When governments start interfering with what you eat, what you wear, your love life, how you reproduce it leads to rebellion by the youth.
For me, the youth stands for opportunities, energy and out of the ordinary ideas, not socio-religious division and politics. Today’s youth is moving away from this ideology and embracing a liberal mindset. So, I don’t think BJP reflects the ideas of the youth. If there are youngsters who are supportive of BJP’s ideology, it is going to be short-lived because the arguments being put forward by BJP and its associated units/parties, just do not conform with today’s open-minded people.
Be it the Prime Minister’s election campaign speeches, the views of RSS thinkers (which are usually not opposed by BJP leaders), government policies regarding surrogacy or the LGBTQ+ community, all reflect a mindset which should not be accepted by youngsters, irrespective of their faith. When a political party resorts to promising the construction of a temple rather than economical development, one should be able to grasp not only the failure of current economic policies but also the mindset of those making decisions.
All views should be accepted and respected in a democracy. But of late, there have been incidents when those opposing government policies, decisions or statements, have been labeled ‘anti-national’. The youth must fight for the freedom of speech. That is the essence of a healthy democracy. When central or state governments start interfering with what you eat, what you wear, your love life, how you reproduce, what you are taught, these do lead to unrest and rebellion by the youth who take this as breach of privacy, or when viewed broadly, fascism.
The youth is looking for jobs, better infrastructure and a safe country. When the Prime Minister argues with an example of those selling fritters being ’employed’, then the moral bankruptcy of those in government is evident.
People want to listen to the Prime Minister talk about the economy, the education sector, globalisation but we are served a dish with ingredients such as ‘Shamshan-Kabristan’ and ‘Diwali-Ramzan’. There are chief ministers belonging to the same political party who find religion in every issue. Hundreds of new-born babies dying are still secondary while Janmashtami is being celebrated in jails. When the core focus should be unemployment, poverty, farmer distress, gender discrimination, infrastructure development, we are still being served with debates on temple construction, performance patriotism, protests triggered by movies, statements made by politicians, etc.
Brawls and riots on national holidays are a common sight now, with minorities being forced to prove their patriotism. Most of the news debates focus on religion, caste, patriotism, etc. These will fuel dissent in youth and will lead to the downfall of the government if they continue this way. Almost one-third of India’s population is below the age of 35. The urban youth keeps an eye on politics, policy implementation and has an urge to improve their quality of life at the soonest. All these should be the priorities of governments and political parties, else they are bound to lose connect with the youth.
Nimit Arora, is the winner of the opinion writing contest on the third edition of Democracy Wall. This was in a response to the question asked by ThePrint: Does BJP reflect the ideas of the youth?
Democracy Wall is a monthly free speech campus initiative organised by ThePrint in collaboration with Facebook.