I made that seamless and successful move three years ago from being a stretched-time slave to multinational corporations who paid me rather well, to being a piecemeal slave to various people I did not even know existed till then, who wanted compensation from me for their slave-driving efforts! Since then, this masochistic thought that I should try my hand in public service through an elected office has been eating my brain - the remnants of that, anyway - like the veritable `canker in the bud', to quote the bard. Desperate calls from beacons like Anna Hazare, backed up by earnest endorsements from Kalmadi, Raja, almost the entire political tribe in Karnataka and many of their ilk elsewhere, for all right-minded and honest individuals to enter politics to clean that sewer up, just fanned the flame a bit more. And then the first opportunity gently floated on to my lap, as if someone watching over me wanted to put me through a baptism by fire.
The association of the owners of the villas we live in goes through this gut-wrenching and exciting annual experience to elect its management committee of seven and I had some fiftysix people urging me to contest that year. My arithmetic was still razor-sharp and my teacher-wife helped me firm up the numbers, which seemed to scream that I had the backing of at least 30% of the voters, if not more. As a seasoned public-servant-to-be I looked for sephologists ready with exit interviews and not finding any, I smartly demanded assurances of my victory from the populace. When they came through in various forms, my mind was made up and I said 'yes' to the collective glee of my supporters. Only when someone yelled with relief `Aha, one down and six more to go', I realised that something was amiss. But by the time I got wiser to the situation that every year the owners had to literally drag seven sacrificial lambs to the altar kicking and screaming, it was too late. It seems there never was an election due to acute paucity of candidates and the management committee was usually filled up with the unanimous choice of the owners!! So much for the euphoria over my first success to a vaguely quasi-public office! The ensuing year was by no means traumatic because people were so very smug that they managed to put seven of us in place that they did not demand anything serious from the committee. But this stint did give me my side-door entry into 'public' affairs. Despite limited activity in the committee, there was adequate politics involving 200 households and I could imagine the nightmare, managing a larger population generally baying for your blood.
I was armed wih the above experience when the election of corporators came around and many of the political parties invited `qualified' people to approach them for selection of candidates. Some of my friends who knew I was a sucker for any public office promptly proposed my name to one of the parties and I was asked to present myself for an interview! I was very puzzled as to the need for that pow-wow because I knew I was probably overqualified educationally and my 35 years of working experience would have outstripped most others. But, as a well wisher reminded me, this was serious politics and politics of any kind was `different'! So, I landed at the venue for the interview on the appointed day, curious but not very anxious.
As I walked into the room, the three wise men managing the selection process greeted me warmly and after a short introduction, serious business commenced in earnest. My effort to highlight my education and experience were peremptorily ignored, causing significant agitation in my mind. But I was somewhat assuaged when I realised the three wise men wanted to discuss specific attributes which they considered essential for the job of a corporator. They began with `integrity'. My fervent launch into corruption in public offices and the need to restore probity was brutally cut short after 8 seconds and they said they just wanted to know whether the party can `trust' me. My answer was categorical, yes, absolutely. Next came the critical quality of being a team-player. Extremely keen to impress, I began with being a member of these school teams and those college teams but again they would have none of it. All they desired to hear was that I had no problem in working as a team member in this specific context and sharing credits with others working with me. I triumphantly declared that my credo was always to share whatever success we achieved with colleagues and was pleased with myself for a job well done. Then came the query whether I subscribed to the philosophy of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) process. I was pleasantly surprised that the party-men even knew about that and avidly identified myself with the principle. That was it. The interview was over and I was told that I was being shortlisted for the next meeting with the `leader'.
When I met the leader, he was again very focussed on the three attributes his lackeys discussed in the earlier meeting. He expressed happiness that he can trust my integrity to keep all the monies collected from various sources during my tenure at the party's disposal; no accounts, no paper, just plain old trust, he reiterated. Then he proceeded to applaud my team spirit; he clarified that without that, party leaders cannot hope to get their shares of the booty from corporators, especially when there are going to be no accounting books involved. Finally, he explained the importance of the PPP process and the need to squirrel away a major portion of the public funds allotted to my constituency and deposit the same with specific private parties identified by the leaders. I was too dumbfounded to even react when the leader asked me whether I was ready to firm up the percentage of shares etc. Being the terribly busy leader he was, he did not tarry long and went quickly to the next candidate, who seemed to be more clued in.
