A comprehensive visit to various Ministries, Party Offices, Government offices and offices of National importance
(This educational field trip to the seat of power - to the capital city of Delhi essentially captured the essence of the Masters Program in Government and that of the participants who are here to be a part of the nation building process.)
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Every year the MIT School of Government organizes National study tour to the Capital city of Delhi, with an objective to provide the participants the essential knowledge about the functioning of the various democratic institutions in the country. The participants will get an opportunity to observe and experience the functioning of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, meet and interact with various ministries, political leaders and visits to political offices. There were visits organized to various NGOs, international organizations, research institutions and media houses to give practical exposure to the functioning of democracy at higher levels in the country which will widen their horizons. The participants of Masters Program in Government batch 05 visited Delhi, the landscape of power from 10-17th of March 2010.
Day 1, 10th March, Wednesday, the tour started with a stop at India Gate, the national monument and one of the largest war memorials in India. After paying homage to the Amar Jawan Jyoti the participants headed towards the BJP office. The first interaction was with Mr. Amit Thaker, the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in the BJP Office. He discussed about Qualities of a leader, BJP youth mobilization strategy, need of creative and intellectual youth in politics and role of media in politics. He clarified that ‘BJP is over’ is a myth created by the media.
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After the interaction with Mr. Amit Thakar,the participants visited BJP library and met another two senior BJP leaders, Mr. Muralidhar Rao, who is heading the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Muktar Abhas Naqvi. Next appointment was to visit Parliament, Lok Sabha.
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The participants witnessed its proceeding for sometime but due to the issue of woman’s reservation Bill the parliament was adjourned unexpectedly. Following leaders were present in the house, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Shri. Gopinath Munde, Shri Shatrughan Sinha, Yogi Adityanath, Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Kapil Sibal. Even though the unexpected adjournment was disappointing to the participants, they got a unique opportunity to interact with Mr. Mani Shankar Iyyer in the parliament, in the section of Bureau of Parliament Studies and Training (BPST). He is the chairman of both the Congress Party's Political Training department and the department of Policy Planning and Coordination. He is also an advisor to the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training (BPST) wing of the Parliament. He narrated about his entry into politics and discussed on Panchayi Raj system and local self governments in India on 73rd and 74th Amendment of the Constitution of India. Talking about women’s reservation he opined that media ignored progress made by woman’s representatives in Panchayat level. While answering to a question on Women’s reservation he clarified that eventhough he is in favor of the women’s reservation, but he also accepted that it will provide access to urban elite women. About dynastic politics he opined that it is not bad so long as the next generation is performing well. According to him the new generation of young politics in Congress has proved beyond doubt to be performing better than their fathers.
Next appointment was with Mr. Nitin Gadkari,the National President of Bharatiya Janata Party.
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| In the interaction he discussed on Relevance of politics, future BJP strategy and developmental politics and good governance. In his words,commitment and development-based approach can change the politics of the nation. He clarified that Secularism means “pant-nirpekshata” not “dharm-nirpekshata”.
Next appointment was with Shri Venkaih Naidu, the senior BJP leader and former national president of BJP. |
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