This election has witnessed some new aspirants: the well-meaning, earnest corporate professional and civil society activist. Capt G.R. Gopinath, who founded Air Deccan, and Mira Sanyal, on electoral sabbatical from ABN Amro where she is the country head for India, are contesting as independents in Bangalore and Mumbai, respectively. Similarly, Jai Prakash Narayan, who runs a wonderful NGO called Loksatta (not connected with the Express Group’s formidable Marathi paper of the same name) which has been very effectively active in areas of governance, and Mallika Sarabhai are in the contest as well. I know some of these brilliantly talented people well, and some casually or indirectly — I have even had the good fortune of sometimes basking in the reflected glory of one, Capt Gopinath. In so many places, in airport terminals, hotel lobbies and simply on the street, particularly in the South, young people, mostly management students, have walked up to me to ask for autographs. And by now I know I need not flatter myself; they come to me because they mistake me for Capt Gopinath, their innovative maverick who invented low-cost aviation in India. These are all perfectly well-intentioned, smart, patriotic Indians whose motives you cannot but applaud, who want to raise the level of our mainstream politics. But, unfortunately, it won’t work, at least not in this way, and here is why.

You may call it the cynicism of an old-fashioned political journalist, a “Dilliwala” on top of that, and I have already got more than my share of flak for suggesting that all the candidates of what I described, half-facetiously as usual, as the Cocktail Party of India will lose their deposits (‘The glorious certainties’, IE, April 18). But do hear me out. The reason why such wise and sincere people will draw a blank in their maiden political adventure is not because our system is by now so corrupt and ridden by caste and communalism that it has no place for decent people. They will do badly because even in their enthusiasm to take the democratic route to change they betray an ignorance of our democracy, and lack of respect for the ordinary voter.

... contd.