Breaking Free of Corridors of Power: An Australia-based former IAS officer spots leaders with an urge to fight Indian elections

A FORMER Indian bureaucrat has begun a nation-wide initiative to spot future leaders who could contest Parliamentary elections in 2014. Sanjeev Sabhlok, a 1982 batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IAS officer who resigned from the elite service in January 2001 to move to Australia, has now formed a trust called Freedom Team of India (FTI) which will discover at least 1500 leaders in the country before initiating a political movement at the grassroots with a promise of offering “freedom and ethical governance”.

An author of a book titled “Breaking Free of Nehru: Let’s Unleash India!” published in 2008, Mr Sabhlok had earlier made three unsuccessful political bids including the formation of a political party called Liberal Party of India in 2005 with an objective of achieving integrity, security of religious liberties and introduction of world’s best economic policies.

Though his new platform, Freedom Team of India, is not a political entity, its members are committed to contest Indian elections in future. A doctorate in economics from the University of Southern California, here’s how Mr Sabhlok describes himself, “I like to imagine that I am a practitioner of human affairs -- on the lines of Kautiliya, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, or Burke. But the reality is that, at least so far (!), I’ve been a mundane bureaucrat who has spent nearly three decades eking out a modest living (sufficient for my modest needs, though) by managing public policy projects and large organisations on behalf of governments in India, and by providing public policy advice and managing rather smallish public policy projects in Australia”.

Yet, this practitioner of public policy has been relentlessly pursuing his political goals and will be in India in February for a series of lectures in Delhi and elsewhere. He is propagating a classical liberal framework which believes a government should establish general rules and enforce them well.

Mr Sabhlok who is available in many social networking platforms, is eager to make new friends and convert themselves into a neo-political force. He writes in his site, “I’m quite open to making new friends since I’ve got unambiguous political motives and I need friends to carry my message and become my supporters! See, I’m very transparent and don’t hide my motives! But in doing so I would like to assure you that my message is for your own good. Have a think about it. No compulsion”.

Yes, his call for breaking free of India’s political monotony continues!