Off the beaten path', 'breaking new ground' - the cliches are endless, but what happens when an IIM student shuns the lure of investment banking firms and FMCG companies and decides to work with a political party? 'Killing a career before it started', 'professional suicide' most would exclaim. Himanshu Meena takes the brickbats in his stride.
The IIM Bangalore student will spend the summer of 2011 with India's oldest political party - the Congress.
For all post-graduate programmes in all the IIMs an internship is compulsory. Corporate giants line up at campuses in November for 'summer placements', which take place in April-May. Himanshu decided he would skip the placements. Because he plans to set up a consultancy firm which will devise campaign strategies for political parties in the run up to elections.
"I followed the last US Presidential elections and noticed how immensely organised the whole process was," says Himanshu. "In India, there is no organisation, no record of what funds go where, whether they are actually used at all. So I want to bring in a process that makes everything clear."
Himanshu chose this internship to know, first hand, what Indian politics is all about. He contacted IIM alumni who are already in this field and then approached the MP from his home town of Alwar, Jitendra Singh.
"I chose the Congress because I know Jitendra Singh. I approached him and he said yes. I have no political preferences, had I been rejected I would have approached another party."
Himanshu will be working with the Congress in the run up to the West Bengal polls, and be a part of the party's media cell. "I will be working with the media war room in the media cell," says Himanshu, "which strategises the campaigns as well as the image of the leaders. How the leaders are branded is important. I'll compare the Congress' campaign with other political campaigns, including those in the US."
Does he have any plans of joining politics any time in the future? "No, not really. I want clean up our politics but not be in it," he says. "I want to provide expertise to political parties and help bring in the transparency this system lacks now.
"It's sad that today's smart people ignore politics. Only when the system is clean will the bright young minds of India get in to politics. But we need the intelligent people now to begin the clean-up act."
It's a vicious circle that Himanshu seems determined to break.
Source: India Syndicate
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