The Enigma

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Thursday, April 05, 2007

Ideals gone awry!

Students have the onus of restructuring the future society. If nothing else, they must change themselves and their families for the better, in thinking, in values, in ethics. This will make sure that we lay the foundation for a golden morrow. We all take steps, some conscious and some not, towards this objective.

Little things we do can have a large impact for our own future. If we stop giving alms to child beggars and instead donate generously to NGOs boosting child education and invest our efforts in making them reach their goal, we are helping mankind better. Everybody may not do this on the same scale, but if this thought is fostered in each of us, we are on our way! This is just an example, just a passing thought, probably a droplet in an ocean.

One such though appeared to be Lok Paritran, a political party floated by IIT graduates. They wanted to rebuild Indian politics, or so I assume. A piece on CNN-IBN about them shattered me recently. It reads:

Lok Paritran, the political party formed by a group of ex-IITians in 2005 witnessed a vertical split just ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

The breakaway faction is called Bharat Punarnirman Dal (BPD) and will take on Lok Paritran head on in the UP poll field.


Further, I was amused to read that both parties also involved in mud-slinging, derogatory and degenerating a la the run-of-the-mill political parties. The report says:

"We will contest the elections in the fifth, sixth and seventh phases in UP despite contemptuous act of spreading rumours against the party by some former party members, who have formed BPD," national president L P Tanmay Rajpurohit was quoted as saying.

The expectations from such a party founded by the so-called brightest minds of India, The IITians, would be to change the existing poor scenario. In case the party fails at doing it, one expects it to fare better than others on the ethics and responsibility part. If you cant change the herd, at least stand out. They started out to change the crowd, and turned to be just another addition to the crowd. This is definitely discouraging.

When does such a situation arise? Probably when the founders have surrogate intentions. It could be power, fame, money or anything, they must have claimed something and aimed for something else. Or they could have got their basics wrong. A successful Marketing Strategy works if the Marketer knows Why he is doing something and for what. If the why and want match, the strategy is successful. This match may not have been manifested properly in this case. I have nothing against the party or the founders or the members or anyone. It was just an example I cited. There are umpteen such out there in papers where people claim something and aim for something. They gain the initial momentum claiming lofty ideals, but end up with hollow promises. This case has been highlighted probably cos the stakeholders are from the esteemed IIT. Frankly, in my opinion, IIT is highly highly highly over-rated. There is nothing special about it. It is a completely personal opinion, though!

I have my reasons for it, too! For in this case, while we have the above mentioned party on one side, we have Bharat Uday Mission on the other side. This is a group of students (I dont want to call it a party) who have come together to make a difference to society and they definitely do it. They are passionate towards their job, and they are all students. There is some sincerity and passion in BUM which the others lack. Even BUM may have lots of IITians, but it doesn't use IIT to gain some momentum or mileage. Moreover, BUM serves at many places in India where there is no IIT and hence no IITians and it does a better job there. This clearly shows we don't need brands, but we need people with substance.

We don't need lofty ideals and promises, what we need is consciousness... Consciousness in each of us is they to the golden future we want to pave for ourselves. Students should definitely make some effort to better things. It need not be on a national scale, or it need not even affect one single person other than self. If every self takes care of the reform in the self, the society is taken care of.

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7 Comments:

At April 05, 2007 9:32 AM, Blogger Saraswathi said...

A good thoughtful post!

Sad to see Lok paritran split up like that and behaving like any other political party in the country.

But as u said if every person wakes up to the realisation of being better himself and help the society dat itself goes a long way. For once you realise you can surely find channels to implement your ideas.

Brands surely have no meaning when it comes to propagating a political party or a student group. What it needs is dedicated and honest individuals to take it forward. IITs are premier institutions no doubt but just having that tag isnt sufficient that a person will be committed by default.

 
At April 08, 2007 6:35 PM, Blogger Y.M. said...

Lok paritran split up!!!!!whaaaaaat????
recently i was tellin my bro that i m v impressed by such initiatives and will join it some day wen i m on my own...

this s v stupid...if u hav one goal , it doesnt make sense to fight over silly issues and change directions..unity naam ki cheez exist karti hain ya nahi..

i m not smone who really supports NGOs..i find dem all very fake and silly..jus a cheap way to gain popularity

hey jab i ll be done wid my MBA n stuff and ll have enough money..i ll start smthing of dis sort on my own..!!tum join kar sakte ho!!!

 
At April 08, 2007 6:35 PM, Blogger Y.M. said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At April 09, 2007 6:35 PM, Blogger Smartalec said...

n1 n1
the lok partitran example was an apt one! a cliched situation! and the contrast using the example of BUM! now that's a story with a difference!
isn't anything and everything hyped up these days? and oh well! the people, the aam junta, the media, all are to be blamed too! what we need are organisations, parties, etc. with the "Walk the talk" kind of mottos!
As for your posts of late, quite enlightening when it comes to gleaning management fundaes for management-illiterate folks like me:D

 
At April 15, 2007 11:39 PM, Blogger Seshadri said...

it seems instead of cleaning up politics, the netas have corrupted their minds...with regard to branding, the issue is that the majority of the electorate dusnt understand the importance of educated ppl in politics..and the paritran-ians forgot this fact..wy else wud they choose to contest in localities of tamilnadu against established netas..such revolutions need to be brought about in the urban educated constituencies first,be it paritran or otherwise..

 
At April 28, 2007 11:46 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

this like tht sick joke abt Laloo n Clinton..!!

i was hoping to be a part of them, one day...this thing's too derogatory.

 
At April 28, 2007 11:52 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

aneways...it's nice to read ur blog after so long..!!

n how has delhi treated u for the last, nearly an year of stay there.! ;)

 

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