The Hindu : Politicians need proper training: Vajpayee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

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National

Politicians need proper training: Vajpayee

By Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI Jan. 6. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today warned that democratic government would turn into an inert and irresponsive administration if the elected representatives who came to power only on the criteria of their popularity were ignorant about running the government.

Mr. Vajpayee bemoaned that those in power were increasingly becoming dependent on the bureaucracy. They did not appear to be shouldering their responsibility of implementing the bureaucracy's advice after properly evaluating it.

The Prime Minister was addressing a gathering at Uttan village, near here, where he dedicated a complex of Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, a body run by the BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders for imparting training in government public policies and conducting research. He said the gap between the bureaucracy and the executive was widening because the latter lacked the necessary abilities.

The leaders at various levels were not only found wanting in administrative matters but lacked even the desire to learn. Those who wanted to enter politics did not appear to be mentally prepared to improve their understanding and they also lacked sufficient aptitude to get trained, he regretted.

Stressing the need for training politicians, Mr. Vajpayee said that despite ideals like decentralisation of power, in practice the decision-making process was confined to a few at the top.

He said that many elected representatives complained that they did not get ime to speak in Parliament but when they got the chance, nobody knew what they spoke. The legislative business was being carried out through committees where members remained absent or were unprepared.

Welcoming the efforts of the Mhalgi Prabodhini, Mr. Vajpayee said that when the late Mhalgi finished speaking on the Five Year Plan in Parliament as a Jan Sangh member, the then Minister, the late Y.B. Chavan, replied in only one sentence, "planning is not these people's cup of tea.'' This made the party leaders work out a system for training their party men in administration and the affairs of the country. "Now nobody can say that planning is not our subject.''

Earlier, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, recalled a satirical poem that stated that the chauffer of a new Minister chose to alight when his boss felt like driving, while telling him that it was a car and not a sarkar that would run even if one did not know how to do it.

The Union Communications Minister, Pramod Mahajan, who is the president of the Prabodhini, said executives of even modest business units having a turnover of about Rs. 10 crores attended the best business schools but "we 850 MPs who pass a budget of the size of Rs. four lakh crores do not think that we need any training". He said the BJP was the only party that believed in training its workers and leaders.

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