The course, launched last month on the lines of Kennedy School of Pubic Policy in the United States, now has 32 students who were selected from among 500 applicants from across the country.
Management graduates, Information Technology (IT) professionals and political science graduates are among the first batch of students studying to be politicians at a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) affiliate's institute of political leadership.
The Indian Institute of Democratic Leadership (IIDL), run by Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini (RMP), is the first institute in India to train students to be politicians. The course, launched last month on the lines of Kennedy School of Pubic Policy in the United States, now has 32 students who were selected from among 500 applicants from across the country.
Three of the 32 students in the current batch left their regular jobs to join the institute and train as a politician. One such student is Aritra Chattopadhyay from West Bengal, who left his job as an assistant manager in a private company and joined Prabodhini's course.
"We always keep complaining that things are not happening the correct way in our country and politicians are to be blamed," Aritra said.
"This is the reason I wanted to join politics myself. IIDL is the only available institute in India that offers a course like that and hence I sought admission here. The other option would have been the Kenedy School in US but there is no point in learning politics from the US and working at the grass-root level in India, we will not get the correct idea about Indian demographics that way," he added.
Praveen Chandra from Hyderabad, an MBA graduate, is also of the view that there should be well-educated politicians in the country, only then will we be able to solve social and economic problems. "I believe that the country should have educated people joining the politics, which is why I am a part of this institute," said Chandra.
IIDL runs the first-of-its-kind course in the country, a postgraduate certificate programme in governance and leadership.
Prabodhini is associated with RSS and many political leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have received training in governance and people management at Prabodhini. After training politicians in governance, the organisation started a course for students, who have no knowledge of politics but want to make a career in active politics.
The course has been divided in three sections -- governance, politics and leadership. At the end of the eight month course, students will also be given a chance to pursue an internship with a political party.
"We have started the course with teaching students about the history of politics and ideologies of various political parties in the first phase of the course. After that we will teach them about governance -- the working of Parliament, how to ask the correct questions and similar things and at last they will be taught how to lead and work for people like a politician and as a functionary in the government," Executive Director Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini Ravindra Sathe told DNA.
The organisation's association to RSS is an obvious reason for people to think that the institute would produce politicians who follow the RSS ideology, however Sathe begs to differ, "We might be associated with the RSS and BJP ideology but we cannot force any ideology on our students. We will make them aware of everything – Left, Right and Center. We invite leaders from Left parties and the Congress to give lectures to students and explain them their ideology."
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