not just about the ability to wheel and deal in the pressure cooker that is today's coalition politics. It is not just about being visible to the people every so often so they recognize you by face come election day. It has to be about substantive issues, and ideas about tackling those issues. Politics is not just about seeing to it that the country's GDP grows at a rate of >8% year on year. It has to be about ones heartfelt desire to serve the people, and making sure that the lowest common denominator of our socioeconomic setup is not left behind.
*The spaghetti that is world politics: Many saw the padyatra that Rahul Gandhi embarked upon recently as a publicity stunt, and their cynicism may not be entirely misplaced. After all he did work for a consulting firm before coming back to India and making his foray into Indian politics. This firm that Rahul Gandhi worked for, Monitor Group, is the same firm that had Muammar Gadaffi as a client. The work that they were hired for was primarily public relations related. I am not suggesting any guilt by association. All I am suggesting is that may be public relations is something that he is more comfortable doing.
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