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| Participants |
In
India, there are several courses to train candidates to become civil servants,
engineers, doctors, teachers, managers, Bankers, Teachers, etc. But so far, there is no course to provide the
basic knowledge on democracy and its pillars, to young aspiring political
leaders. The world over, politics is an important profession and all critical
decisions impacting citizens are taken by politicians.
People generally
condemn politics as ‘dirty’ and do not take any initiative to correct the
system. While everyone talks about the
need for educated and ‘clean’ people to join politics, very few want to enter the
political arena. In this scenario, Next
Gen Political Leaders (NGPL), an offshoot of Sansad Ratna Awards Committee and
the fifth initiative of eMagazine PreSense, has been taking initiatives to motivate
the educated youth to join politics.
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| T S Krishnamurthy (top) Arjun Ram Meghwal (bottom) |
NGPL organised a 16-hour “Online Certificate
Course” on the theme, “Polity, Governance and Politics” through Zoom, from 18th
May 2020 on a daily basis. The course
was inaugurated on 17th May 2020 by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hon’ble
Minister of State (MOS) for Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India. The valedictory address was rendered by Shri
T S Krishnamuthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India on 27th
May 2020.
A
Board of Studies was formed under the Chairmanship of Shri T S Krishnamurthy,
with eminent experts and academicians on board as members. Although many people
applied for the course, after a thorough selection process, NGPL admitted 23
participants from varied political ideologies across 8 States in India. Against its scheduled 16 hours, the course
took up 22 hours of sessions, due to the enthusiasm by the participants and the
special guests.
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Speakers and Special
Guests
Top: Priyamvadha, Bhartruhari Mahtab MP, Dr R Nataraj IPS (Retd)
MLA - Middle: Dr PTR Thiagarajan MLA, N K
Premachandran MP, Priyadharshni - Bottom: Prof Dr Sridhar, Purvish Maikan,
Prof. Dr G Ramesh
|
The
modules included communication for politicians, public speaking skills, the Indian
Constitution, constitutional bodies, structure of the judicial system,
bureaucracy and local bodies, problem solving and decision making.
Senior
academicians and professionals like Prof Dr G Ramesh (IIM, Bangalore), Dr
Sridhar (MCC, Chennai), Shri Purvish Maikan (Supreme Court of India), Smt
Priyamvadha (popular TV journalist), shared their views with the participants.
Senior
political leaders like Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab MP (BJD, Odisha), Shri N K
Premachandran MP (RSP, Kerala), Dr R Nataraj IPS, Former DGP (Retd) & MLA
(AIADMK, Tamil Nadu), Dr PTR Thiagarajan MLA (DMK, Tamil Nadu), Smt Rahena
Ameer (Common Councillor, City of London Corporation) too interacted with the
participants and shared their experiences.
Smt
Priyadharshni Rahul, Deputy Editor of PreSense and National President of NGPL
was the Programme Director.
This
is a beginning of a new journey.
