Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Politics Incorporated

US congressmen would be going to school to learn 'bout constitution soon per constitution 101. The reason being, politicians do not understand constitution. Do we all agree that it's only applicable to US? It would be a sheer lie if we say Yes. Knowing a constitution is definitely not a requirement for becoming a politician, is it?


Being an auditor, a thought immediately came across what if we put a preventive control in place? After all, selecting a bad person and then trying to educate him/ her doesn't make a sane sense. I mean to say what if all inspiring politicians have to pass an examination on their knowledge about constitution of India or probably a psychometric test for finding out what's going on inside their politico mind?

The test at the bare minimum would ensure that all politicians are educated but would also let us know what kind of leader we are selecting. After all there has to be an interview and selection process before any organisation starts paying you money.

Besides an exam, there has to be some more controls (some of them may be rationalized later):

1. The results should be monitored by an independent private agency. That agency may be an MNC where FCPA like regulations play a big role in governance.
2. The results should be made known to public so that smart decision can be made (at least in the urban areas).
3. If possible, their KRAs should be set and they should be appraised like every normal working human being. Misbehaving politicians should be sacked. Please see some of the videos here for refreshing the memories:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXvw0Jtjfk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI2p4xWWioo
4. If possible, English language should be given due importance cos if globalization is a food for any nation, English is its mouth. For fun, see this video which i saw recently through FB (although from our neighbors)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNvV3VqHjw0

These thoughts may be naive and not sure if something like this is possible, but still thought of committing my thoughts in a post for remembrance. =) May be something better would happen in future. Amen!

3 comments:

  1. Absolutely valid idea. One of the most difficult and important jobs in the world is to lead a country or be a minister. And yet its the only job in the world where you need no qualifications or experience to do it. That's a draft and silly idea based on the mistaken premise of an idealistic democratic idea.

    Take the case of China. They run their politics like a company. There's a selection process and you need qualification and experience to get in. You are then subject to regular performance assessment and rotated across positions. Only if you perform can you rise. Of course, as in any large organisation, there's politics, corruption etc, but by an large its a meritocracy. Real food for thought for other countries.

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  2. Hehehe.. You touched my favourite topic, Kapil. I find it ridiculous to see politicians acting like a bunch of jokers. Education should be able to bring some sanity inside the house. Even when the education levels are not so good, they must be assessed against what they are supposed to do. Having said that, voter must take into account the report card of their representatives while casting the vote rather than some false premises. Very good ideas. Wonder when we will have takers for those ideas.

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  3. @Ramesh: Thank you for sharing china's example. I am very impressed. But it's very strange that China is only known for being a manufacturing hub of the world, while they are doing so many other things which are almost unheard outside Chinese waters. In India, i think we have over-stretched the democracy to the extent of tearing it apart.

    @Vishal: Politics is not one of my favorite topic, it's an inverse of Philosopher's stone. But we can't avoid their show for a long time as they touch our lives daily (unfortunately). Hopefully, the situation will improve in India one day. As Ramesh pointed out, China already has a politics Incorporated so one day we may have it too :)

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