Confessions of a first-time-MP by Advaita Kala

Advaita Kala

The sixteenth Lok Sabha has the highest number of first time MPs in 30 years. Fifty eight per cent or 315 members of the Lok Sabha have entered this hallowed chamber of democracy for the first time. With all the talk centered around Prime Minister Modi's 100 days in office (it is too early to draw any conclusions).

I was far more intrigued by the 100 days of a first time MP. So I spoke with Gaurav Gogoi of the Congress Party about his experience. Gaurav is interesting for a variety of reasons. For one, he has an impressive attendance record at 89 per cent - slightly above the average of 87 per cent - and has been active in Parliament - participating in eight debates and raising six questions (source: www.prsindia.org.)

Disillusionment
In an election defined by the Modi wave and a public discourse that reeked of contempt for "dynastic entitlement" Gogoi (son of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi), couldn't have chosen a more inopportune moment to make a political debut. But by winning the election, he succeeded where many other well-known dynasts failed. This victory made him one of the Congress'44 and a first time MP.

When I first met him, I made a statement about all politicians being hypocrites.

This was intentionally provocative, but Gogoi is not one to react. He has a calm that belies his age (32-yearsold) and recent entry into politics. A few days later when he comes off a television debate where he has been personally attacked and called "arrogant" for that same Zen-like calm, he says it's alright because he signed up for this. But the acceptance of real politik has come with time and experience that shied away from the ambition of public office.

In the beginning he was a non-believer. He even goes so far as to say he was "disillusioned" with politics, "I felt it relied too heavily on patronage and caste equations and didn't focus on rural development." One can surmise this comes from having observed political life too closely. His father Tarun Gogoi, was a Union Minister when Gaurav was nine and became CM when he turned 19.

Gaurav's views only began to change when he made a career switch from the corporate world to the NGO one. There wasn't one definitive moment but a series of events that prompted him to look at the role politics plays in the development of the country. He worked with NGOs at the grass root level for eight years and travelled to the West Bank (Palestine) in 2010 for an education project and then to Cambodia for an assignment with children with cleft lips. It opened up the world to him in a different way, leading him to study Public Administration at New York University.

Still a political career was not on the horizon, but the 2011 Assembly elections changed that. He witnessed what he calls the faith of the people in good governance.

Positives
"I saw the positive role that politics played in turning around a state which was crippled by debt and fractured by the insurgency to becoming the economic and social hub of the entire Northeast India. In 2001 Assam had a GSDP growth rate of 2.4 per cent, in 2014- it's around 8-9 per cent" he says.

But those were the facts. How he began to see a place for himself in the frenetic world of politics was more personal. It came from a belief the system was destined to evolve and possibily fall in line with what he identified as the new role of a politician.

A rapidly changing India was seeking a different type of leader - a message that was delivered decisively this election - a leader from outside the networks of patronage and one who can find a new way of engaging with the people. Gogoi elaborates: "A younger, educated and technologically savvy India will demand politicians with sophisticated experience of policymaking, greater openness to public scrutiny and the ability to relate to their voters, as their equals instead of aiming to be superior." Indeed in many ways that India is already here.

Politics
However, winning from his constituency was not a walkover. His father won the seat in the past, but also lost it on two occasions. Gaurav says it has taken sustained hard work beginning in 2011. In retrospect, he admits to the Modi wave making it all the more difficult but ultimately it was the bond he has with his constituents and his rejection of the tendency to underestimate the voter that triumphed.

This election, he tells me, had to be fought to be won. And it was, by a margin of 93,000 votes.

Kaliabor, his constituency in Assam, faces major environmental challenges, especially floods and loss of land due to river erosion (the mighty Brahmaputra has caused a loss of as much as 4 lakh hectares of land in Assam). People's homes are frequently swept away and villages lost. Gogoi has stayed in relief camps with the victims, long before he was a candidate and these environmental challenges and their human consequences continue to be a primary area of focus among the many priorities he now has an MP. And it has already been a baptism by fire. In these first 100 days, he has had to handle the recent unrest in Kaliabor, the outrage over the police action, and more recently, a flood situation that had him rushing to Assam on the last day of the Monsoon Session.

In his journey as an MP Gaurav seems to be trying to find a balance between adapting to the Machiavellian instinct required of politicians and his need to redefine a politician's role in these altered times of a more assertive voter and the questioning fourth estate. But then something easier - what is it like being in Parliament? "It's awe inspiring," he admits, walking by the photographs of the greats of our history, "but there needs to be more attention paid to cleanliness."

Maybe the young MP from Kaliabor, Assam has something in common with the Prime Minister after all, despite his party affiliation.

The writer is an award winning screenwriter and best selling novelist. Her twitter handle is @AdvaitaKala