Much better than a few other disadvantaged people who grew too big too fast (and became too greedy and had to pay for their sins).
…
It’s
not often that the son of a dalit agricultural labourer from
Maharashtra’s farm suicide belt, whose mother once worked as a rag-picker
on the streets of Mumbai, makes it as an entrepreneur in America and
provides healthcare consultancy to the governments of New York,
Washington and New Jersey.
What are the odds that such a man
will throw up a life in New Jersey after a decade in the US to return to
his dusty village in rural Marathwada? That’s a question Aam Aadmi
Party’s Jalna candidate, Deelip Mhaske, is best suited to answer.
Mhaske (35) is a Dalit candidate contesting the elections from an open
seat in a Maratha stronghold, a rarity of sorts for Indian politics.
While Mhaske is no stranger to elections, having actively supported the
Obama campaign, the murky world of Maharashtra politics came as a bit of
a shock to him. His political opponents have used both his caste and
his US stint against him, calling him an outsider.
Some of his
campaigns have been disrupted by rowdy elements shouting casteist slurs
at him. He says other political parties have openly distributed alcohol
in the district to buy votes.
Mhaske, though, is no stranger to
challenges. When he made it to IIT Bombay for a degree in planning and
development, he doubled up as a construction labourer, while his mother
worked as a ragpicker to make ends meet. “I once landed up at a building
where my classmate lived in order to carry out some construction work.
That’s when she discovered for the first time that I worked as a
construction labourer,” he says.
Post IIT, a research paper he
wrote was selected for a conference at the University of Pennsylvania
where he got a scholarship to do his PhD. Mhaske, who went on to set up
his own outpatient clinic for mental health patients, also had a degree
in health sciences from Harvard Business School. He has been a
healthcare consultant with the governments of New York, New Jersey and
Washington.
His early success may have something to do with the
Central government scholarship he got at the age of 10, which gave him
entry to Navodaya Vidyalaya, one amongst a chain of schools that
provides quality education across India to talented children in rural
areas.
Mhaske has been intricately linked with India’s
anti-corruption movements, both while at IIT as well as during his
career in the US. “I have been an active member of Jayprakash Narayan’s
Lok Satta party in Hyderabad, and was involved in setting up a chapter
of the party in Maharashtra,” says Mhaske, adding that he had been a
part of Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption in 2003, as a student
at IIT, well-before Hazare shot to fame on the national arena.
While in the US, Mhaske joined the Aam Aadmi Party the day it was
launched and has worked on several campaigns, both online and offline,
to garner support for the party. “I’ve always felt the need to enter
politics in order to better the system. This is why I have supported
good parties such as AAP and Lok Satta,” says Mhaske.
…
regards