Nandan Nilekani, chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said that politician-bashing would not fix problems. He said society and politicians need to come together to address issues faced by the general public.
“I’m not a great fan of this middle-class politician bashing. I think there are good and bad politicians and honest and dishonest ones. I think being a politician is incredibly difficult.If you’re a Lok Sabha MP, you are accountable to 1.5 million people who treat you as a personal problem solver. We tend to do too much politician-bashing in the media,” he said. He was speaking at an event in Bangalore hosted by Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment firm controlled by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
Nilekani drove home the point by saying a politician was an important stakeholder capturing aspirations and demands of a billion people. “You need politicians and they will drive the change. If change is started by an activist, it’s the politician who will take that idea and push it through the system,” he said.
Nilekani, one of the founders of IT major Infosys, left the company in July 2009 to serve as chairperson of UIDAI, a cabinet-ranking position he accepted following an invitation from the Prime Minister.
No comments:
Post a Comment