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An educated person has only an access to more information which an uneducated person may not have. Accurate electoral rolls and compulsory voting are the prerequisites of a worthwhile democracy. S. Suresh Kumar is a cabinet minister in current BJP ministry of Karnataka. The article about this BJP politician is a stub in Wikipedia. Murali sir, you may like to contribute to the same please. 

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In my opinion, we in bangalore need a very very experienced and a aggressive leader, so that he can come up with good plans and specifically execute those plans in a authoritative manner, and make sure we are able to make bangalore a good city. While BBMP still struggling with rains and monsoons, we are still unable to be ready to cope up with rains after spending such a huge amounts of money, this is not the way going forward.

What does this prove - "Office? I am busy elsewhere... I might not come..." ? What is this? Why she has to visit CM on her first day? Why she has to visit thos ministers who supported her? Why can't she come to office first day on time, and also greet her colleagues and also make sure that others also be present? How will she be able to penalize/prevent any BBMP workers to remain absend when she has been doing all these ? She has to answer to bangalore citizens.

Deepak

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There is no qualification standard prescribed for contesting or voting in elections in our country as of this date.  

Common sense is not the prerogative of only an educated person. 

"The city administration needs common sense rather than formal educational qualification. A poorly-educated person can also prove the best at administration, and this is the charm of democracy," said B V Ganesh, a BJP councilor. 

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Uneducated people have equal right to live. Education hardly improves IQ of a person, and even educated people often do silly things. There is a training for first time MLAs or any other representatives about related laws and procedures which system is good enough. But in this case the problem is very short term for a mayor that is one year, this should be increased to minimum 2.5 years.

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I had posted a link to this blog with a forwarding comment on Hasiru Usiru y-group. There were many responses, which is generally reflective of the thinking of the more vocal sections of this group, though I doubt the majority. My partcipation there is largely to provide the balance :))).

LS
I am aghast that you are making such assertions.  Besides being elitist, you are also condemning the due rights of women and depressed classes of our society. Thus you are gender insensitive, casteist and feudal too.  Moreover, you are also implying that an a SSLC pass cannot be a "worshipful" mayor (sarcasm duly recorded), and thus castigating those who have won through the due process of law merely because they do not conform with your sickeningly elitist standards (which you humbly admit).

Perhaps a good reading of progressive features of our Constitution and that of South Africa and the United States (now they fit your description of progressive countries, don't they?) would possibly educate you on the need to assist those who have been violently repressed and depressed for generations by caste, class, religion and race.

If you have a grouse against the electoral system, you cannot and should not project it as a liability on someone who has risen to political power despite oppressive social systems, that also denied economic and education rights to such millions in this country.  You are always free to raise this before the Election Commission or in the Courts.

Consider this: the most educated Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has paraded with impunity over some of the greatest economic and financial scams in our blessed country. Also consider this: amongst the most learned, eloquent and politically experienced Prime Minister's, A. B. Vajpayee, looked askance as Gujarat burned in communal hatred, which as recently revealed was under the supervision of the Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Further also consider this: Mukesh Ambani lives in one of the world's most expensive "homes" (if you can call a 60 floor gilted high rise disguised as 27 floors) consuming mongly Rs. 70 lakhs worth of electricity and enough water drawn from the municipality that could service the needs 500000 poor people, all so that his five member family can have a gala time.  Further, also consider the indisputable fact that most of the scamsters in the country are drawn from very elite backgrounds.  Clearly, education, or a superior caste or class, do not come as safeguards of our Constitution, humanity and our democracy.

I do support you on the need for competence in discharge of adminstrative, judicial, corporate and political power, but without making a superior caste/class (which you imply) and education as prerogatives.

Hope you can post this on savekoramangala (but what purpose will it serve if this is how an elitist enclave imagines the future of India... hope you and the list members don't mind my jibe at enclave thinking) and on an hopefully inclusive "praja" (if it can ever be one, given such thinking amongst its leadership).


