Young India sees politics as a management challenge

By M H Ahssan

A year ago when Rahul Gandhi embarked on his mission to democratize the Youth Congress and NSUI, with the idea of attracting youth to politics,
hardly anyone could have said for sure that he would be successful. And yet, youth is the flavour of the season today. In the wake of the Congress Party’s spectacular performance in the 15th Lok Sabha elections, youth is at the core of our national discourse.

The world missed the significance of our baby steps in democratizing the Congress’s youth organizations. Everyone wrongly assumed young Indians were allergic to politics and change. But they are eager to be active agents of change.

The election results are scant evidence of the chord Rahul has struck with youth with his attempts to throw open political parties to the next generation. In the last few months, we held elections for our youth organizations in Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Punjab. The result was the new vigour seen in GenNext during the Lok Sabha elections — they took up campaigning in big numbers and turned out in hordes to vote. They seem to have backed Congress with great enthusiasm.

It is the young who can — and will — change the country and the way it is run. The basic problem arises from the simplistic assumption that the young are averse to “dirty politics”. The urban middle class may be cynical about politics but in the rural heartland there are 5.5 lakh panchayats and several lakh young men and women serving as panchs, sarpanchs and as members of zilla parishads. According to a rough estimate, 70% of these elected representatives are no older than 35.

Surely that is evidence enough to show that the young are interested in entering the system to change their village communities? If the urban young are apathetic about politics it is largely because of the system’s penchant for political institutions, the closed-door functioning of political outfits and the special status given to politicians. These are all negatives factors and breed revulsion among ordinary people.

The philosophy and purpose of Rahul Gandhi’s internal democratization of the NSUI and Youth Congress was opening them up to the common people. This has created a feeling within the new generation that there is a clean way of getting into politics and moving into leadership positions. At the moment, many young politicians belong to political families and the positions they get are passed down as legacies. There’s nothing wrong with that but there should be equal opportunity for others too if they want it.

It is not a small change. It would open up politics to all, making it possible for ordinary people to compete with the privileged few. Some may try to discourage the change, but it will happen. Ours is a long-term vision but the results of this election are encouraging, particularly because we saw huge youth participation in our campaign and the voting process.

I went to Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh to contest the election. I was a first-timer in the big, challenging world of electoral politics. But the experience was phenomenal. Throughout the campaign, I would get scraps on my Orkut profile and phone calls from boys and girls who would introduce themselves as first-time voters who had cast their ballot in my favour. It was a very satisfying experience — the flight of hope among those who possibly would not have taken to it with such gusto had they not seen change coming into the closed, 60-year-old world of politics.

Through Congress’s philosophy of equality, India’s young will change the way politics is perceived in this country. Politics and elections are seen as an ideological challenge, but young people see it as a management challenge. As the young enter politics, real issues will come to centrestage and the possibility of their own being able to participate in the process would cement their faith in the philosophy of equality, opportunity and change.

It will be a boon for society as it will undercut the school of political thought that promotes divisiveness. As we gain acceptability, there will be copycats. That would be good because they will be following our path.

But this may be hard for those whose politics is based on parochialism. Divisive politics marginalizes the youth it seeks to exclude. Youth participation in such parties will decline. Simply put, divisive ideology is antithetical to greater youth participation.