I want my child to be an engineer ; doctor ; civil servant ; industrialist ; actor , photographer ; programmer ; sportsperson ; journalist ; fashion designer …….( few are classics and few have been recently added to the laundry list ! ) Or A politician ? What ? Crazy ? We come from respectable family. I am a simple, God fearing person!! ….. have better things to do in life. But I am fine to give reigns of my country to one who does not come close to what I believe I am?
On top of it I want to succeed in the country where I live but not managed the way I think is right? Before I ask why, let me ask another simple question: What is it that you look for in a career: Money? Status? Responsibility? Exposure ? Growth ? Authority? Who doesn’t like a convoy of cars escorting him/her on roads! I guess all the above! And politics offers all and that too in abundance! But still it is not considered as a mainline career option like a corporate job.
I have thought about it and I feel politics is no different! I see no major difference in the way you get hired for a corporate job or elected as a politician. The process in both the areas begin by answering a simple question – Are you suitable for the job? (self assessment ) and why you think you should be selected or elected ? Both require you to go through a selection process – application or filing nomination; interview or campaigning to convince you are the best person for the job.
The kind of issues one has to manage on a day to day basis in politics require one to don various hats – sales person to a marketer ; from strategist to operations manager ; finance head ( revenue generation ; investments ) ; diversity manager ; managing cross functional teams ; PR and what not. Your success depends on building a consensus; creating a strong team; plan which is inclusive and engages people from all walks of life. Is it not something that is also been spoken in the corporate corridors? So what is so different?
Another interesting similarity is, like in corporate life we have an option of joining a family run organization or any other company or start our own venture; politics gives candidate an option to join a family run party or any other party based on a certain ideology/philosophy or like a young entrepreneur, float your own party provided you are confident that you will be able to compete!
So, why is it that we do not look at politics as a legitimate profession? Is it because we have a pre conceived notion that politics is for ‘not so good’ people? Well, if we are the ones who elect them then how can we alienate them? Is this envy playing here (sour grapes!) or are we passing the buck ? Is this job too tough wherein only the toughest can survive and we are not the ones made for it? Why are we so critical of everything they do? Why do we only have ‘morchas’ against politicians and never for them when they do something good or join them to jointly do something good?
Why is it that we never applaud them for anything? We treat them like customer service professionals in an organization – for anything good, it is part of their job and for anything bad, it is because of them! I truly believe politics is a highly stressful and grueling profession. Job scope is quite vast with not well defined deliverables and on top of that everybody has an opinion about politics! Every action of a politician has multiple reactions and they are under a lens 24X7. Having said that, I also believe that political parties need to take initiatives to attract the key talent and communicate what it takes to be a part of their organization.
People who have made a difference in their respective fields should be given a chance. Its time when parties compete with each other to attract the enterprising politicians of tomorrow! I will leave you with a thought to ponder: Why do children of erstwhile or practicing politicians end up joining politics as their first career option while with their kind of educational qualification they can do well in corporate life also ? So, would you like to give it a shot? Why not? What, me? Thinking………