The Hindu Business Line : <I>Educated MLAs/MPs can be asset to nation </I>

Education will, hopefully, act as an antidote to the tendency to indulge in corruption, misuse of power, and swindling of public funds for private gain.

The improvement that has taken place in the educational background of members of Parliament and State legislatures in the period since Independence can only be described as spectacular. There were not many members who were graduates and above elected to Parliament and State Assemblies in the first General Election held in 1952. Almost all the educated members were lawyers. The legal profession, in fact, made up the third largest group (after farming and `political and social work').

Fast forward to the current Lok Sabha: As per a report of the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bangalore, graduates and above constitute nearly 75 per cent and non-matriculates only 6 per cent. Lawyers are, once again, the dominant group (21.5 per cent).

Interesting findings

Some of the other interesting findings are: Younger MPs are invariably highly educated, and women MPs are educationally more qualified than men; 82 per cent of female members are graduates and above as against 72.5 per cent males. Percentages of graduates and post-graduates (70 and 33) among members belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes compare favourably with 74 and 30 of the rest.

The most interesting finding of all is about the percentages of educated members of different parties. According to the PAC, the political parties that lead in terms of their MPs' educational attainments are Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) with 82.6 per cent graduates and above, Biju Janata Dal (82 per cent), and the Communist Party of India (80 per cent). Shiv Sena (58.3 per cent) and Bahujan Samaj Party (67.5 per cent) are at the other end of the spectrum. The BJP is in the middle with 74 per cent and Indian National Congress has 71 per cent.

I do not have similar statistics readily available for MLAs, but it should not be surprising if State Assemblies too have a good proportion of graduates and post-graduates as their members.

The advantages

The advantages of the entry of more and more highly educated persons into Parliament and State legislatures are three-fold:

First, one can presume that with education comes greater sensitivity to the ethical dimensions of the responsibility of elected representatives. Education is also supposed to sharpen social conscience and dull the temptation for self-aggrandizement. Hence, hopefully, it will act as an antidote to the tendency, normally associated with politicians, to indulge in corruption, misuse of power and authority, and swindling of public funds for private gain.

Second, educated politicians can be expected to be public-spirited and service-minded, and conscious of their accountability to the people. Education helps in the development of commitment to fight the ills and evils of society, and identify oneself with the aspirations and concerns of the people at large. Such members are bound to command a much greater degree of credibility and respect.

Third, educated MLAs and MPs, having a broader grasp of factors contributing to public good, can be effective members of legislatures and persuasive spokespersons of their constituencies. They can enhance the value of their contribution by specialising in the areas of interest to them within the ambit of various Ministries. Indeed, a time has come for Central and State legislatures in India to go in for setting up of shadow cabinets on the model of other parliamentary democracies.

B. S. RAGHAVAN