A group of professionals believe that the only way to rid the country of its problems is by taking the political plunge
When R.V. Krishnan, an engineer-entrepreneur, wrote a manuscript, ‘Manifesto in Search of a Party’, in 2005, his friends and relatives thought he was wasting his time. All those lofty drawing room discussions on how the country needs to be “set on the right track” and the hours spent researching on “possible solutions” had been compiled into a book and sent out to friends, relatives, professionals and politicians. But what next?

Krishnan waited naively, hoping something would happen of his book, someone would sit up and decide to do something about the solutions he had proposed for the country. But when nothing happened for two years, he called 15 of his friends on September 7, 2007, and mooted the idea of a political party. After a heated discussion, Krishnan and his friends reached a consensus on one point. “Each one of us agreed that the country needs to be corrected ‘and it has to start with me’,” said Krishnan, 55, who runs a market research bureau.
It was on this note that they set up the Pune-based Professionals Party of India. Last fortnight, the 11-month-old party got an official acknowledgement when the Election Commission of India registered it as a political party. That’s a step that has formally equipped them to start working towards their aim—of changing the way the country is governed with the active participation of educated professionals. But for now, Krishnan, president of PPI, and 19 other core members of the party have their target fixed: the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

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