New Delhi: Aditya Kashyap came from Bihar to Patiala to study at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law. He was a first-generation graduate in his family. But a nationalist-minded mentorship called Think India took him under its wings and helped nurture his talent.
By the end of his final year, Kashyap had managed to intern with MPs Varun Gandhi and Ninong Ering, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court advocates J Sai Deepak and D Bharat Kumar, and Additional Solicitor General (Supreme Court) Vikramjit Banerjee.
In its 17th year now, Think India is a national internship programme for students. It matches them with suitable nationalist mentors in government, parliament, think tanks, and law firms. It operates among students in professional institutes like NLU, IIT, NIT, IIM, AIIMS, OP Jindal Global University, etc. During the nine years of the BJP government in power, the pool has become wider than ever. Hundreds of students have interned with powerful ministers and MPs since 2014.
“We have sent students to Nitin Gadkari, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Rakesh Sinha,” says Kashyap. The Delhi High Court lawyer used to be the Think India national co-convenor from 2019-2021. He now mentors other students and participates in the organisation’s activities. “We only work as a bridge and don’t provide any kind of financial support. Whatever the students get, they get from the MP’s office,” he added.
Kashyap says he started out by participating in sessions and talks organised by Think India, which brought him internship opportunities. There are no advertisements online or on college campuses, although Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student organisation affiliated with the RSS, has an entire section on its website devoted to the programme.
“A pan India initiative to bring together the best talents of the country and to infuse in them a ‘Nation First’ attitude, aimed at developing the nationalistic spirit and inspiring young India to be of service to the society,” reads the section.
We don’t pick applicants on the basis of caste but we do not discriminate either – Shubham Shukla, member.
The group’s members, however, insist they don’t have a political ideology. But they say that nationalism is at the heart of everything they do and believe in. “We get these internships through our alumni who have connections with MPs or their secretaries,” Kashyap says.
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Fellowship ecosystem
Internship programmes in Delhi are the most sought-after. They give young graduates a tantalising glimpse into the power corridors of public policy, politics and legislative practice. Some of the most prestigious internships include fellowships run by PRS Legislative Research (LAMP, or Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament), Swaniti Initiative, and Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC). At the state level, there are fellowship programs such as Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates (Haryana), District Development Fellowship (Punjab), and Chief Minister’s Urban Leaders Fellowship and Delhi Assembly Research Centre fellowship (Delhi). New ones have joined the universe in recent years such as the Narendra Modi Study Circle-sponsored Mukherjee Fellowship. Monthly stipends can range from Rs 20,000 to Rs 80,000.
Think India has a widespread student base in professional institutes. Currently, there are thousands of members in this student-driven organisation, but its WhatsApp group has around 250 active members, who participate in seminars and conferences.
Think India claims that the organisation was created by students and is being run by students.
“A group of individuals who mostly belonged to lower social backgrounds started this organisation,” says Kashyap, but he did not name them.
He adds that they don’t maintain any data about the alumni or founding members yet, but that they are planning to start it soon.
The organisation provides internship opportunities twice a year. It has six internship verticals— Vidhi-The Legal Internship, Niti-The Public Policy Internship, Anubhooti-The Social Internship, Samvad-The Journalism Internship, Sansadiya-The Parliamentarian Internship, and Shuruat-The Start-Up Internship. Vidhi and Sansadiya are the most popular ones.
The internships are for a period of one or two months. The next will start during the winter break.
We have sent students to Nitin Gadkari, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Rakesh Sinha – Aditya Kashyap, former national co-convener
23-year-old Medhavi Mishra found out about Think India through social media. She was working as a legal intern with Maneka Gandhi when she applied for the organisation’s Sansadiya internship in 2019. She was selected and worked with Sunita Duggal, a BJP MP from Haryana.
Think India holds weekly meetings with their interns where they share their experiences. “A few times I talked about animal rights as I worked with Menka Gandhi on this, but nothing apart from it,” says Mishra.
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Helped by alumni donations
Unlike other fellowships, Think India does not micro-manage its members and does not provide any financial support. Members don’t undergo a rigorous or strict selection process either and are only required to submit an application and CV. The Google form application asks candidates about their educational background and their reasons for wanting to do an internship.
“We receive 2,500 applications for Vidhi and 2,000 for Sansadiya, but we can only select 300 and 50. For Sansadiya, sometimes we can only select 10 or 20 applicants depending on the number of MPs who agree [to have a Think India intern],” says Kashyap.
By comparison, to secure a LAMP fellowship of PRS, candidates have to go through many rounds of interviews. The selected ones receive a stipend of Rs. 20,000 per month.
Think India collects donations from its alumni. They’ve held seminars, lectures and conferences at IITs, IIMs and NLUs.
“We don’t get any financial support from anywhere [apart from donations from alumni]. If someone gets an internship at the International Law Commission in Geneva and doesn’t have the money to go, then we raise funds for that person,” says Shubham Shukla, a member of Think India.
The lower rate of competition and the short duration of the internship make up for the lack of a stipend.
“We don’t pick applicants on the basis of caste but we do not discriminate either,” says Shukla. “We see the merit and provide internships to those who fulfil these criteria,” he added.
The criteria are based on academic performance.
The organisation has a strong emphasis on nationalism. “We do not compromise on the nationalism issue but there is no strict, uniform, and exhaustive definition of it. We don’t have a top-to-bottom approach,” says Kashyap.
Shukla calls it ‘nation-building’ priority.
We receive 2,500 applications for Vidhi and 2,000 for Sansadiya – Aditya Kashyap
Many RSS members and other Right-wing politicians have been seen at Think India’s conferences and events, but the organisation says it invites people from across the political spectrum and many attend the conferences.
The forum was the outreach partner for Y20 events in national institutes and universities. They got the collaboration through their “alumni connections”.
As part of Y20 they organised ‘G20 Impact Summit-Unleashing the Potentials’ with IIT-Roorkee. Guests in attendance included Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Dhami; Aditya Agrawal, CEO, PhysicsWallah and Krishna Gopal, RSS joint general secretary.
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From Bengaluru to Delhi
Think India has a strong network of alumni from different backgrounds. Currently, it has around 150 active members in India on different campuses.
Think India started out in 2006 by organising city-level workshops in Bengaluru. The first annual Think India Convention was held at an ashram run by Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living India in 2007. Three year later, students gathered in New Delhi to establish a nationwide network.
“In 2017, we expanded to more campuses and states,” says Shukla. Now, Think India has a presence all over India.
“We want to groom leaders from every section of society,” he adds.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)