Paritrana.....ab kidhar?

When I went for the APS conference in Chicago, I went out for dinner with a group of KGPians. "Ab Kidhar?", I was the first one to ask as we got out of the restaurant. Now, my sense of direction is truly awful. But this whole bunch had no idea and we really had to put it together to be able to walk back to the hotel. In fact, Nishit remarked and I agree, "IITians are not good at anything that matters in life. So this is no surprise". Well, he was kidding.

Nevertheless, I remember this whole incident when I read this on Rashmi's blog. A bunch of IITians forming a political party, man isn't that so bookish? Then came RDB and the blogs lost no time in relating these two events. The coverage that Paritrana has been getting is unusual; I doubt that a fledgling political group ever got so much media attention.

The USP of Paritrana, so far, is that it has been founded by a bunch of IITians. So what is it about IITians? One, when someone hears about this the thought that comes to mind it: this is a group of capable people. In other words, this is no Lalu/Mayawati/Mulayam thingy. I suspect the other dominant thought is about the 'sacrifice' of these folks. By all accounts, they could have had a fairly comfortable life. The sacrifice theme never fails to impress Indians, be it Madam Sonia or the Paritrana guys.

There is no dearth of people with high academic excellence in politics. There are a few IITians too. Jairam Ramesh, minister in the current union cabinet is from IIT B, so is Manohar Parikkar the former Chief Minister of Goa. Ajit Singh, former union minister, is from IIT KGP. These people have been in important positions and I am not sure what they have done dramatically different from the run of the mill politician that we know. In the days or yore, when UPSC entrance used to be what CAT is now, many IITians got into India's vast bureaucratic underbelly and are in positions of influence. Has it made a difference to the system?

Because of all this, I am not enthused as much by the 'capable' theme as the 'sacrifice' theme. The Paritrana founders have given up a lot to pursue their dream and there seems to be a fire in them. This is what differentiates them from the Comp Science grad who took UPSC and decided to become a 'collector'.

What we now need to know is: do they have a sense of direction from here on?