MUMBAI (AFP) — Middle-class professionals have been spurred into standing in India''s general elections, fed up with what they say are declining standards of governance and complacency, corruption and cronyism.

 

All are calling for better political leadership, plus an end to under-the-table deals, criminality among lawmakers and divisive policies along caste, religious or regional lines.

 

Mumbai saw widespread protests against India''s leaders in the wake of last November''s deadly militant attacks, after glaring intelligence failings came to light and security forces were found to be under-equipped and ill-trained.

 

Up against Sanyal in the Mumbai South constituency is consultant eye surgeon Mona Shah.

 

She, too, blames the current crop of ageing politicians for feathering their own nests and concentrating on hanging on to power rather than working to improve the lives of India''s 1.1 billion people.

 

"Nothing is ever done. Since the government is not in a position to manage for reasons best known to itself, it''s about time we stood up and said, "We think we can do something about it, let''s get something done," she told AFP. 

 

  

 

 

Shah, 38, is one of two candidates standing in Mumbai for the fledgling Professionals Party of India (PPI). By the next general election, due before 2014, it hopes to contest 80 to 100 seats nationwide.

 

The party claims that "the single biggest cause of our abject poverty and consequent physical and economic squalor is the steady and progressive degeneration in the quality of India''s political managers."

 

Despite India''''''''s rapid economic growth, illiteracy, unemployment, poverty, disease and starvation are still rampant, more than 60 years after independence from Britain, and the country''s infrastructure is creaking, it says.

 

"A democratic paradigm shift, driven by "professional Indians," is urgent. PPI thinks that the time has come for the 200 million or so professional Indians to roll up their sleeves and dirty their hands," its manifesto says.

 

Fielding talented younger candidates from a transparent, accountable party is "perhaps the only way the unrelenting morass of ineptitude, incompetence and corruption our country is sinking into can be arrested," it added.

 

With India''s corporate sector stuffed with highly-educated graduates capable of 

 

 

managing thousands of staff and budgets worth billions of dollars, finding 543 high-calibre members of parliament should not be hard, they add. 

 

"At the moment, every policy is being framed in terms of regionalism, caste and creed whereas meritocracy is disappearing. The right man for the job doesn''t exist," said PPI candidate for Mumbai North, Rajendra Thacker.

 

"Competency should be the only criterion to elect representatives," the 51-year-old businessman and social activist told AFP.

 

"We are paying approximately 3.2 million rupees (63,000 dollars) per MP and what are we getting in return? Criminals, people who are not qualified, who don?t deserve to be a watchman let alone a minister. 

 

"India has become the servant of the public servants and the elected representatives rather than the other way around."