Elections to the 15^th Lok Sabha are underway. This election has been characterized as one devoid of any major campaign issue. It appears that both the two national parties –BJP and Congress- are losing their influence. They are losing out to smaller niche, rural parties and caste groups. This is turning out to be a great opportunity for a wide variety of smaller party leaders and the Left parties to exert their influence. They all are aiming at either becoming kings or king-makers.

All these parties and leaders have come together to form the Third Front. Their only common ideal? Ambition. Whenever the non-Congress, non-BJP lead alliances have ruled the country, there have been long periods of social, economic and political instability. The first non-Congress government formed by the Janata Party ruled for 3 years (1977-1980) and had two Prime ministers – Morarji Desai and Charan Singh. The next non-Congress, non-BJP government was the National Front government which lasted for 2 years (1989-1991) and had two Prime ministers – V.P.Singh and Chandrasekhar. The United Front government lasted less than 2 years (1996-1998) and had 2 Prime ministers – H.D. DeveGowda and I.K. Gujral.

If we look at the trend, we will notice that unstable Third Front governments and stable BJP/Congress led governments come to power alternately. So if that trend continues, we can be sure that we will see another unstable Third Front government coming to power this time.

Interestingly, two new groups seem to be emerging in the political scene. The first group claims it is a non-Congress, non-BJP and non-Third Front alliance and calls itself the Fourth Front. The constituents of the Front are the parties of the movie stars Praja Rajyam Party (of Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh) and DMDK (of Vijaykanth in Tamil Nadu). The alliance within the UPA alliance – Lalu Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and Mulayam Yadav , Sharad Pawar – also seem to be gravitating towards the Fourth Front.

The second is a disparate group of individuals who are mostly highly successful professionals in their chosen fields and have entered the politics with noble intentions. They are contesting as independents in urban constituencies that have higher number of educated middle class voters. They include Meera Sanyal from South Mumbai, Capt. Gopinath from South Bangalore, Sarath Babu from South Chennai, Ashish Saxena (a 30 year old social worker-) and Mallika Sarabhai from Ahmadabad among others.

The established parties are worried about these independents and hence brand them as spoilers and many voters wonder if elected, will they achieve anything worthwhile since they will not have any clout in the government. Since voters do not perceive them as winnable, they also have a lower chance of getting these votes.

It is very likely that these candidates do not win this election. But there is definitely hope for them for the next election. The Indian middle class is expanding and the number of urban Lok Sabha seats is increasing. The frustration of the middle class voters at non-performing politicians is increasing and if there is a viable alternative, these voters are definitely going to vote for that alternative.

In my mind, the best alternative is the formation of the Fifth Front. This Front should bring together all the capable independents under one fold and have a set of common manifesto. The candidates themselves should have individual manifestos that touch upon the developmental issues pertaining to their constituency.

They should also rope in similar minded people like Shashi Tharoor, K. Pandiarajan from other parties and parties like Lok Satta, Lok Paritran, Jago Party and Professionals Party of India. This Front will have no caste, regional or linguistic identity and will have the noble purpose of serving the country. The Front will focus on developmental activities for the countries and not try to divide the country along various lines.

Is it possible? The answer is yes. Is it probable? Tough to say. What do you think?

Popularity: 36%

This boy was born and bought up in a slum in India. His family was poor and he had to struggle all through his early life. Even though there was lot of challenges, he believed in hard work and in doing the right things. Even while working hard to make a living, he never forgets his true love. He enters a quiz show and got all the answers correct. At the end of the show, he becomes a millionaire. But he is not satisfied. He longs for his true love. Then one day, he gets a chance to meet his true love.

Sounds familiar?

This is the story of Sarath Babu, the independent candidate for the South Chennai Lok Sabha seat. Sarath was born in a slum in Madipakkam in Chennai. He was born into a poor family with 6 members and his mother was the only breadwinner of the family. She raised them by doing multiple jobs that included selling idlis. Metaphorically speaking, Sarath enters the quiz show called life and gets all the answers correct. He worked hard and secured admissions to one of the top engineering colleges of India – BITS Pilani.

After completing his bachelor studies, he worked harder and got admitted to IIM-Ahmadabad. While at IIM-A, he gets high profile job offers but rejects all of them to pursue his passion of starting his own business and of helping young people by providing them employment. After some initial failures, his venture – Food King is a big success and has a turnover of about Rs.7 Crore and Sarath is a millionaire now.

But, is he satisfied yet?

No. His true love is to serve the people and bring about a positive change to people around him. So when the Lok Sabha polls were announced, he did not have to think twice before announcing his candidature for the Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency. This is his way of trying to bring change to the country.

