An IIM-Bangalore Student, Who Thinks Different !

With all top B-School students now gearing up for their summer internship process and worrying about how to bag the highest offer from the corporate world, there is one IIM-B student who dares to think different and will be heading to the villages of Bihar for his internship. Kundan Mal Verma, who is a first year OGO student will join Nitish Kumar's Party, Janata Dal United (JDU) for pursuing his summer internship. His internship will be based on working with Nitish Kumar and Party members on the development activities in the state.

Kundan, a B.Sc Agriculture Graduate from Rajasthan stated that his decision to opt out of cliche internship offers was totally driven by his acute interest in Politics. Not only he was curious about the workings of the political system, he also wanted to observe it closely. The 23 year old is also keen on joining JDU because he completely idolizes Nitish Kumar and feels very inspired by the developmental works Nitish has been spread in Bihar.

Kundan wrote a mail to the party on their website for which the General Secretary replied. Before confirming the internship, he also met representatives of the Karnataka Party. His internship was then confirmed for the month of April-May. Some of Kundan's objectives are:

• To implement excellent practices in the field of agriculture
• Work on strategies for party campaign
• Understand village life and agriculture better
• Observe closely the working of the Indian Political system
• Make sure development starts at the grass root level.

The IIM-B student wants to get a firsthand experience of working in a political party, which most of his peers think as waste. Though Kundan has no plans of joining politics after graduating, he states that one needs to observe things closely for bringing a difference. He desires to work closely with Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister during his internship at Patna. Kundan also claims that since he comes from an agricultural background, he has no qualms about working on site with villagers.

Last year, another student from IIM-B had joined the Congress Party for internship and worked on the West Bengal election campaign. What do you think? Are the IIM students really taking the issue of social responsibility so seriously? Or is it a new fad from the IIM students to hit the headlines?