My desire for public service through elected office died a quiet and dignified death that day. I do not even know where it lies buried now! Not that I am looking out for it.
The association of the owners of the villas we live in goes through this gut-wrenching and exciting annual experience to elect its management committee of seven and I had some fiftysix people urging me to contest that year. My arithmetic was still razor-sharp and my teacher-wife helped me firm up the numbers, which seemed to scream that I had the backing of at least 30% of the voters, if not more. As a seasoned public-servant-to-be I looked for sephologists ready with exit interviews and not finding any, I smartly demanded assurances of my victory from the populace. When they came through in various forms, my mind was made up and I said 'yes' to the collective glee of my supporters. Only when someone yelled with relief `Aha, one down and six more to go', I realised that something was amiss. But by the time I got wiser to the situation that every year the owners had to literally drag seven sacrificial lambs to the altar kicking and screaming, it was too late. It seems there never was an election due to acute paucity of candidates and the management committee was usually filled up with the unanimous choice of the owners!! So much for the euphoria over my first success to a vaguely quasi-public office! The ensuing year was by no means traumatic because people were so very smug that they managed to put seven of us in place that they did not demand anything serious from the committee. But this stint did give me my side-door entry into 'public' affairs. Despite limited activity in the committee, there was adequate politics involving 200 households and I could imagine the nightmare, managing a larger population generally baying for your blood.
I was armed wih the above experience when the election of corporators came around and many of the political parties invited `qualified' people to approach them for selection of candidates. Some of my friends who knew I was a sucker for any public office promptly proposed my name to one of the parties and I was asked to present myself for an interview! I was very puzzled as to the need for that pow-wow because I knew I was probably overqualified educationally and my 35 years of working experience would have outstripped most others. But, as a well wisher reminded me, this was serious politics and politics of any kind was `different'! So, I landed at the venue for the interview on the appointed day, curious but not very anxious.
As I walked into the room, the three wise men managing the selection process greeted me warmly and after a short introduction, serious business commenced in earnest. My effort to highlight my education and experience were peremptorily ignored, causing significant agitation in my mind. But I was somewhat assuaged when I realised the three wise men wanted to discuss specific attributes which they considered essential for the job of a corporator. They began with `integrity'. My fervent launch into corruption in public offices and the need to restore probity was brutally cut short after 8 seconds and they said they just wanted to know whether the party can `trust' me. My answer was categorical, yes, absolutely. Next came the critical quality of being a team-player. Extremely keen to impress, I began with being a member of these school teams and those college teams but again they would have none of it. All they desired to hear was that I had no problem in working as a team member in this specific context and sharing credits with others working with me. I triumphantly declared that my credo was always to share whatever success we achieved with colleagues and was pleased with myself for a job well done. Then came the query whether I subscribed to the philosophy of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) process. I was pleasantly surprised that the party-men even knew about that and avidly identified myself with the principle. That was it. The interview was over and I was told that I was being shortlisted for the next meeting with the `leader'.
When I met the leader, he was again very focussed on the three attributes his lackeys discussed in the earlier meeting. He expressed happiness that he can trust my integrity to keep all the monies collected from various sources during my tenure at the party's disposal; no accounts, no paper, just plain old trust, he reiterated. Then he proceeded to applaud my team spirit; he clarified that without that, party leaders cannot hope to get their shares of the booty from corporators, especially when there are going to be no accounting books involved. Finally, he explained the importance of the PPP process and the need to squirrel away a major portion of the public funds allotted to my constituency and deposit the same with specific private parties identified by the leaders. I was too dumbfounded to even react when the leader asked me whether I was ready to firm up the percentage of shares etc. Being the terribly busy leader he was, he did not tarry long and went quickly to the next candidate, who seemed to be more clued in.
My desire for public service through elected office died a quiet and dignified death that day. I do not even know where it lies buried now! Not that I am looking out for it.
