Politics inspires HSLC rank holders

GUWAHATI: Mamata Banerjee seems to be the hottest inspiration this examination season. So much so that politics, hitherto a dirty word in most youngsters' dictionary, figures prominently in the HSLC toppers' to be list this year.
While many rank holders from city high schools continue to gun for the traditional civil services and engineering slots, several others seemed taken in with the populist mannerisms of the first woman chief minister of neighbouring West Bengal, with successful students wishing to be involved in the administrative and political system of the country directly rather contributing from outside.
"Mamata is my ideal politician. I want to be like Mamata if I get a chance of joining firstline politics," said Nipasha Mahanta of St Mary's Higher Secondary School, Guwahati. The 16{+t}{+h} rank holder in HSLC exams is fascinated by Mamata's simple living and benevolent working for common people, the attitude, she feels is lacking in other political figures of the day. "Frankly speaking, I cannot readily point out any political person in the state like Mamata," said Nipasha. However, she wants to study arts and try for the civil service examinations first.
Joining the IAS seemed to be several other students' idea of a stepping stone towards making meaningful contributions to society as well. "I have an aim of serving the society and want to be a part of all round development in our state," said 8th rank holder Padmaza Talukdar. "I will work hard and try to be a civil servant," she said.
While social reform fervor soared high, successful students lapped up other contemporary icons too. "I like farmers' leader Akhil Gogoi because of his clear stance against corruption," said Mriganka Nath, who bagged the second position in the Class XII exams.
"I also like minister Himata Biswa Sarma because of his strength building capacity in politics," said Mriganka, who hopes to be a successful technocrat in the future.