Indian Netas Go To School

Image: Sameer Pawar

Pradeep Panigrahy is a hassled man. As the representative of the people of Gopalpur in Orissa State Legislative Assembly, the Biju Janata Dal MLA has to address his constituency’s problems, generate development ideas and participate in the state’s legislative work.

“We lack the knowledge and support systems to manage all this,” says Panigrahy, who holds a doctorate in biodiversity law. That is why when he was invited to a workshop organised by Delhi-based PRS Legislative Research at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, he promptly signed up.

“I learnt many things, particularly on economic subjects and application of technology,” he says of the four-day residential programme attended by 23 MLAs from different states and parties.

At a time when many people view lawmakers as incompetent, khadi-clad charlatans with a taste for grease, PRS has embarked on a mission to improve the legislative process by providing research assistance to elected representatives to state legislatures. While it has been providing research, background information and analysis of major policy issues and bills to members of Parliament for nearly six years, it is now expanding its research support to build capacity among a little more than 4,000 state legislators. Legislatures are some of the most under-invested democratic institutions in the country with no thought given to the professional development of its members.

“Systems are non-existent in states. There are no standing committees that discuss bills, which are sometimes passed in just 10 minutes with little debate,” says 43-year-old C.V. Madhukar, the unassuming founder of PRS. “In fact, some MPs asked us to explore what we could do for MLAs.”

The MPs introduced Madhukar to chief ministers and speakers who readily agreed to the idea of improving the knowledge base of their legislators.

However, for a year nothing happened. About nine months ago, PRS began sending out two-page notes on major issues such as land policy and infrastructure to MLAs across the country. Soon, many legislators began to follow up with PRS, mostly for more constituency-level information. There was a mismatch between the MLA needs and what PRS was good at. “We figured that unless we meet MLAs face-to-face, we will not be able to map their expectations,” says Madhukar, an engineer from Bangalore University who also has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard and an MBA from University of Houston.

The first step was to identify active MLAs who were naturally inclined to policymaking. So, PRS decided to hold a workshop to gauge the interest level. It did a recce in seven states and designed a multi-module workshop on subjects like infrastructure and development. It then tied up with ISB, Hyderabad, to host the first instalment in January this year at its campus. But as they began the workshop, they realised that the modules they had designed were quite inappropriate. What legislators wanted was more basic and pragmatic knowledge.

Once they were elected, the MLAs had no idea what their role was. A common refrain of the MLAs was that they wanted to do something but they simply did not have the time. They had no research support, had no clue what to do when bureaucrats flung rules at them, and were so bogged down by everyday demands from people in their constituencies that they had little time for anything else.

“A minister who proposes a law has an entire department and support staff that has helped him prepare it. An MLA has no such support system,” says the Congress’ Siddharth Patel, who represents Dabhoi in the Gujarat Assembly.

One of the modules in Hyderabad was on micro-finance, a contentious subject in Andhra Pradesh where the government itself once asked customers to stop repaying loans because it felt the interest rates were too high for the poor. Many MLAs who sat through the session realised the folly of the argument as they understood that if people did not repay, it will only dry up credit, compounding the problem.

“One of the key takeaways for us is that at least 10-12 percent of the MLAs are eager and interested in policymaking. We must engage with them more,” says Madhukar. Almost all MLAs wanted more understanding of economic issues and training in analysing budgets and data. One of the most popular sessions at the Bangalore workshop was on mastering local budgets, conducted by Raghunandan of Janaagraha.

The workshop has generated a buzz in many states. The Rajasthan BJP got PRS to hold a session for its 59 MLAs. Gujarat and Bihar have also invited the organisation. Madhukar says it wants to engage with at least 800 MLAs over the next three years. Politicians want to keep up with a polity that is more nuanced and knowledgeable. They are aware that technology and youth will change politics and they want to be professionally organised to deliver more value.  

The MLAs who attended the workshops, however, have one regret. “Since the workshops took up most of the day and sometimes extended into the night, there was not time for anything else. I wish we had more time to build relationships with MLAs from other states,” says Gopalpur’s Panigrahy.