When Pulkit Gupta took a month off from his work as a financial consultant to volunteer with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2017, no one batted an eyelid. After all, it was just a month during Diwali. He got involved in AAP’s activities in the US in 2013 after seeing some people working for the party. He liked the way the party’s ideology seemed to match his own. But after spending a month volunteering as a campaign manager—which involved everything from making route plans, to planning door-to-door campaigning to food supply for volunteers—in Majitha, a village near Amritsar in Punjab, he realized short stints were not enough if he really wanted to make a difference.
After much deliberation, the 34-year-old decided to quit his job, take a sabbatical and move from New York to Delhi to work with AAP for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
“I don’t think this is something most people would understand. While my immediate family supported me, my colleagues and extended family kept questioning my decision. I realize that it is a risky move. Once the elections are over, I will have to go back to the US and start from scratch — apply for a job all over again—but I believe this was required," says Gupta.
He believes that his experience with AAP has strengthened his confidence in the political process. But more importantly, it has helped him become a better communicator and more confident about raising funds. “It was humbling to try to raise funds, because it can be so difficult. At the same time, now I feel like I can confidently speak to someone from the slums as well as someone in a corporate office—I can mix with all kinds of people," adds Gupta.
Several young professionals like Gupta have taken tea-time conversations about politics ahead by actually participating in the process. They volunteer their time with political parties, take sabbaticals to learn more about the election process, or sign up for internships and fellowships to do their bit. Political parties too, whether the well-funded Bharatiya Janata Party or the cash-strapped AAP have realized that volunteers, who take a break from their regular corporate jobs to work with them, bring professionalism, domain expertize and result-oriented focus to a world that is largely unorganized.
FORCE FOR CHANGE
Mumbai-based Rudresh Kaul says that his stint with the All-India Professionals Congress (AIPC) since December 2017 has helped him gain more experience and connect with Congress leaders. Kaul, 30, was working on a retainer basis with a startup law firm when the AIPC was formed to bridge the gap between urban professionals and the political party. While continuing his job at the law firm, he started volunteering on Sundays, working on the party’s social media and education campaigns. By January this year, he had made up his mind to work with the Indian National Congress (INC) full time.
“Coincidentally, my retainer contract came to an end in March and I could take a break. Is it something I can do for long? Though I want to, I would still need to earn enough to sustain myself. However, unless professionals like us come and join politics, how will we bring about any change?" asks Kaul.
He had a hard time choosing: while at AIPC he could juggle both work and volunteering commitments, but as his professional responsibilities increased, it was getting difficult to work for the party. He analysed the situation, and decided that he could give up his salaried work as he would still earn experience and exposure working for a national party at their busiest time—the elections. “I looked at it as an opportunity cost, one that would pay me back later," explains Kaul.
His sentiments are reflected in Thufail P.T’s story as well. A former journalist, Thufail met many politicians in the course of his work. Joining politics was the last thing on his mind. But when AAP wanted help with the elections last October and asked him, he took it up in the hope that “this can bring about some change, at least in my home town in Kerala".
“Yes, I was worried about how it would work out, and it took me a good six to seven months to even understand how the party works," says Thufail, 30, now the secretary and acting convener of AAP, Kerala.
He believes that if there was financial support such as scholarships and fellowships for young professionals who want to make the switch to politics, it would control the corruption in the system and maybe give strong leaders to the country as well.
Be it a fellowship or volunteering, parties and politicians gain just as much as the volunteers. Most young volunteers bring a professional approach, which is focused on timeliness and effective execution of projects—much like they would in a corporate set-up. Kaul adds that since these volunteers are the quintessential outsider—they have no links to politics, they are not part of any lobby group, they have no “incentive" for signing on—their volunteering is not linked to any specific leader but is ideology centric.
“Four of five professionals in such situations can do more than just teaching the old hands how to effectively use their social media, Google Drive and WeTransfer. Our approach to work is different, it’s more professional, and it certainly shakes up the system," says Kaul.
NEW WAYS OF WORKING
When Kaul joined the Mumbai Congress, he realized that most project planning was done on paper. A group of them decided to make some changes and started using Google Sheets for project plans. This meant the plans could be shared, people could edit it and see the live status of reports.
“We also realized that in a volunteer-based organization, unlike a professional one, the person with responsibility might not be the person with authority. We changed that in our teams. So now, if one person was designing the social media posters, he or she would have the authority to choose the content that went in it," explains Kaul, who believes that this made it quicker, easier and would also make the volunteers feel more engaged with the work.
For Gupta, volunteering with AAP has given him a different perspective. “We often have to go to slums. This helps you become adept at working with all classes. Volunteering requires a different mindset. We need to keep the team motivated and inspired to keep working hard. It teaches us how to lead a team, to keep them upbeat even when the going gets tough," he says.
Experience with a political party is a good way to get exposure to public policy issues and understand the working of governments. New Delhi-based PRS Legislative Research runs a year-long fellowship programme for people under 25 to work full-time with an MP, drafting parliamentary questions, speeches for zero hour debates and drafting private member bills. “The fellows are mentored by the MPs and get the opportunity to engage with policy makers, experts from think-tanks, academicians and leaders from diverse public policy," explains M.R. Madhavan, co-founder of PRS Legislative Research. “They get a broad overview of different areas of public policy and our experience has shown that most of them go on to work with think tanks, policy research bodies, or pursue higher education from premier universities abroad. Some have even started working full time with political parties," says Madhavan.
Political scientist Swarna Rajagopalan says stints with political parties, whether an internship or a few weeks of volunteering, are all portfolio builders, and will help the person even if they return to the corporate world and do not take the plunge into full-time politics.
“Whether someone is handling communications or finances for a party, it will only go to show that you have taken textbook learning and implemented it in the least hospitable and predictable environment. It is something we all want to see in our employees —someone who has skills and knowledge and can strategize," says Rajagopalan. She adds that in a society where contacts always matter, the network you build during such volunteering roles also can help you in the future.
However, there’s another side to this. She says the rise in the number of volunteers could also be a reflection of how young, middle-class, professional India views politics as something that can be fixed with their marketing, managerial or technical skills. “If they stay with it for the long term, maybe it will give rise to a new career path. People who will become consultants for political parties, help them strategize and build campaigns. It can be a new way of work," she says.
