Mr Sarath Babu is the election sensation in Chennai. I hope I can safely extend the scope of field to the whole of Tamilnadu. He is creating ripples in the city with his 'revolutionary' electoral promises such as abolition of hunger etc. I have a couple of questions to ask him...
To the benefit of those who are not aware of Sarath here are a few pieces of background information. Born in a poor family in Chennai, he excelled in academics. This opened the gates of some of the finest educational institutes of India like the BITS Pillani and IIM Ahemedabad. After his management education he followed the footsteps of his mother and started a food chain named FoodKing (his mother had a small eatery preparing idlies). Now the comapny has more than Rs. 6 crore in topline and is doing well.
Sarath is running for the Parliament from the South Chennai Parliamentary constituency. This constituency has as many as 47 candidates in the fray including Sarath. Sarath has had the 'charisma' of attracting the educated youth to attend his political meetings and rallies. This segment of the voters is one of the most indifferent and hypocritical segment of voters (no offence intended). Most of them think that Indian politics has no future and consider their suffrage 'a post-dated cheque drawn on a failing bank' ( MK Gandhi's quote in a different context). They find it always very easy to criticise the system and seldom think of reforming the system.
Sarath should be appreciated on two accounts. One, being a member of the abovesaid indifferent segment he has sticked out his neck to do something inspiring. Secondly he is not alone as he is able to attract people from his native segment to the portals of politics. This is a very encouraging sign.
But is Sarath on the right track? I would rather argue he is not. On atleast two accounts I find him, in his present shape, not suitable for electoral politics. One is that he is an independent candidate. As an independent candiate, I think he can accomplish precious little. In the case of making it to the Parliament, he cannot contribute to anything substantial to the nation. He may have to take side sooner or later, negating the 'independent' tag of his candidature. In Indian Parliament it is going to be arithmetics more than anything else. Had he been a member of a party probably he can influence the national legislations by influencing his party's ideology.
The second ground is that he is a private entrepreneur. I assume he is an aggressive one too. This can land him in serious conflict of interest. Assume that when the Parliament votes on a legislation that apparently affects the 'well-being' of food chains in the nation but appears to be in 'national interest', which Sarath would vote? Is it the legislator Sarath or CEO Sarath? This is a simple hypothetical situations. In reality many such potential conflicts of interest exist. Many argue that most of the present politicians and legislators are themselves private businessmen. If such people can legislate then why not Sarath? Yes it is a good one, but there is logical fallacy I guess. The USP of Sarath is that he is a new generation politician. He is supposed to clearly show a break from the past politics. Again claiming innocence based on the fact that many are doing the same nonsense doesnt simply resonate in any rational voter's mind.
In my view Sarath's core competence is entrepreneurship. He should probably concenterate on his forte and expand his firm from a 6-crore company to a 6000-crore one. That is what is expected from an young entrepreneur like Sarath. If he feels that electoral politics is the place where he wants to be in, he should probably think of taking politics as his full-time job. Riding two horses is always a risky task, specially when the two horses have the tendency of entering into conflicts every now and then.
Anyways Sarath has his task cut out for him ans one should wait to see how does he fare in the general elections. In a democracy (only) people are always right and hence my views are subject to changes post May-16. :)
Sarath is running for the Parliament from the South Chennai Parliamentary constituency. This constituency has as many as 47 candidates in the fray including Sarath. Sarath has had the 'charisma' of attracting the educated youth to attend his political meetings and rallies. This segment of the voters is one of the most indifferent and hypocritical segment of voters (no offence intended). Most of them think that Indian politics has no future and consider their suffrage 'a post-dated cheque drawn on a failing bank' ( MK Gandhi's quote in a different context). They find it always very easy to criticise the system and seldom think of reforming the system.
Sarath should be appreciated on two accounts. One, being a member of the abovesaid indifferent segment he has sticked out his neck to do something inspiring. Secondly he is not alone as he is able to attract people from his native segment to the portals of politics. This is a very encouraging sign.
But is Sarath on the right track? I would rather argue he is not. On atleast two accounts I find him, in his present shape, not suitable for electoral politics. One is that he is an independent candidate. As an independent candiate, I think he can accomplish precious little. In the case of making it to the Parliament, he cannot contribute to anything substantial to the nation. He may have to take side sooner or later, negating the 'independent' tag of his candidature. In Indian Parliament it is going to be arithmetics more than anything else. Had he been a member of a party probably he can influence the national legislations by influencing his party's ideology.
The second ground is that he is a private entrepreneur. I assume he is an aggressive one too. This can land him in serious conflict of interest. Assume that when the Parliament votes on a legislation that apparently affects the 'well-being' of food chains in the nation but appears to be in 'national interest', which Sarath would vote? Is it the legislator Sarath or CEO Sarath? This is a simple hypothetical situations. In reality many such potential conflicts of interest exist. Many argue that most of the present politicians and legislators are themselves private businessmen. If such people can legislate then why not Sarath? Yes it is a good one, but there is logical fallacy I guess. The USP of Sarath is that he is a new generation politician. He is supposed to clearly show a break from the past politics. Again claiming innocence based on the fact that many are doing the same nonsense doesnt simply resonate in any rational voter's mind.
In my view Sarath's core competence is entrepreneurship. He should probably concenterate on his forte and expand his firm from a 6-crore company to a 6000-crore one. That is what is expected from an young entrepreneur like Sarath. If he feels that electoral politics is the place where he wants to be in, he should probably think of taking politics as his full-time job. Riding two horses is always a risky task, specially when the two horses have the tendency of entering into conflicts every now and then.
Anyways Sarath has his task cut out for him ans one should wait to see how does he fare in the general elections. In a democracy (only) people are always right and hence my views are subject to changes post May-16. :)
2 comments:
Sarath managed a vote tally of more than 15000. A good number indeed! :)
A very Good article Major.... but dont you think what you are proposing (full time politician) is an ideal situation.... if he leaves his biz n he doesn't get elected who's gonna give him money for his living(maybe he would have left his biz if he got elected).... Also when actors are getting into politics(only with their image n nothing else) i guess a good manager can surely do a better job in managing his own interest n public interest....
Another important thing here is how will he know about a party properly before joining it(i like rahul gandhi's way of doing politics but i hate the state politicians of congress, so do you think i should join congress?). My guess is that he didn't wanna take the risk of joining a party n become a real politician but try n change the way people think n feel about politics by showing them how a real politician should be.....
"A Different breed of politicians in the making"
Post a Comment