The Hindu : Milind Deora, Congress candidate from Mumbai South

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 26, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

Milind Deora, Congress candidate from Mumbai South

Sitting in his well-appointed air-conditioned office, Milind Deora is not a typical Congressman. This 27-year-old son of the veteran Congress leader, Murli Deora, would probably be more at home in a corporate office than among the crowds in Mumbai slums. Strangely, he has chosen the latter. The Congress has declared Milind Deora as its candidate for the prestigious Mumbai South seat that had been his father's bailiwick from 1984 until 1996 when he lost it to the BJP's Jayawantiben Mehta. He won it again in 1998 only to lose it to Ms. Mehta a year later in 1999 by a slim margin.

What would a young, U.S.-returned businessman, who has been helping out in the family business of plastic components, know about the rough and tumble of politics? And why would he be even interested in it given the indifference towards electoral politics by others of his ilk?

"Politics is the most effective way of driving and facilitating change," Mr. Deora told The Hindu. On his return from the U.S. in 2000, where he took a Bachelor's Degree in Management, this product of the elite Cathedral and John Connon School and Sydenham College of Mumbai, joined the family business. But he also got involved in what he calls "social service" by expanding the work his MP father had begun through the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan by providing free computer education to the needy. The young Deora set up a non-governmental organisation, Sparsh, that persuaded corporates to help in providing hardware to government-aided schools for their IT syllabus. Mr. Deora says that they have helped 120 such schools in South Mumbai and that one lakh students have benefited from this. "They say that politicians should do some social service before they enter electoral politics. This is my social service."

When did the idea of joining politics enter his mind? Mr. Deora says that politics was a part of growing up. It was the talk at the dining table between his Marwari businessman/politician father, his Maharashtrian bridge champion mother and his older brother Mukul and himself. He says he almost always disagreed with his father's views. Yet, he has chosen to follow in his father's footsteps by joining the same party.

So does this mean that a politician's progeny must inevitably continue the family business of politics? Not really, says this confident young man. In a privately-owned business like his, he admits that the employees have no choice if the son takes over from his father. But politics, he says, is like a public limited company where shareholders have every right to question the credentials of its managers and even demand their removal.

Mr. Deora is convinced that a constituency like Mumbai South needs a representative who understands commerce and business. He also believes that with the huge number of first-time voters, it is important for young people to enter electoral politics. "Only five per cent of Lok Sabha MPs are under 35," he says. "Surely if a young educated person with a global perspective enters politics, it is a good thing." Mumbai South's seven lakh electorate, a mix of very rich, middle class and urban poor, will have to decide if it is or not.

Kalpana Sharma

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