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Journalism of Courage
A group of professionals believe that the only way to rid the country of its problems is by taking the political plunge
When R.V. Krishnan, an engineer-entrepreneur, wrote a manuscript, ‘Manifesto in Search of a Party’, in 2005, his friends and relatives thought he was wasting his time. All those lofty drawing room discussions on how the country needs to be “set on the right track” and the hours spent researching on “possible solutions” had been compiled into a book and sent out to friends, relatives, professionals and politicians. But what next?
Krishnan waited naively, hoping something would happen of his book, someone would sit up and decide to do something about the solutions he had proposed for the country. But when nothing happened for two years, he called 15 of his friends on September 7, 2007, and mooted the idea of a political party. After a heated discussion, Krishnan and his friends reached a consensus on one point. “Each one of us agreed that the country needs to be corrected ‘and it has to start with me’,” said Krishnan, 55, who runs a market research bureau.
It was on this note that they set up the Pune-based Professionals Party of India. Last fortnight, the 11-month-old party got an official acknowledgement when the Election Commission of India registered it as a political party. That’s a step that has formally equipped them to start working towards their aim—of changing the way the country is governed with the active participation of educated professionals. But for now, Krishnan, president of PPI, and 19 other core members of the party have their target fixed: the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
“Our hope is that one day we will have 540-plus patriotic, capable, honest, professional individuals in Parliament who will run this country in an effective manner,” said Girish Deshpande, entrepreneur and owner of a travel concern who is one of the members of the party.
The PPI, which is run by a core group of 20 members who meet on the second Friday of every month, is made up of professionals from different fields—medicine, marketing, IT and education.
“Like most middle class people, I never thought I would join politics. But after learning about PPI, I realised that people like me should either stop complaining about the way the country is run or get down to doing something to change it. If a company can be run so efficiently by professionals, why can’t the same system be applied to the nation,” said K.K. Iyer, 45, an IT professional who has started his own soft skills teaching venture in Pune after working for 22 years in the US.
Sundeep Gupta, 32, a member of the PPI’s core group and an IT professional with Conexant Systems, said most of the party members were between 30 and 40 years and were all driven by the desire of making a difference in the country.
“Making a difference”—how easy or realistic is that? “There is nothing emotional about our party. The PPI is an outcome of thorough research and analysis,” said Krishnan. “We have a simple yet incisive strategy based on the fact that India’s middle class has the requisite numbers to change the political leadership and transform the country into a developed nation. The bottom line is that every problem can be solved if there is the political will to do it,” he said.
Over the last 11 months, the party has opened chapters in Bangalore, Mumbai, Nashik and Chennai and also met people who share their ideas. Their website, professionalspartyofindia.com, details not just their manifesto (under separate heads of social, cultural, economic, educational, agricultural and industrial) but also the tangible and practical means with which they plan to achieve their goals.
According to Krishnan, what sets the PPI apart from other such similar initiatives is that theirs is not a personality-driven party. “A very important difference is that, unlike other political parties, we are not looking at the masses for support because the politicians think the masses can be easily bought. We are targeting the 250-300 million that belong to India’s educated middle class,” said Krishnan.
N. Raja, party co-ordinator, has started holding talks with individual, like-minded parties to discuss the possibility of uniting against “corrupt politicians”.
PPI CRITERIA FOR CANDIDATE SELECTION
Potential candidates shall be identified by city chapters in every Lok Sabha Constituency. Candidates shall have the highest level of demonstrated nationalism and patriotism and shall be in excellent physical and intellectual health. Such identified candidates shall be referred to the Core Group in Pune. The selection will be a centralised process conducted by the Core Group.
Candidate selection will be based on, but not limited to, the following broad criteria:
Individual’s age, citizenship, education qualification, communication and other skills and experience
Leadership skills
Career and social responsibility, interests and dedication to community service
Potential to be a change agent, with complete social, cultural and religious neutrality
Degree of familiarity with social causes
Degree of familiarity with current country and world affairs
Measure of the candidate’s initiative, drive, sense of responsibility, commitment, motivation and above all result orientation.
Finally, the Core Group shall appraise the candidate’s intrinsic value system and demonstrated strength of character and shall obtain necessary guarantees.
