The IIT senate has given the go ahead for a new four year engineering program to be offered those cracking JEE: Political Engineering. This is in keeping with the new zeitgeist: writing books and becoming famous like Chetan Bhagat is passe, so are technology startups or joining Ibanks, consulting firms or technology giants. Starting a political mass movement is the in thing and Arvind Kejriwal is many a budding IITian’s role model.
This shift in attitudes has been catalyzed be Kejriwal’s meteoric political rise to CMship. Goa CM Mamohar Parrikar is also an IIT alumnus while Jairam Ramesh, another IIT alumnus, boasts of enjoying proximity to the Nehru-Gandhis as a key strategist in the Congress.
Ravi Jain, a maths Olympiad gold medallist and putative JEE topper, says he will opt for Political Engineering from IIT Delhi. “Delhi has the best ecosystem for political startups with awesome avenues for learning on the job,” Jain says. He hopes to intern with AAP for his third year project but plans to start his own political outfit after graduation with the lofty aim of capturing power in his home state, Rajasthan. “No fun working for AAP now, yaar,” he reckons. “It’s already too big and I prefer taking the entrepreneurial route than joining established parties.” Another potential IIT student, Thomas Varghese from Kerala, is more circumspect and wants to get placed at a high level with either AAP or Congress.
IIT Delhi has roped in some stars for pivotal courses: Arvind Kejriwal has agreed to offer guest lectures and mentor students planning to start their own political ventures with inputs on marketing, brand building, fund raising etc. Nitish Kumar has also offered to take a course of Social Engineering 101 while Jairam Ramesh may conduct a fourth year elective “soft skills to deal with Rahul Gandhi”.