By Drishti Chhibber:
2014. Time for general elections. Here we go again. The carnival of long (insubstantial) speeches, follower gathering, racking up mob mentality and of course the false promises. The circus will start again with yet another failed performance and the lion blaming the ringmaster and vice versa. We all know how things go and still remain ignorant. The whole Voting Campaign is fine in its place; people go on and on about how you should exercise your right and vote but the essential questions are left out. Who to vote for? BJP, Congress and the other upcoming parties, all are basically the same in their working.
Does an average citizen even know the intricacies of how each party works? Come to think of it, there is hardly any difference. So who to vote for? Every party says that their main purpose is public welfare but we the public are only the silent spectators of this whole carnival. We don’t stand anywhere, so what’s the solution? Should we just give up on it or look for alternatives? The public is hell bent on bringing neither the BJP nor the Congress in centre this time. So what else can be done?
The only solution visible on the horizon is finally identifying the resource power of youth. And by youth I don’t mean the new young parties coming up because politics has started creeping in there too. Rather youth means us the apolitical Gen Y. We need to put our foot down and finally change things. Maybe not in a revolutionary way but we have to start at some point. And the alternative suggests joining these parties and changing things at the grass root level. Just talking about how these parties have time and again failed us isn’t enough. India has already learned how words can’t get you anywhere. We need serious actions. But politics doesn’t only mean joining high end parties like BJP and Congress; it starts from our very homes, communities and societies.
If we need to change the face of the politics of our countries we first need to set the society straight first. Youth should join municipal commissions and resident welfare associations and start working their way upward from there. Once we make our way into the system changing it for the better may take time but will at least be possible. Movies like Yuva have shown the power of student politics. Being a student of DU, I have seen how politics works on that level. The elections, campaigning, voting is nothing less than country elections. Power play goes on there too but at a smaller scale and the balanced way in which the DU parliament works shows the potential of youth. If shown the right path they can show the big politicians of our country the right path. The Youth power has been undermined a lot but now it’s time to see its true potential. We can and we will bring about change.