Of the Youth, By the youth

By Hamsini Ravi 2 June 2009 161 views One Comment

While playing a word association game with my cousin, I said “Indian Politician”, and he quipped, “Old!” I marveled at the image that a seven year old has of our polity. For a country that claims to have a huge percentage of young people, political activism from this section of the population seemed virtually non-existent.

Sometime in the years that could potentially be known as the post-Rang De Basanti (1) era, this changed. Suddenly, well-off, well educated young people were waking up to harsh political realities and deciding to do more than grumble along with newspapers and news channels. Youngistan had arrived.

First, a political party founded by a group of IIT alumni, Lok Paritran, made its appearance in the Indian political circuit. Hogging headlines, they caught the odd middle class vote in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in 2006 too. While the party has now split, it broke the stereotype that the youth are not interested in politics.

Ahead of the all-important Lok Sabha elections, a number of young politicians - both independent candidates and partymen - made headlines. Rahul Gandhi, Kanimozhi, Priya Dutt, Sachin Pilot- are all a new breed of youngsters armed with fancy degrees and ambitious plans. They present a refreshing change from the stereotypical aging neta(2) with a balding plate and a potbelly. Interestingly, a rough overview of their election speeches showed that issues such as literacy, security, economy and poverty have been discussed, as opposed to caste and creed talk. A post-election analysis of their performance shows that each of these politicians have been voted back to power with huge margins.

Some of the independent candidates who contested in the Lok Sabha elections were interesting personalities; there was ex-IIM-A (3) student, Sarath Babu, a CEO of a food chain start-up, whose mother set up a roadside idli (4) stall to put him through school. Babu stood in the South Chennai constituency and attracted 14,101 votes. An investment banker from Mumbai, Mira Sanyal heads ABN-AMRO operations in India. Until a few years ago, she would have been a representative of the educated elite who shied away from politics, but in these elections stood as an independent candidate from South Mumbai and obtained 10,157 votes. Sarath and Mira are representative of the proactive, educated citizen, who is demanding answers of his leaders. Says Reena, a young Mumbaikar, “26/11 was the stimulant to citizen action. It was like a wake up call to people who realized that it was time to act.” (5)

An initiative that began in 2002, “Tamil Nadu Youth and Students Association”, evolved into a political party, the “Youth and Students Party” that contested in the 2009 General elections. The vision statement of the party reads thus: “to enthuse patriotism and make India free from the current political yoke, a vibrant India in the forefront of Technology, Industry and Commerce, a nation that is an economic and military superpower with transparency, good governance and accountability and a nation full of proud citizens.” The party was born our of a fervent desire and a strong civil society movement that believed that 75% of the parliament should consist of youth. The party, that is now 6 years old, came up with an impressive research-based manifesto, and fielded its candidate Thomas. T. Jacob in Central Chennai. The candidate got 2,582 votes, and stood 5th out of 37 contestants in the constituency. As a member of the YSP said, ” We were beaten, but not defeated.”

If active politics seems too demanding, some youngsters have taken to the rise of the civil society. “Youth for Equality” is a classic example of a youth activist organization. Born as a reaction to the Supreme Court judgement on reservation in educational institutions, the organization addresses a large number of issues concerning governance, health care, caste oppression and employment. Today, the organization consists of tens of thousands of volunteers from across the country. It even contested the Delhi and Mumbai Municipal elections.

In a democracy, the importance of “for the people” is quite often forgotten, in the light of “By the people” and “Of the people” issues. Elections in India don’t see more than 50-60% of its total electorate casting their votes, which is totally out of sync with its “largest democracy in the world” spirit. [Vaishali Chopra, a 21-year-old first time voter in Hyderabad says, “I was quite excited to cast my vote! What’s the point in complaining about non-deliverables from the leaders if you don’t go out to do your bit?” (6)Vaishali’s enthusiasm is reflected in the changing attitudes in most of her counterparts in metros and big cities in the country.

Janaagraha, a Bangalore-based NGO, came up with the “Jaago re” (7) campaign, aimed at stirring the dormant citizen to go out and cast his vote. In association with Tata Tea, this campaign aims to register everyone in India to vote in the next 5 years, and allows voters to register online. This year, the “Jaago re” campaign traveled to 35 top cities with mobile voter registration outlets, knocking on the doors of software firms and colleges, and urging employees and students to register and exercise their democratic right. It’s a simple but ingenious campaign that took no political side, but gave the voter everything she needs to know - from how to register to which constituency she’d be casting her vote in, and information about the candidates.

Mumbai’s 26/11 has woken up the sleeping youth-izen, who has finally recognized his rightful role in the world’s largest democracy. Whether it will merely remain a distinct tint in the colorful palette of Indian democracy, or if it will change its landscape forever, is a question that will take many years to answer.

References:

Footnotes:

Rang De Basanti (translation: Paint it yellow) is a hindi film released in 2006, and revolves around youth activism.
Politician
IIM-A the acronym for the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Gujrat, it is considered the most premier school for management studies in India.
Idlis, are a south Indian snack, spongy, white cakes made from a rice batter.
26/11- Terrorist attack of Mumbai in November 2008.
Previous elections in India have shown very low voter turn outs.
Jaago Re: transalation, wake up!

Photo Courtesy: yqworld.com

One Comment »

VJ said:

“In a democracy, the importance of “for the people” is quite often forgotten, in the light of “By the people” and “Of the people” issues.”

You go on to talk about the increased political involvement in today’s youth. Did you then mean that the importance of “by the people” is oft forgotten? I feel we complain so much that it’s hard to see how “for the people” gets missed out on. Unless you are implying it as a derivative of participating in the elections.

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# 16 July 2009 at 1:37 pm