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HomePoliticsKarnataka Elections 2018How an RSS-linked institute is feeding aspiring netas to BJP's Karnataka war...

How an RSS-linked institute is feeding aspiring netas to BJP’s Karnataka war room

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Students of the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini have been sent to the BJP’s war room in Karnataka to gain first-hand experience of elections.

New Delhi: If you’re an aspiring young politician, where better to learn the tricks of the trade than in one of the most fiercely contested assembly elections in the country? At least that’s what Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-linked institution Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini (RMP) believes.

The RMP has sent eight students from the first batch of its unique ‘leadership, politics and governance’ course to intern at the BJP’s war room in Karnataka, as the party tries to topple the Congress from one of its last bastions.

Idea behind the experiment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to the youth for building a ‘new India’, as well as the need for young talent in political parties prompted RMP vice-president and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe to start a course that would give students an insight into the socio-political reality of India.

Thus was born the ‘leadership, politics and governance’ course at RMP, which is based on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Every aspiring candidate had to submit an elaborate statement of purpose, and approximately 150 applied. After interviews in Delhi and Mumbai, 32 students from 14 states were selected for the inaugural batch. About half of the selected students are engineering graduates, while the rest are from business or student politics backgrounds, including a few young leaders from the AIADMK and the BJP.

The students have had lectures delivered by the likes of BJP MP and its youth wing chief Poonam Mahajan, BJP joint general secretary (organisation) V. Satish and RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale. Other guests included Belgian Indologist and author Koenraad Elst, author Ratan Sharda, anti-terror top cop Atulchandra Kulkarni, academic Manisha Priyam, former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi and US consulate cultural affairs officer James Fennell. Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami addressed the students at the induction ceremony, while union minister Nitin Gadkari also interacted with them.

The first batch is set to graduate on 30 June, with Vice-President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu expected to attend.

Meet the interns

Praveen Chandra Prabhakar Pidishetty, 35, hails from a successful Telangana business family, and is the heir to Telangana’s Baba group of companies. But he left the business to the family to enrol for this course, in order to increase his understanding of politics.

“A month in the war room, and I know everything about the constituencies in three districts of Karnataka assigned to me. I deduced statistics for the demography, voters and age groups. We helped the candidates set up backend rooms in their respective constituencies as well,” said Pidishetty.

There are also sons of BJP leaders who’ve opted for the course, like Aditya Arun Chapra from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. His mother Amita was chairperson of the state women’s commission, equivalent to a cabinet minister, and is now a member of the BJP’s state working committee. Chapra himself was a student leader with the ABVP in Madhya Pradesh.

Asked what this course was teaching him that his mother couldn’t, Chapra said: “I followed politics while I studied civil engineering. Then, I opted for this course as it was an extensive one which would teach me about ideologies, the current political scenario, and various parties. I thoroughly studied the Samajwadi Party as an assignment.”

Another intern in Karnataka is Abhimanyu Dinesh Rao, 26, an IT engineer who set up his own firm. He said he got to know about the course through an article, and was instantly excited to be part of it.

Aritra Chattopadhyay from West Bengal added: “To be part of the high-octane work surroundings is a luxury and privilege for anyone having aspirations in politics.”

An entry point

Sahasrabuddhe said that the candidates were told at the very outset that it does not provide them lateral entry into politics. The aim, he said, was to bring out the leader in them.

“However, people have started seeing merit in these students. MPs and MLAs in their areas are already keeping an eye on them,” he said.

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