I am very pleased with the level of participation. I got over a 100 responses and also some though-provoking comments e.g. “…Fear that at the end I will be forced to be corrupt for survival sake” and “no inner party democracy in any party…”. But first, the results…

Poll: What is stopping you from joining active politics? (only one response was allowed)

Inability to raise funds for campaigning: 24%
Family responsibilities: 20%
Loss of income: 18%
Worry about personal safety: 15%
Fear of not succeeding: 8%
Risk to personal reputation: 6%
Not worth it: 5%
Other: 4%

The single biggest reason(s) stopping good, thinking, committed people from joining active politics are

• inability to raise funds and
• worries about family responsibilities and loss of income

Sanjay of Freedom Team conducted a similar poll on the FTI website for FTI members. The results from that poll revealed that although members were keen to contest elections, 60% of them cited “lack of funds” as the prime reason of dropping out.

Surprisingly, only 10% gave “family reasons” as a reason for not contesting (I guess this is because most FTI members are senior professionals in various fields and are less worried about potential loss of future earnings).

Interestingly, 20% (as against 8% in my poll) mentioned “pessimism of winning” (fear of not succeeding) as a reason for not considering joining active politics. Does this mean there are more pessimists amongst FTI members - or are they more realistic? I will look forward to thoughts and comments from Sanjay, Sanjeev Sabhlok and others on this.

I will add my thoughts and analysis (hopefully) later today…

In the meantime, please share your thoughts, suggestions and ideas on the results…and what would you do to change people’s perceptions re. active politics.

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!

http://satyameva-jayate.org/