Want to become a politician? Here’s a PG course for you

Politics do not require any educational qualification, but the ruling BJP is now pushing for qualified netas that may force other parties to follow suit.

The BJP-linked Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, affiliated to University of Mumbai, is starting a nine-month post-graduate (PG) diploma course in politics from this July at Rs 2.5 lakh.

It is different from the courses in political science available in universities across the country as BJP vice-president Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, MP and vicechairman of the Prabodhini, said it would provide practical in-house training in leadership, politics and governance to those aspiring to imbibe politics as their life mission.

The launch of the course through the Indian Institute of Democratic Leadership (IIDL), an initiative of the Prabodhani functioning since 1982, was announced in Delhi on Wednesday at a function chaired by Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar.

Forty students will be selected in the first batch. The course is open to the graduates in any discipline. All will have to reside in the institute having all facilities. The visiting faculties will include political leaders, bureaucrats, social activists and specialists in different fields. The students will also undergo field training for a month before getting the PG diploma certificate.

As Sahasrabuddhe explained, the idea behind the course is to groom the activists for leadership by honing their skills through structural political training to produce the capable leaders who lead from the front and guide for a better tomorrow.

Set up in the memory of late Rambhau Mhalgi in Mumbai by late BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan, the academy has now branches in Bhayander and Wadala in Mumbai as also in Pune and New Delhi. It has been conducting short courses in leadership and capacity building for BJP MPs, MLAs and leaders as also for others for the past many years.