MANGALURU: The
Dakshina Kannada district since long has been holding the tag of the district with the
highest literacy rate, ironically the elected representatives of the district aren’t among the
highly educated. While several seasoned politicians haven’t studied beyond PU, there are a few who do hold attractive degrees.
Of the eight legislators who ruled the district in the past five years, four have not studied beyond PU. While
Mohiuddin Bava, the incumbent MLA from
Mangaluru City North constituency, hasn’t completed SSLC, Shakuntala Shetty, the sitting MLA from Puttur constituency, has cleared Class X. Vasanth Bangera, the MLA from Belthangady, has studied up to PU. Sullia MLA Angara S, the lone BJP legislator, is a Class IX dropout.
Among the other four legislators, Mangaluru City South MLA
J R Lobo not only holds BSc and BEd degrees, but is also a former state civil servant. He has worked as the commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation. B Ramanth Rai, the MLA from Bantwal and the district minister, holds a BA degree. His cabinet colleague and MLA from Ullal, U T Khader, has an LLB degree to boast of. K Abhayachandra Jain, the MLA from Moodbidri-Mulki constituency, who also held the portfolios of sports, youth affairs and fisheries, before the cabinet reshuffle, has studied automobile diploma (diesel mechanic). Incidentally, his education is in line with his business interests. Jain owns a fleet of buses.
Among the new entrants in the fray, the BJP candidate from Mangaluru City North constituency, Dr Bharath Shetty, holds a masters in dental surgery degree. Vedavyas Kamath, the BJP candidate for Mangaluru City South constituency, is a commerce graduate. Muneer Katipalla from the CPM, who is likely to eat a share of Moihuddin Bava and Dr Shetty’s votes, has studied up to Class VIII. Madan M C, an Independent candidate, who is contesting against Lobo and Kamath, has obtained an MBA through distance learning.
Do degrees matter?
Nandagopal Srinivasan, a political analyst and a former journalist, believes that though education is supposed to play a key role in legislators formulating plans and policies, in reality it doesn’t matter much, as they are expected to tow the party ideology. “Political parties in the recent past have been working around the communal vote bank. Hence, the MLAs are expected to buy into the ideology their party believes in. Even people largely vote for a party and not a candidate,” he said.