VS
Mindsets like yours, which consider people to be inferior based on caste, education etc are also what cause issues like this -http://thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/84/#more-84
Its a blog which documents all kinds of casteist oppression in institutions of higher education, including the kind which results in the ‘suicides’ of young and meritorious Dalit and Adivasi students. on what basis do you say people who are educated are better administrators? or that if someone comes from a reserved seat they are not good administrators? in fact someone like Sharadamma who is doubly vulnerable - on account of being a woman, and belonging to a oppressed community will know best the converns of those at the margins of society.

hotte thumbdavrgalla swamy hasivana kashta gottagodu..shoshitha vargadavrge gottirutte, shoshane andrenu antha..yaaro brahmanrige, shettruge, lingayatrigalla..

in that sense, Sharadamma is actually better qualified than several others maybe, she will know what it is to feel oppressed.

KRC
The views you relate in this email are truly shocking. You seem to be asking: how can Sharadamma from Shettihalli, a mere SSLC pass, be good enough to govern a "world-class city" like Bangalore?

To me, this is rather a refreshing reminder that even world-class cities like Bangalore have their share of Sharadammas, and our democracy, despite its flaws, has ways to ensure that these Sharadammas from Shettihalli can become Mayors of Bangalore. It is a happy thought and I rejoice in it.

True, I do worry that the Sharadammas will remain pawns of their husbands, and the husbands will remain pawns of R Ashok. But it does happen every once in a while that the women councillors break loose of their husbands' stranglehold and the scheduled caste minions break loose of the stranglehold of their political masters. We should hope the same for the sake of Sharadamma and Bangalore.

Perhaps then the city will try to understand the needs of the urban poor a little better. And believe you me, the biggest challenge facing cities today is that they don't understand what their citizens need. So it might be the case that Sharadamma is the best Mayor we could have had.

She would certainly do a better job than Municipal Commissioners like Dr. Subramanya or Mr. Bharatlal Meena.


MHR
The previous deputy mayor had a BE in electronics and communication ! can some one highlight his achievement in one year ? similarly manmohan and chidambaram are from Harvard and London School of Economics. we all know how some of the most foolish policies they have implemented . manmohan is the most unreachable and dull person for a country like india.

Indira Gandhi ,  went to England and sat for the University of Oxford entrance examination, but she failed,(src - wiki pedia). But Indira gandhi was the most decisive - reachable to masses all over india  - inspite of emergency and bad socialistic policies.

I feel Sharadamma will be reachable to all the sections of the community. Let us be open and speak to her. Let us take a delegation and give her some flowers and tell her abt the wrong things like cutting trees being done currently ! instead of rejecting her and feeling dejected - we should focus on how we can engage with her and also make sure she is not mislead by bureaucrats.

Also  she might be a pawn in the entire political setup , a person who says YES to whatever ministers want her to say YES TO.

I responded as below:
I wish to clarify that I am not against reservations per se. But, I am certainly against reservations for key positions like the Mayor, Dy Mayor, etc. As envisaged under the 74th amendment, the Mayor of a city is equivalent to the CM of a state, or the PM of a country, and we are supposed to be moving in that direction, which apparently even the HU members are supportive of. But, what is happening here clearly is the state MLA's imposing themselves on the city to perpetuate the status quo where they continue as the bosses, with the Mayorship being treated as an ornamental position to be 'enjoyed' by 10 of their chela's over a 5 yr period.

I do support you on the need for competence in discharge of adminstrative, judicial, corporate and political power, but without making a superior caste/class (which you imply) and education as prerogatives.

So, can you hope to gain the level of competence required without the necessary education? Whatever, the merits and de-merits of educated people occupying the positions of power can be another debate.

Hope you can post this on savekoramangala (but what purpose will it serve if this is how an elitist enclave imagines the future of India... hope you and the list members don't mind my jibe at enclave thinking) and on an hopefully inclusive "praja" (if it can ever be one, given such thinking amongst its leadership).

If you haven't still understood, "praja.in" is an open platform (with moderation being exercised only against misuse), and has no opinion of it's own, least of all of it's so-called leadership. And, it is the most inclusive platform compared to any. Even now, there's a response on Praja, more or less on the lines of the views expressed on HU. That the HU members want to remain within their comfort zones by limiting themselves to non-debates on this platform is another matter.

PS: Incidentally, today's papers say Sharadamma is a "SSLC fail"
 

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