Ambassadors of democracy

Navika Harshi is a postgraduate in economics and aspires to study for a doctorate too. Recently, she had the privilege of learning how the country’s annual budget is prepared and presented – straight from  Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

This was part of a year-long Lok Sabha internship she underwent with four other interns. During the period, each one of them did research on a topic of their choice for which they were free to seek the help of members of Parliament, its rich library and the archives, reports, which are not-so-readily available elsewhere.

Among the privileges they got, the interns also attended the opening address to the 15th Lok Sabha by the President of India, the presentation of the budget in the house, orientation programme designed for first time MPs, and witnessed the 2009 general elections.

Elavarasi Mahendran, a postgraduate in political science from Chennai, is the first graduate in her family. Thanks to the Lok Sabha internship, she got another lifetime opportunity in the form of the South and Central Asia Fellowship, Washington, which began last week. “The Lok Sabha internship has transformed my life completely. The fellowship that I recently received is a testimony to that as I was among the three fellows selected from six Asian countries. The selection committee of the fellowship had faith in me only because I was a Lok Sabha intern,” says Mahendran.

The Lok Sabha secretariat officials call these interns ambassadors of democracy. “We have invited young Indians from different parts of the country to witness the functioning of Parliament from close quarters. Very few Indians are aware of the efficacy of the parliamentary committees, which work even when the Parliament is not in session,” says a senior officer in the Lok Sabha secretariat who did not wish to be named.

Though many Indians don’t have lots of good things to say about politicians, Mahendran says they could not be more wrong. She has developed a soft corner for them following her internship. “It was a pleasant surprise to see MPs preparing for the sessions and to watch them arrange relevant documents and reports during the question hour. Hats off to them,” she says.

Hem Borker, the only intern from Delhi, had a very good reason to join up for the internship. She is a graduate in history from St Stephen's and Master of Social Work (MSW) from Delhi University and has worked in the development sector. Like other NGO activists, she also had some doubts about the government. The internship gave her an opportunity to understand the other side of the social problems.

Ajit Phadnis and Saji Albert, other two interns, are management graduates and aspire to become politicians. But Harshi didn’t have any social goals to meet. She joined the internship primarily for her career growth. “I want to pursue a PhD in economics to become a university teacher. My internship project was on ‘Accountability of critical financial institutions – the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’. Just because I was in Parliament, I could access all the reports  on RBI since its inception in 1934,” says Harshi.



Author: Vimal Chander Joshi

Date: 7th April, 2010

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