A few weeks ago, I read about another political party launched by ex-IITians.

Some of you may remember “Lok Paritran“ (which originally started originally as “Paritran” in early ‘06) which was the first one, I think. The “new” one is called “Bharat Punarnirman Dal“.  

In the meantime, I have came across another group called “Bharat Uday Mission“. Unlike Bharat Punarnirman Dal or Lok Paritran, the Uday Mission is taking one step at a time (see e.g. this FAQ on their site: “Q.2. When will BM be formally established ?    Ans. BM will be formally established at most by 2010 A.D. This is because most of our members are in early 20s and they need 4-5 years before committing their time, money or life to BM. ”

Over the next few days/weeks, I will attempt to make contact with these groups and get their views on how they plan to change the system and what are they going to do about the core of this rot – the nexus between politicans, criminals and black money?

For more on Bharat Punarnirman Dal, click here  and here. There is an interview with their President here.

For some counter-views on Lok Paritran, read this and this. 

Excerpt from the first one: “Really, for me a politician needs to have savoir faire, a certain amount of charisma, amazing political savvy and good intelligence. An average IIT student (in my experience) doesn’t have any of the first three and over-delivers on intelligence. I would rather see them do fundamental research, create innovative solutions, build bridges. Politics? Raise my hands for them? No, my hand is still in my pocket.”

I personally think this is a little harsh and mis-directed.

For some information on the alleged split within Lok Paritran, read this and this.

Finally of course there is Lok Satta (formed by Jayaprakash Narayan) – which I think has put the most effort in really thinking through the various issues that surround our polity…Who said politics was simple? For more on them, read this  and this.

All these efforts are very commendable and give hope to a despairing heart…

What will it take for all of them to come together? Or is this too much to ask in the fractious world of Indian politics?

Stay tuned for more…

P.S. For some more food for thought, read Why Does India Have Such Poor Politicians? – 1  and Why Does India Have Such Terrible Politicians?- – 2