Should there be certain “selection criteria” for MPs?

Great thoughts there, Shantanu. Lets apply your standards to Mr. Dutt.
* Financially solvent -Check
–Dutt is bankrolled by the mafia and Amar Singh
* Above 21 years of age -Check
–At least on the passport, not sure mentally after his years of substance abuse.
* Indian citizen- Check
–At least one sure check, but is Nargis from India? Thought she was from Pakistan.
* Literate – Check?
–Gandhigiri sounds good in a movie, but not real life.

When it is an unimportant task, call in the experts. But when it is something really significant, call in the commoners. That is what democracy is all about.

Remember, India is the only country in the world that had universal adult franchise from day one. So any act of exclusion is one step back for us. Applying criteria is a very dangerous demand, which arises from the minds of the educated. The basic reason for Jinnah’s dislike for the Congress was not religion (he was no Muslim), it was his discomfort at being with the great unwashed public.

I have seen poor illiterate women from SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) conducting their activities with much more wisdom and dignity than us educated people. Any politician, if he is worth his salt needs to have been convicted of criminal and civil crimes. Otherwise, he is either a Government stooge or a rising son, none of whom augur well for us. A politician’s main duty is to press for change – this is destined to conflict with the aims of the Government. Our first Parliament was full of criminals and jailbirds, remember?

Why not let the people decide? After all, Indira Gandhi was thrown out in 1977 not by the educated elite but the great unwashed. If we can guarantee free and fair elections where people can cast their vote without fear, we do not need to fear that the wrong candidate can come in. And even if one such does come in, he only reflects the age.

Talk about corruption and wrong-doing. You think the politicians are responsible for everything? The whole bloody nation is corrupt and ninety five percent of the honest minority never had a choice. We had these young IAS/IPS officers writing poems about a corrupt Chief Minister. We had a young IAS officer on the cover page of Time, who later got caught stealing from the destitute. Not to say ill of the departed, but Goswami was a very good example. Brilliant management graduates carting around suitcases filled with cash and taking a cut from it. In Gujarat, we calculated that an honest IAS officer could be worth at least ten crores by the time he retired without stepping out of the bounds of what we called “acceptable levels of dishonesty”.

Oh, I do go on and on. Nargis’s mother was an Indian Muslim, and her father was a Hindu from Rawalpindi. She started acting in 1935, so we can safely call her Indian. Oh, and Sunil Dutt was ten times the man his son will ever be. Remember his padayatra through Punjab in those days? I remember that the daughter went along.

In my opinion the only entry criteria should be –

A person with a proven track record of leading a positive change in the society.

What about defining an exit criteria for them?

And junta should set the KRA’s for him/her to be achieved at the end of every year (not after 5 years)…A bad score first year should be a warning message…next year showing the way out..

Thanks,

Hi, I dont actually agree to all your statement, please allow me to explain.

“1. Educated to at least higher secondary level”
I dont agree here. We are still not a developed country in economic terms and many of us are illiterate, but should that stop a smart, good , man/woman from fighting against the problems in their constituency, for the betterment of his future generation, just because he did not complete his higher secondary exams?

“2. If ever convicted for either a civil or criminal offense, at least two years have passed since their conviction and/or sentence being served”
Oh yes I Agree completly on this

“3. Able to demonstrate professional competence or expertise in at least one area of public policy or management – either in the for-profit sector or NGO or government”
What professional competence are we talking about here?? We are not looking for a CEO to run a company.

“4. Fully conversant in English and at least one other official language of India”
English? Really? Try telling that to the German, French , chinese, japanese and many other great leader of the world.

5. Able to declare their assets and sources of income
Agree

6. Able to declare their sources of funding (for the election campaign)
Agree

Thanks

Actually, it is time that we Indians stopped blaming a vague community called “politicians” for our problems. Every Indian citizen has an obligation to participate in politics.

The form of participation is via newspapers, blogs, television advertizing, and making telephone calls. In today’s internetworked world, nobody has any excuse. Everyone should make one’s voice felt in all the issues that concern oneself.

What we should be asking every Indian is how much of their personal income they have set aside for this participation in politics : is it at least 5% of their total annual income ?

When politics become strong, crooks will automatically be eliminated. This will not happen via a top-down selection criteria. More information on strong politics is here in my blog. Your comments are welcome there.

Not getting rigid or going against speaking or learning English but keeping in mind Indians linguistic culture.

This is what came into my mind “let majoriy of the villagers who cant speak english get recruited as soldiers, do all sacrifices and lay down their life for motherland”. Because they dont know english so only option to serve the country is to become a soldier. Also regional politics and parties will gain strength.

I am just thinking, In past how many successful businessmen were MBA graduate? Wheren’t they successful?

Agree with Mr. Murthy on points relating to education.