What makes Sarath’s story outstanding is the courage he displayed at every turn in his life and how high he aims. There are other high profile independents contesting in different parts of the country but none of them have achieved so much in such a young age against so many odds. Remember he is only 29 years old.

Sarath is reaching out to the voters of South Chennai and he has a fairly large number of BITS and IIMA alumni volunteering for him and working round the clock. Now, it is an open question whether he will win or not. Most of the pundits have already written him off. But then, not many would have thought that he would succeed when he started his own food catering business. Irrespective of the result, one thing is certain. This guy never gives up and we will continue to hear about him more frequently in the future.

PS: Sarath Babu’s campaign website is http://sarathbabu.co.in/in/about/

Popularity: 48%

What do you expect in a political party?

Transparency, Accountability, Humility, Democracy, Respect for each other, Knowledge, Wisdom, Solutions?…Well, there are far too many qualities that we expect out of a political party, but trying to see everything in one may be being foolhardy.

It is a no brainer that the current political parties in India are a consortium of the good, the bad and the ugly with the latter taking an active role and deciding the fate of billions. It has almost become a standing rule that every party in India has to have criminals in their party.

Criminalisation of Politics is THE buzz word, in Indian politics these days. Apparently, the 14^th Lok Sabha will see more criminals than ever before.

During these times, citizens like you and me look for HOPE somewhere, dreaming of a resurgent India where Indian politicians are respected all around the world. Well, some say it is a distant reality, some think it is a childish joke and some call the height of optimism.

I couldn’t have agreed more until a few days ago, when one of my friends told me about a particular party that was working at the grass root levels. I decided to delve more into what was seemingly a utopian concept initially but after doing my bit of research, I changed my mind.

As a result, I wrote my first article on this political party which is envisioning to change the complete electoral image of the country.

The party in contention is Lok Satta which is led by one of the most able and admirable administrators of our time – Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, a Physician turned Civil Servant turned Social Activist turned Politician.

Lok Satta promises Transparency, Accountability, Humility, Democracy, Respect for each other, Knowledge, Wisdom, Solutions and much more – all that you would dream of an ideal political party.

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan seems to preach and practice all of that. What started as a concept in 1996, has transpired into a political storm, a movement of sorts in Andhra Pradesh with the party spreading its wings to neighboring Maharashtra and Karnataka and with tens of thousands of people supporting him, his ideals and his way of tackling issues.

Finally, there seems to be a glimmer of HOPE in India. More of Lok Satta, Dr. JP, his vision, strategies etc in my next article.

Change in Indian Politics is definitely on its way…

Image Credit:Wikimedia

Popularity: 36%

Meera Sanyal – Does the name ring a bell ?

Perhaps not – may be because you are not aware of some of the big names in the banking industry…or may be you are too tied up in your own world…Don’t worry…

Wait before I tell you who she is, and what she stands for….I am pretty sure you will establish a connection like many of us, by the time you finish reading this..

Meera is a professional banker with over 25 years of experience. Currently the Chairperson and Country Executive of the erstwhile ABN Amro Bank (now RBS). She probably one of the few corporate citizens to  enter the electoral foray.

As per her website

As an Investment banker she has worked both in India and within the Asian region on a number of Project Finance and Advisory and M&A mandates. In 2001, she set up ACES, ABN AMRO’s Global Shared Services company, which currently employs over 5,000 staff and provides banking operations, research, global finance, and HR shared services to 40 countries. ACES has consistently recorded both high client satisfaction and high employee engagement scores and is one of the most highly certified BPOs in India today.

An area very dear to her has been ABN AMRO’s Corporate Social Responsibility activities. The bank has financed over 7,00,000 women who live below the poverty line in rural India. Through the activities of their Foundation, which Meera chairs, they have undertaken several projects that aim both to alleviate poverty and conserve biodiversity (especially in endangered tiger habitats), as well as promote watersheds and sequester carbon through working with tribals and marginal farmers in degraded land areas.

Meera served on the Board of Trustees of an asset management company, and is currently on the National Advisory Board of AIESEC, an international students’ organization. She also chairs the boards of various bank subsidiaries in India.

Let me be honest, I knew Meera only by her name and some news clippings on various websites and today after going through her website, I feel comfortable that at last there are corporate citizens who too think that Indian politics has to change and change for the better. She has given me renewed hope that Mumbai will once again be resurgent, a city that lost its reputation for all the wrong reasons. I hope that South Mumbai will vote for a fresh, energetic and result oriented face.

Oh! By the way, did I tell you Meera Sanyal is contesting for Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from South Mumbai.

Independent Candidate ???

