The people of Delhi will be placing their future in more qualified hands this year, as reflected in the candidate list for the upcoming Assembly polls. Incidentally, two rival claimants for the chief ministerial post are IITians but also have served in civil services. BJP chief ministerial candidate Dr Kiran Bedi was the first women IPS officer in the country while Kejriwal was in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS).
BJP’s Kiran Bedi holds a PhD from IIT-Delhi while her party colleague Rajni Abbi is a part-time lecturer in Delhi University, and has done BA (Honours), llB, llM from Delhi University. Similarly, party’s Nupur Sharma is an advocate who has a Masters in law from london School of Economics, while SC Vats has an MBBS degree.
AAP has the most educated candidates of the three big parties. Kejriwal is a graduate from IIT-Kharagpur and Manish Sisodia has a diploma in journalism. Saurabh Bhardwaj has a BTech from Delhi University and llB from Osmania University, Hyderabad. Adarsh Shastri, grandson of former Prime Minister lal Bahadur Shastri, was the sales head of Apple India. Former Congress leader-turned-AAP candidate Alka lamba holds a BSc degree from Delhi University and MSc from Bundelkhand University.
Col Devinder Sehrawat of the AAP has done MSc and has a degree in Business Management from IIM-Ahmedabad. The Congress also holds a fair share of qualified leaders, party chief ministerial candidate Ajay Maken has done an MA in Public Administration from Himachal University. Kiran Walia has a MA degree in Political Science from Delhi University. AK Walia is a doctor. Another Congress candidate and President Pranab Mukerjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee is another qualified candidates with an MA in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Notably, Delhi is ahead of most States in terms of literacy, but it hardly reflects in the Capital’s political circles. City politics has been mostly dominated by the business community, since its inception in 1993. While the total number of businessmen donning the hat of a legislator was 26 (37%) in 1993, it has increased to 33 (47%) in the Fifth legislative Assembly. While the literacy rate in Delhi has increased over the decades, it has come down in the Assembly.
In the first Assembly (1993-98), the total number of graduate MlAs was 49 (70%) which has come down to 47 (67%) in the present Assembly (2008-2013). Ironically, in the fifth legislative assembly, there are some MlAs and ministers who are barely Class 9 or 10 pass. . Out of 70 members, a little over a half (51%) had educational qualifications equivalent to a graduate degree or above. 47% were just 12% pass or below. SK Sharma, former secretary of the Delhi Assembly, said the low literacy rate
of politicians is a matter of concern. “legislators are representatives of people in the city and they are responsible for the rules and legislations in the Assembly. In that respect, it is a matter of concern that more than 30 per cent of the MlAs were not even graduates,” said Sharma. He has also analysed the socio-economic profile of Delhi MlAs, said, “Delhi is a city of traders.”
Many traders chose to be in politics and subsequently they became politicians.” In the previous Assembly, out of the 70 MlAs, 33 MlAs were businessmen. There were five teachers, four doctors and two lawyers. In 1993, there were 10 teachers, four lawyers and two doctors, while the number of businessmen and traders was just 26.