(14 votes, average: 3.36 out of 5)A few days ago I had seen two articles on India Special – one on Identity Politics (written by Yours Truly) and the other on Family Politics (written by Suraj).
This led me to another interesting thought i.e. merit based politics
We have had enough of the likes of Mayawati, Kumaraswami, Thackerays, Paswans, Yadavs et al. They have grown strength to strength purely on votebank politics. And none of them have the charisma or qualities that an educated India can say that they are proud of.
Consider that and consider America where you have a Harvard Law Graduate with almost no political back up ran for the presidency and won it with élan.
Will we ever see such politics in India which is purely based on meritocracy? Or do we have to wait for generations to see a glimmer of hope ?
My Vision 2020 for India is based on merit based political system where politicians are elected not on the basis of who is their father , what is their caste, religion or sex but on the basis of merit, performance, education, demonstrated leadership qualities, empathy, conviction etc.
Although democratic, India has seen politics whose basis has been anything but meritocracy based. Some of the names given below are shining examples…
- Plutocracy – By Wealth – Vasundhara Raje Scindia
- Nepotism – Family Connections – Deve Gowda & Kumaraswamy, Shekh, Farooq & Omar Abdullah
- Identity Politics – Mayawati, Kanshi Ram
- Tenurocracy- Based on seniority – PV Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesari, L K Advani
That said, don’t we have leaders who are purely merit based ? Of course ! Dr. Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, SM Krishna, Chandrababu Naidu et al have proven themselves quite capable.
Shouldn’t we have more of them ?
High time the parties in India elected leaders who are visionary, educated and proven performers in their field.
If the reform doesn’t start with you and me, then Vision 2020 will only remain a distant dream !
Image Credit: David Paul Ohmer
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December 30th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Wish this could come real not just for India but for other countries as well.. Then im sure the world will not face problems like poverty, terrorism, global warming, etc.. Excellent article dada!
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December 30th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Can not agree more than with you on this one. I also have a crazy thought of having some amendments in our constituition that each of these Politicians are evaluated on their performance every 6 months or may be 1 year. I guess at the moment they have a comfort level of getting glued to their seat for 5 yrs once being elected.
I wish we have Politician(s) Management System available where we can issue disciplinary action letters to them if they do not carry out the work they are supposed to do. And if they still fail, change the head.
regards
Sanj
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December 31st, 2008 at 6:06 pm
6 month evaluation may be too much – At least if we can have a yearly evaluation, then nothing like that…
I think the process has started at the bureaucratic levels where promotions will be based on performance not on seniority. Remains to be seen how much of this turns out to be a reality, with corruption and pseudo leaders in between
Hussain – Thanks
Regards
K
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January 3rd, 2009 at 5:43 am
Kandamangalam, One of the major non-merit political group you missed, is the nehru-gandhi family. It almost feels like we are living under monarchy.
We have already seen the start of a merit based system with our Abdul Kalam becoming the President of India. However, it is left to us that people like him remain in power and are not replaced by puppets.
The day India starts voting for such candidates, they will come to power. It is not the parties who elect such people, it is us, the people of India who bring these people to power.
If we want change, we will have to the initiators of this change.
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January 3rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Hi Chandramouli
I did miss on the Nehru Gandhi family. I should have put it right up there..
I also agree to your point that Abdul Kalam is an example of merit based system. But that’s it. We have not seen many after Kalam.
As you rightly said, the change has to start with us !
Regards
K
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February 3rd, 2009 at 10:25 pm
We need change and I can’t but agree with you. While we are sick and tired of the legacy / family issue, we seem to have more and more folks going that way. Sanjay Dutt just threw his hat into the ring, Anita Kumaraswamy ( wife of Kumaraswamy and Daughter In Law of HD Deve Gowda)won a by election in Karnataka, Sonia is understandably working on a 10 year mega project to have her grand children enter politics – the saga continues.The clout that some of these leaders has needs to be clipped and I think this is possible only when you have rules and laws that are much more stringent. Vigilant organizations like the Election Commission need to play a more active role, but are sadly swept under.
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May 21st, 2009 at 8:36 am
I don’t normally post, but this reminded me of the recent news with the CEO of Craigslist wanting for an apology from the South Carolina attorney general. Always something different with Craigslist and events in the news.
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July 6th, 2009 at 2:59 am
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July 19th, 2009 at 8:43 am
This should help – http://indiaspecial.net/feed/
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July 20th, 2009 at 3:52 am
So If I want to bookmark your blog do I have to set-up an account for Facebook?
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July 22nd, 2009 at 9:19 am
Not necessary. You can subscribe to our RSS feeds too..
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