Inside the mind and heart of Venkatesh Sridhar

I was just browsing the Times of India website and came across this article titled ‘Would you vote for a party launched by idealistic IITians?‘

I despise the title completely. I mean, WTF, the title looks like its asking me a straight forward and simple question - Would I vote for a party launched by idealistic IITians? The straight forward, answer is HELL NO. (I will give my reasons later in the post)

But, on closer inspection as you read the snippet of the article on the TOI website and I quote,

The young often complain that the country is being run grandpa and grandma politicians, who have no idea of the aspirations of Gen-Next. And they are not wrong given that the average age of MPs to-day is 58 years. The average age of Gujarat’s MLAs is only mar-ginally better at 53 years. But a handful of young, idealistic profes-sionals, just out of the IITs are trying to change the face of Indian politics by launching outfits like the Lok Paritran and Bharat Punarnirman Dal. They will also be contesting the Gujarat Assem-bly elections in December.

(The online links to those parties are Lok Paritran and Bharat Punarnirman Dal)

So, the Times of India is portraying these IITians as representative of Gen-Next (India’s current population demographic shows that a majority of Indians are in the 18-35 bracket). But from the perspective of these two parties its highly dangerous for them to be representing only the Gen-Next and to ignore other demographics.

Why I will not vote for these two parties:
The following are my reasons why I will not vote for these two parties:

1. Ideology: Take Lok Paritran’s Ideology, it is way too long for me to read it(I don’t want to read a spiritual discourse - which is what it looks like) and I believe it is elitist and extremely idealistic considering that many of us will not have the time to go through this and also if you consider the rural population of India, they will be too bored with this as it will be beyond their comprehension as they are more worried about their day to day existence.

There is no page linking to Bharat Purnanirman’s Dal (BPD) website, but their strategy is to fill the lacuna of politics as a career choice!!! Yeah right, as if I will vote for you because of that. They talk about Bharatvarsha, which I feel is a very saffronistic attitude, as per wikipedia Bharatvarsha included Afghanistan and Persia and was the first conqueror of Greater India. The official Hindi name of Republic of India is Bharat Ganrajya - named after King Bharata who was the first to conquer Greater India.

I am of the view that India does not need any new articulation of old stuff - India does not need old wine in a new bottle. India needs a radical change and by radical I do not mean any violent change.

I am looking for parties who have a definite plan that CAN BE EXECUTED quickly, easily with a view towards long term sustainability of the nation.

Do I see any party do that? No.

I am not going to vote for a candidate based on the educational credentials, I am going to vote for a candidate based on clarity of thought and excellence in execution. In India, we do not hold debates like in the US, where the presidential hopefuls discuss their differences in strategy and then the public can decided in an educated manner, by knowing the pros and cons and then decide for whom to vote.

I have nothing against the IITians, but to assume that just because you come from a great institution does not guarantee you will be a great leader. A case in point - George W Bush, he is a Harvard MBA and also a Yale University graduate (two of the biggest institutions in the US and also two of the premier institutions in the world) and look what he has turned not just his nation but the world into.

So, I will throw the question back at you, would you vote for an IITian candidate just because he is an IITian or will you vote based on the issues.

T