October , 2007
Casualties of an accident
| 10 |  |
|
 |
Manmohan Singh failed to usher in a new era of educated politicians
"I am a politician by accident," the prime minister said at the Hindustan Times Leadership summit, "I did not choose a career in politics, but here I am." The accidental politician was middle class India's greatest and possibly last hope. Generally, India's educated middle class is notoriously alienated from politics. Although lawyers and academics made up a sizeable proportion of India's first parliament, current parliaments and state assemblies are dominated by agriculturalists. Amidst Mayawati, Deve Gowda, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Narendra Modi, Manmohan Singh stood out as the educated middle class professional who was not a politician, instead he was a technocrat. Yet today, the Prime Minister seems isolated, on the nuclear deal as well as economic reforms. The isolation of the prime minister contains broader lessons on the isolation of India's professional middle class. Expecting to....
More about Sagarika Ghose
Sagarika Ghose has been a journalist for 20 years, starting her career with The Times of India, then moving to become part of the start-up team of Outlook magazine, subsequently joining The Indian Express as Senior Editor. She was anchor of the flagship BBC World programme Question Time India before moving to CNN-IBN as prime time anchor and Deputy Editor. She is the anchor of the award-winning flagship debate programme Face The Nation on CNN-IBN. She is also a columnist for the Hindustan Times. She has won numerous awards including FICCI Media Achiever Award and Gr8-ITA Award for Excellence in Journalism. She is a graduate in History from St Stephen's College and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where she gained an MA and M.Phil in History and International Relations. She is the author of two acclaimed novels The Gin Drinkers and Blind Faith, both published worldwide by HarperCollins Publishers.
Recent Posts
Archives
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.