This one is for aspiring Politicians and Bureaucrats

T N Seshan - the man who introduced the Election Commission to the public. He is now donning a new role. Probably irritated by the activities of politicians and bureaucrats in his times, he has taken up the task of grooming the next generation of netas (politicians) and babus (bureaucrats). MIT School of Government (MITSOG) launched on June 7, 2005 is to focus on training the wannabe netas and babus about the intricacies of governance, rules, budget & finance, management so on and so forth. Seshan has a tough task as its Chairman and Dean in running the institute successfully.

Billed as the Asia's first, it offers one-year, three-semester, residential post-graduate diploma programme in government. You should be under 35 years and willing to shell out a hefty 2.74 lakhs fee plus 75,000 towards hostel expenses. What is the use of being Politician, if you are not traveling abroad, ostensibly to learn how something works in UK/USA? Relax, the fee also covers a international study tour apart from a laptop for each student.

The intake is 60 students a year, but the site doesn't talk about any entrance examination/interview if more people apply (otherwise, they may not qualify). The programme contains 9 core and 9 optional subjects. Though the list of full-time faculty is not available in the site, list of visiting faculty reads as who's who of the Indian political arena, with maximum coming from BJP. Some serious names include Advani, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Sitaram Yechury, Bardhan, Chandrababu Naidu, Aroon Purie, Kapil Sibal, Ramoji Rao and so on.

Interestingly, while a report in Hindu mentioned Rahul Gandhi, the site doesn't say anything about it. If indeed Rahul is in the list, I would be curious to know, what he has done so far to deserve a place. In last one year of his presence in Parliament Rahul has just spoken once or twice, and had lead a dharna in from of the Parliament at the height of Lalu crisis during which got disproportionate amount of column inches in newspapers and air minutes in digital media. The youngest, soon-to-be-nominated-to-AICC and yet-to-prove-his-credentials scion in the Nehru family can probably teach dynastic politics or how democratic principles are upheld in Congress party. Compared to Rahul the youngest of Deoras and Scindias has performed well.

Coming back to MITSOG, many would find it useful to go the correspondence course root myself included. Hope, it would be there soon!