That’s what I thought too when she initially decided to stand for election, as I did not think she would stand a chance. But I happened to read this webpage from her site and I know now how wrong I was. She has taken the right decision to stand as an independent candidate from South Mumbai and I can’t agree more with her decision, keeping in mind the no. of corrupt and criminal politicians that we have in our country.

I was also enamored what her Facebook fans had to say about her. Read this and I am sure why you will like what you read..

When Meera will enter the Lok Sabha in June this year, she will bring to the Parliament grace, intelligence, soundness, smartness, and wit, and her astute thoughts will lend an impartiality the House has lacked.

In an election field that already has, on one hand, an incumbent who has inherited his father’s parliamentary seat in a way that does not reflect the market-driven meritocracy of this city, and on the other, a challenger whose party prefers our city to be less inclusive and more sectarian, looking less than itself, Meera offers the freshness, brilliance, verve, and bold ideas that can transform the nature of our politics and reclaim the country’s most cosmopolitan constituency for its residents.

This would mean South Mumbai, which leads India in every area except politics, would now be able to lead in political thinking and action, too. Meera is not beholden to any political party or creeds that cannot be challenged; she does not have to rush to a high command for clearance before speaking her mind, nor to a fortress in the middle of our bustling city from where editorials pour forth condemning Indians its prejudiced leaders don’t like.

I looked at what she had to offer for Mumbai and I must admit her plan to elevate Mumbai to amazing levels are simply superb. Her five point agenda, popularly called as Punch-A-Mantra talks of

• More Investment for Infrastructure in Mumbai
• A Radically Improved Public Transport System
• Stronger Security
• Systemic Reforms Through the Nagara Raj Bill…
• Directly Elected and Empowered Mayor

This agenda is covered in her Master Plan for Mumbai, which can be downloaded here

If you are living in South Mumbai and you think India needs a new generation of politicians, then go out and vote for people like Meera Sanyal. For once, understand who your true leaders are and vote for them. Meera Sanyal certainly seems to have the leadership qualities and the capabilities to take Mumbai to unseen levels…after all she has been the country head for one of the largest banks in the world.

Meera Sanyal is most definitely my Hope for Mumbai!

Image Credit: Wikimedia

Popularity: 43%

I have been arguing for some time that the educated middle class in our country should not abdicate the political space to others. …. (The middle class people) are the engine of the politics but in our country, they tend to abstain. They are taking to professions – civil services, lawyers and doctors, they don’t go into politics and I think that’s the shame. Certainly like I who spends so much time thinking and writing about the issues that are the outcome of politics.

If I now have an opportunity to actually put my feet in the arena , to put my feet where my words were and my mouth was, I think I should take on the challenge. It’s not easy, it’s not familiar territory but I think it’s time for people like us to try and connect with people who have normally not been part of the kinds of daily engagements that we normally conduct in our professional life. It’s time that more professionals got involved

These were the words of Shashi Tharoor when he was asked by the TV channel IBNLive about his nomination for the Lok Sabha seat for the Thiruvananthapuram constituency.

For long, many political commentators and intellectuals have been lamenting about the indifference of the middle class to the political process. They were arguing that, by staying away from politics, the educated middle class is allowing incompetent people to govern the country and letting criminals decide the future of the nation.

While they were right, none of these people were willing to lead from the front by entering politics themselves and making a positive change. They wanted someone else to do the “dirty” job. That is now changing. By jumping into the political fray, Shashi has proved that he can walk the talk.

Shashi Tharoor is no stranger to many of us. He served the United Nations for 29 years (1978-2007). During that period, he rose to the level of UN Under-Secretary General. He campaigned for the UN Secretary General post but was unsuccessful in that endeavour.

Shashi has an outstanding academic and leadership record. He was the University topper in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and he completed his PhD from Tufts University, USA at the age of 22, which was a record. He is an avid debater, quizzer and writer. His weekly columns in “Times of India” are well read. His books “The Great Indian Novel” and “The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century” are among the bestsellers. His other achievements can be found here

At a time when the voting public is appalled by the nomination of personalities with dubious records (Sanjay Dutt, Md. Azharuddin) and criminals for Lok Sabha elections, news about Shashi Tharoor’s nomination comes as a whiff of fresh air.The Congress party deserves praise for this bold move and we can only hope that all the other parties follow suit. The political parties will be doing a great service to the country if they field a few outstanding candidates with proven record of good performance.

It is not clear if Shashi Tharoor will win in the Lok Sabha election. But irrespective of the result, he has once again set an example for us educated people to follow. We can hope that what was a trickle of professionals entering politics (like T.N.Seshan, Mallika Sarabhai) turns into a deluge.

PS: Shashi Tharoor’s website is http://www.shashitharoor.in/

Image Credit : Stuti

Popularity: 28%