Bihar must start a training programme for its Leaders

Bihar must start a training programme for its Leaders

The total number of members in the lower house (Bihar Legislative Aseembly) is 243 and that in the upper house (Bihar Legislative Council) is 75. The total strength, hence, is 318. In addition, there are 16 members from Bihar to the Indian upper house and 40 to the Indian lower house. And they all are vital elements in the policy making and their implementation across the state. The success or failure of any developmental scheme in the state depends on the understandings of these important leaders, apart from, of course, highly trained and qualified bureaucrats from the headquarters and fields. 

I strongly feel that these 374 (318+56) are valuable human resources who could actually take the state in the virtuous cycle of development, growth, prosperity and general well being. However, in order to extract maximum advantages from these politicians, who are already adept in forming majority and  building consensus, the state must run rigorous short term training programmes for these men and women. Hence, the basic reform that we all should be striving for are training programmes for our Members of Parliament and Members of Legislature in order to enable them to understand the governance issues better. These training programmes could be moduled by having very short-term courses on developmental issues, finance, administration, law, trade, national security, foreign policy, behavioral science, psychology, sociology etc.  These could be imparted by either IIMs or any other institute so identified. In other words, Bihar can start its own unique model of training its politicians by creating its own Institute in partnership with IIMs or some other such institutions. This will be first in India and Bihar can show the way! This will not only raise the bar for Question Hours in the Parliament and State Legislatures and make the debate more meaningful, but will also make available the necessary resources for the potential CM candidate to pick his team from. The profile of a minister within his own Ministry will dramatically increase. What I have seen so far that those Ministers who already have some experience in the matters they are dealing with, they command much greater respect and following from the bureaucrats in his Ministry.  

In order to have a career in Politics, not only they have to be managing the political party that they are affiliated to, but they should also be able to flag the important issues confronting us in our villages, districts, cities, and the state in front of the electorate and suggest solutions for them. People at large should be able to hear the various choices they have in front of them and decide which one is better for them. Therefore, the role of debating among the possible candidates is essential. We all must inculcate this great quality of meaningful debate not only among our politicians, but also among our electorates. If we are able to do this ever, this will definitely transform the political landscape in our state, which has its famed claim of having the first Republic in the world.. People with vision, possible solutions and passion will start looking at politics as a possible option. We still admire Gandhiji, but we never revel onto the process of his becoming a great man. The opportunities that confronted him had actually made him a Mahatma. I am sure we have many such great men and women in various nooks and crannies of our state and if we as a system are able to present opportunities in front of them, many of them will reach to such stature.  Therefore, we as a society must inculcate among our people this great tool of debating among ourselves. The solutions to the great and grave problems are always obtained by discussion. This also strengthens the democratic institutions. In this institute, we must try to build such values among our people's representatives so that discussion based on right information can take place in all of our villages.

Political Parties are vital institutions in a democratic set-up. Democracy must be able to present in front of its people, the various choices. This could only be done by political parties of different hues in the form of left, right, center etc. All political parties must strive to nurture great leaders in their set-up. They would be able to do that if they are able to promote leadership qualities in all of their members. They must constantly confront their members with various problems and seek solutions. If possible, they must also run training programs for the potential leaders so that the elections could be fought efficiently and effectively and the leaders could highlight real issues to people and not the flimsy ones. We all know that the problems confronting our state are developmental in nature: how to achieve 9-10%  or even more growth rate on a sustained basis, how to take this high growth to poor, how to ride over the problems of health, education and sanitation etc. Problems confronting our state are immense and hence there is a need to make minor adjustments in the state's political philosophy now so that we are able to achieve what a great state like ours is entitled to. These political parties must be encouraged to send their potential leaders to this training institute on paying basis for short term training courses. This will definitely change the way the politics is done in Bihar. The focus of a political party will simply shift from focusing on a winner to creating a leader. Just imagine the positive externalities it will have for our state.

In Bihar, the problems of sanitation, food, malnutrition, illiteracy, health issues etc. are so rampant and impacting directly families that the families or societies are not able to think beyond. All these problems are local ones and hence local solutions could be found for these and then scaling up could be though about. There is a need for local leaders (even at Sarpanch level) to be trained in such matters so that District/Block Administration are left to deal with bigger issues affecting the area, and not these local issues. This institute can train the local leaders in dealing with local issues. These problems can only be resolved through bottoms-up actions and not top-down actions. The financial support for such training programmes could be had from the money earmarked for such issues at the state level, and also from the support from NGOs, Foundations etc. We as a society must empower and strengthen our local institutions and leaders to find solutions to their own local problems.

Through this institute, we must try to create various leadership skills at different levels viz. country, state, district and village, adept and skilled at dealing with issues confronting their political landscape. Through this, we will be unleashing a great many innovators, at least 374 of them every five years, in our societies and even when they are not in government, they all can contribute positively to making Bihar a state capable of solving its own problems internally. So let us show the world how the leaders are made! we have already shown them how bureaucrats, doctors, engineers, diplomats etc. are made. Now is the time to show our real worth: the visionary leaders! I believe that it is not long away before we can do that. If a Raj Kumar Shukla can give a Mahatma to the nation, imagine how many such Shuklas we now have, who are suffering from day-to-day problems of existence in their lives. Mahatmas are not far away either.

I am confident that by doing so, we will be able to take our state to higher and faster development path.