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.)

Every year, the MIT School of Government organizes a National Study tour to Delhi - the capital of the country. The objective of the study tour is to equip the students with the necessary knowledge about functioning of the democratic institutions in the country. The students get an opportunity to actually see and experience the functioning of Loksabha, Rajya Sabha, various ministries and political offices. Visits are scheduled with important NGOs and international organisations to view their functioning. Thus, overall this gives the students a practical exposure to the functioning of democracy at the higher levels in the country. This year the MIT SOG National Study tour to the capital of the country - Delhi was organised from February 17, 2009 to February 24, 2009. Ms. Mukta Kulkarni, Academic Administrator and Shri. Prafull Adagale, Research Associate accompanied the participants for the tour.

On the first day of the tour, the participants got an opportunity to interact with Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni - a senior political strategist and media advisor to former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In an interactive session, he gave general information about the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s strategy in the general elections, NDA’s Prime Ministerial candidate Shri. L. K. Advani’s newly launched website as well as the efforts to appeal to the young voters by using technology. He told that BJP is making efforts to attract the 70% first time voters of the country which comprises the youth. The ‘Friends of BJP’ campaign also plans to attract the young, educated and tech-savvy young voters. He also talked about various issues facing the BJP as well as the entire country in general.

The next appointment was with Shri Shashank, former Foreign Secretary at the YMCA hall. He spoke on issues such as India's Foreign Policy, changing dynamics of international relations and India's role in the new global order. It was a short but informative session.

Another appointment towards the evening was with Shri. Malaiswamy, an honorable Member of Parliament from Tamilnadu. A civil servant turned politician, he gave an insight of how value based politics still exists in this country. He narrated his journey from being a straight-forward, efficient and forthright civil servant to a successful parliamentarian belonging to AIADMK. He discussed issues such as the tussle between IAS officers and the politicians, the need of intellectual politicians to build a developed nation, the dynamics of coalition politics etc. He also stressed on the necessity to learn Hindi especially for the regional politicians from South in order to become national level politicians. He also expressed his concern about lack of internal democracy in party politics, which according to him is very necessary. He satisfactorily answered all the queries of the participants regarding bureaucracy, corruption, parliamentary politics, by giving apt and relevant practical examples. It was really a fruitful interaction.