Amidst the 15th Lok Sabha elections that were concluded recently resulting in a strong mandate for the Congress Party and its allies, a prominent position was taken up by the youth in this election. This election was supposed to bring about an upheaval in the political system with identity politics taking a back seat and progressive governance being given a push in the right direction. This was supposed to be the election where the youth takes charge and starts taking up some responsibility for this country. With the immense amount of TV coverage given for the largest democratic exercise in the whole world and the innumerable voting campaigns started to raise awareness amongst the electorate there was a feeling that maybe ,just maybe we might be moving in the right direction. The first time voters were supposed to influence some constituencies of the urban localities by giving their verdict in favour of performance rather than sitting at home and chilling coz it’s a holiday today. But alas all these hopes and wishes were washed away. Not only did Youngistaan turn out to be the useless “Pappu”, it was also caught sleeping soundly in spite of Jaago Re being such a useful tool for almost everyone.
So why did pappu not go out and vote. With excuses such as excessive heat being labeled as possible reasons for the same, it seems to me that all that talk and no play makes Youngistaan a damp squib. With the abysmally low turnout in highly educated places like Mumbai one’s heart goes out to those ill fated people who choose politics as a career and chose to make money the other way round (Hell some even give away their money just for a chair ). Even the glitz and glamour of Bollywood wasn’t able to bring in voters to see their favourite stars in real life. I imagined that hundreds and thousands would throng the voting centers to be the next one in line after Shahrukh Khan or Bipasha Basu. Seems like Youngistaan’s a bit too lazy even for that. So looks like Youngistaan just rocks in the parties at night and when it comes to the real stuff the heat takes away all the dance moves.
The electorate is not the only one to be blamed for such for this entire fiasco; the politicians too come in to stake their claim for the blame. We have perpetrators who though are young and energetic but still assume the policies of their former/elderly colleagues to divide the country along religious lines. They have their hate speeches ready and loaded to the full to go out and give its entire blast to a group of people who can be indoctrinated to think on those lines very very easily. Such divisive politics is the root cause of all the troubles ailing our 60 odd year old vibrant and young democracy.
But lose not all hopes my friends, coz there still is a silver lining in this dangerously dark and damp cloud of ours. We still have the likes of Rahul Gandhi who have their kurtas clean and white, void of any dirt unlike many of our other MP’S. But maybe that’s just because he uses a better detergent than all the others. Maybe not, but that’s not our main focus right now. We may have most of our young MP’s from political backgrounds with great family legacies behind them, but all we need to do is to give them a chance and that can only come when we go out and do our bit for them.
Call me a cynic but “Yeh hai youngistaan meri jaan”.
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