Indian National Congress·Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka
How I work
Data first, problem first, and as much of it in the open as the seat allows.
Why I work in the open
Namma Bengaluru’s startup culture works in the open. People here put their work out before it is finished and let others pull it apart. I want to hold this seat the same way.
I would rather hold a position you can see and argue with while it is still forming. That is useful to you - you can push back before anything is settled, and I can get it right rather than defend something I got wrong in private.
Presenting something as settled, and getting it wrong, helps no one. That is what I mean when I say I will try to represent in public.
My method
Four habits that carried through from the Research Department to the seat.
“I listen, I try to understand the real problem, I find the bottleneck, and I work to solve it as efficiently as I can.”
Most problems that reach an MP arrive already shaped by someone else. The framing may be wrong, or the real sticking point may be somewhere else entirely. I try to hear what is actually happening before I decide what to do with it.
For years I ran the Karnataka Congress Research Department. It worked off data rather than instinct, and checked its facts before they went out. I work the same way now. I start from the data, not the slogan.
“What sounds good and what actually works are often different things. I care about the difference, and that will define how I work in Parliament.”
“I will be upfront about what I can do and what I cannot, so nobody’s time is wasted.”
A Rajya Sabha MP can raise your concern, question, pursue, and put it on the record. What the seat cannot do is worth knowing before you write in.
A regular note
From time to time I will post what I am working on and what came of it. Not on a fixed schedule - when there is something worth saying.
Those posts go on X and, where they are longer, on the writings page. If you want them by email, the footer has the newsletter sign-up.