The ROI factor

Why the youth is not attracted towards politics? Why we always talk about young leaders and end up getting the same old parliament with an average age of 65+? Why the youth participate in the internet protests against terrorist attacks but don’t even come out to vote? Why do we always tend to complain but never care to participate? The simple answer to all these questions is the famous economic jargon called ROI – Return on Investment.
Life of a young aspiring person is mostly driven by this three letter abbreviation called ROI. Almost every action that he performs is first evaluated for its potential ROI. Let us start the analysis with career choices. When we were given an option to choose between science, commerce and arts while going in standard 11th, most of us went for science as the prospects and career opportunities looked better. Yes the ROI at science was better. When we passed 12th and we were asked to choose from engineering, medical or science graduation. Here again we all went to for engineering because medical was hell lot of study and science graduation rarely offered an amazing job. Yes the ROI at engineering was better. I passed my engineering and became IT professional; some of my friends passed medical and became doctors; few others completed graduation in science, arts and commerce and went for jobs. Few years down the line, having worked in corporate India, I am again making a choice, to upgrade myself by doing MBA. I will take loan rather huge loan to sponsor my education. But I am hopeful that the economic situation will improve and I will get a good job. I hope the ROI at MBA remains good. So it total 18 years of formal education and I land up in a situation where I can afford to support my family and lead a happy life. The ROI is education is descent.

Let us now take it other way round. I am person who likes politics very much. I follow what is going on in the country. And thus always tend to think as to what is the ROI of Politics. Education till graduation is a must so I could not plan to participate in politics till then. Taking a hypothetical situation here that I join politics now. ‘Joining’ itself is very vague term here if you are not from a political dynasty. So by joining, I mean that I sign for the primary membership of a party. I will start my work in a small village in Uttar Pradesh. UP because it’s the only place where you can learn politics. I will work for some 5 to six years and then I would be in a position to fight the gram panchayat elections. If things go well, I will be elected. Then 5 more years there and after a huge lobbying I may end up getting an MLA ticket. I may also win. I’ll then start building my image in the party politics and state arena. I may end up getting a MP ticket and win the elections. So finally at the age of some 40+, I will be in parliament. But this situation is as hypothetical as my joining the politics. And having said all that, we also need to keep in mind that before you win any election, its hell lot of investment with no assurance of returns. It’s a situation where you invest some 15-20 years of your life, a lot of money and you might end up becoming just a follower. Take the numbers into consideration and the situation is more horrifying. Just 572 seats in LS (forget RS), the nut seems to be very tough to crack. The ROI figure looks bad, pretty bad.

PS: I am apologetic to you all who intend to join politics for being so pessimistic, but then that is what I feel.