DNA Edit: National Duty

The fact that 50 alumni from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) are looking to form a political party is welcome news, as it not only shows that Indian democracy is alive and well, but that the middle and upper-middle class are now eager to make their voices heard. But such cause for cheer needs to be tempered with caution, as India has seen this all before. 

In 2011, dramatic scenes at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, which paved the way for AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal to enter politics, was a dream that soon turned into a nightmare. Given a whopping mandate of 67 out of 70 seats by Delhiites in the 2015 Delhi elections, Kejriwal has subsequently dashed the hopes of the people time and again. Thanks to continuous corruption charges against his ministers, to unseemly fights with LGs — both past and present — to even an ‘alleged’ case of assault against a senior bureaucrat, Kejriwal and AAP are being seen as no better than ‘street thugs’ by some people.

Given this experience, it is not surprising that there will be a watchful eye on the entry of these IITians, as no one wants another ‘Kejriwal.’  This is where the IITians are being sensible. Rather than rush into contesting the 2019 polls they are building up ground support and looking to contest the 2020 Bihar assembly polls.

This gives them enough time to understand the wishes of the people, their political rivals, and allow them to get a better sense of their strengths and shortcomings. This is key because as the ‘Kejriwal experiment’ has shown being better educated does not make one a better politician.