Techies want to reform system

They could have opted for a flourishing career abroad just like many other Indian techies and professionals. But they chose to stay in their country to “cleanse the political system” here.

A group of former students of the IITs have taken the plunge into politics and will field candidates in the forthcoming elections under the banner of the ‘Bharatiya Punarnirman Dal’. The outfit will contest at least 50 seats across the country.

“We were frustrated with the current political system of our country. As they say, to change the system, you must be a part of the system and so the BPD was formed by a handful of well-educated professionals who wanted to cleanse the existing political system and genuinely do something for the country,” said Sanjeev Yadav, BPD member and the party’s candidate from South Delhi.

Yadav, an alumnus of IIT-Roorkee, said the realisation of how well-meaning youth can revolutionise things if they set their mind to a cause struck him when he was pursuing an engineering course at the University of Washington-Seattle and got associated with the Hindu Student Council (the name, he says, doesn’t reflect the ideology of the council but is actually a reference to Hindustan) there.

“In the council, we were part of a movement that focussed on giving a platform to Indian students in American universities who wished to express their views on any issue,” Yadav said.

The BPD, which was registered as a political party in 2006, contested a few seats in UP and Delhi in the last assembly elections, but lost. The BPD is now preparing for the Lok Sabha elections where they would be contesting seats in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

“We realise that contesting elections isn’t easy. Candidates like us face many problems- we aren’t a cash-rich party and money for our poll campaigns comes from other IIT students and professionals abroad who know that we are fighting for a cause.

Also, candidates from major political parties threaten our workers. The political big guns have made elections a very dirty exercise and the biggest drawback for us is that the educated youth who we are fighting for hardly go out and vote. But we hope this will all change,” said Yadav.

Similarly, there are some other political parties too which have the same agenda of “cleansing the political system.” The Bharatiya Rashtravadi Samanta Party (BRSP) and the Lok Satta Movement are a few examples.

Motivational guru and educator Shiv Khera, who contested the 2004 general election from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk constituency as an independent candidate against Congress heavyweight Kapil Sibal formed the BRSP in July 2008. Though Khera couldn’t even manage to save his security deposit in the 2004 elections, he believed that through a political party which stood for reforms he could “some day see a more transparent political system”.

Due to ill-health Khera voluntarily gave up the post of BRSP president.