Elected Representative

I was intrigued by the title of Rwitwika Bhattacharya-Agarwal’s book, What Makes a Politician. This is not a book about politicians at the top of the pecking order. Rather, it is about the countless unknown politicians who are the overwhelming majority. The book (1) explains what life in politics is really like for the majority of politicians; and (2) how someone without a political background or dynastic connections can enter politics, if they wanted to.

 

This then is not a cynical book about bashing politics and politicians. That is why Baijayant Panda, a Lok Sabha MP, wrote in the foreword:

“This book is a welcome move away from caricaturing, stereotyping, or straightforward dismissing the work of public officials.”

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What is a political party?

 

A political party offers a “product”, i.e., an ideology (e.g. equitable society; protecting the vulnerable; you get the idea). Ironically, therein are sown the seeds of discord. A party that starts by primarily caring and fighting for one group will inevitably alienate and antagonize another group. In turn, the more it has pushed away certain groups, the less it cares for them (they won’t vote for the party anyway); and a vicious cycle is set off. This applies to most parties, she says: BJP (Hindus and middle class), SP and BSP (OBC’s, Muslims and Dalits), CPI/M (workers and trade unions) etc. An exception so such a rigidly defined voter base, she says, is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) whose ideology is anti-corruption, not pro/anti some section of society. Interesting perspective, I hadn’t thought of it that way.

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Life of a typical parliamentarian

 

Parliamentarians have to juggle multiple demands – from unhappy constituents, disgruntled party workers, the media, vested interest groups and demanding senior party leaders. She describes the daily schedule of a senior minister and party spokesperson whom she shadowed. It was always a 14+ hours workday with time set for ministerial work, meeting party workers from his constituency, addressing the problems of constituency members, and hobnobbing with senior party leaders. It is a brutal schedule, she says. Hardly the image we have.

 

In India, since many systems are either non-existent or broken, constituents turn to their elected representative to “avail basic facilities like law and order, and sanitation”. A politician here thus ends up spending a lot of time on such matters, unlike a Western country, where representatives can spend more time on policy matters (because the systems function well). The Local Area Development Fund for MP’s that allocates ₹5 crores per MP has only “institutionalized the expectation that parliamentarians will provide developmental support to the community”. I found this part depressing yet informative.