Political leadership and Indian youth

India is my country. Filled with many religions, castes, cultures and people it is known for its rich diversity of humanity.India’s young people are talented and educated. They have great ambition and vision for the nation as well as their personal life. Even they are ready to migrate to another country in order to accumulate money. They are hard workers, family lovers, committed citizens and good followers of religions. I am one among them.

In addition, they have enormous potential to lead but always follow someone. They have good knowledge but never speak out. They always wanted very good political leadership but always stay away from politics except voting in the public election. They are very creative but never start anything new. They are courageous but never challenge anything. They are rebellious but always follow the stereotypical customs and unequal social structure. They always dream for a better world but never stop dreaming and start working to achieve it. I am one among them

Yes, Indian youth are like hibernating computers, they are so powerful, intelligent, and swift but they should wake up and start up. On the whole, in this essay I am trying to explore Indian youth and their problems with special regard to politics. To approach this issue systematically, first I am going to study their present status which help us to understand them better and secondly, finding their crucial problems in order to understand the reason for this potential group’s lack of political contribution and finally suggesting some helpful practical and policy recommendations which will empower their political contribution as well as political inclusion.

Current scenario

It is estimated that some 47% of India’s current 1 billion populations is under the age of 20, and teenagers among them number about 160 million. By 2015, Indians under 20 will make up 55% of the population.[1] It is one of the significant facts that India has to celebrate. Youth base of a nation is the backbone of its political, social and economic power. However, here, Indian youth are tremendously contributing in social and economical arena and greatly sidelined in political arena. I always wonder why this paradox of exclusion and alienation? For example the current prime minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh aged 76 (Date of birth: September 26, 1932)[2], L.K.Advani, the present opposition party leader and the proposed prime ministerial candidate from the opposition party for the upcoming general election in 2009 aged 81(Date of birth: 8 November 1927)[3], and M Karunanidhi, the chief minister of my state, Tamilnadu aged 84 (Date of birth: 3 June 1924)[4] . The top politicians and policy makers of our countries are more than 70’s, generally the retirement age is 58 in India and maximum it can go up to 65. Logically speaking, they all are supposed to be at their home and taking rest with their families but unfortunately they are running the governments. However, it is very true that the weaker health status of these aged leaders which creates a narrow mindedness and an insecure feeling about the future of their political party and the family blocks the way for youth participation in politics. Rahul Gandhi, one of the young politicians and a high ranked    policy maker of India admitted this fact honestly and he said “The youth want to join politics but don’t know the way. Once they enter politics, they don’t find it clean. They are confused about politics and it looks as if there is a wall between them and politics. We have to break this wall.”[5] This is the primary problem, inIndia politics is an exclusive asset of privileged families and it can be transferred to their generations and no one can inherit it and not even enter into it without their permission. And it is run by as of their family asset .Who is going to break this wall of exclusion and hierarchy?

Young people’s position and problems

In this context, how young people are approaching politics? It is very interesting to note that majority of them believe that it’s a junk and committed to the rogues of the nation. They strongly believe that a good person cannot survive in politics. Madhuri Krishnan, reported about the youth of Bangalore, one of the cosmopolitan cities of India with regard to their last general state election as follows,  “Most confessed they knew little about the political system till now, and that they were going through an “undecided” or “confused” period.( to decide to whom to vote)” . It is very helpful to understand the political awareness of the youth in the mega cities. However, I am from a small village andIndia’s most of the population is living in the villages. Through my own experience and study village youth has two positions with regard to politics. One group of people does not know anything about politics. It’s more or like a season (election) for them. Another group of youth blindly follows the local leader and the party on the basis of the petty benefits they receive from them starting from a time of food, liquor and so on. When we speculate this scene it is clear that they are far away from positive politics and policy making. Meantime, we cannot simply blame political parties as well as leaders for youth’s exclusion from politics. If we look deeper the reason is more personal. Predominantly all the youth inIndia run behind money, to be frank they are product of modern consumerism. They love to accumulate money, to live a life of a king. They are selfish and no one is ready to be challenged and sacrificed.

Though we critically look into the current political scenario in India in particular and the whole world in general we have to accept the fact that anyone involves politics needs more courage, commitment and sacrifice. Unfortunately, Indian youth are not ready to put themselves into public life. There is a crude proverb in Tamil (my mother tongue) goes like this “Those who enter into pubic service reach a pathetic death”. It is true to some extent that public service and politics may let you empty handed. Democratic politics based on election is like gambling if you win you are the king if you loose you are the servant. Because in education or employment there is no absolute defeat though there are ups and downs but in election certainly there is winning and failure and the modern youth never wanted to be failed and in contrary, not ready to take that much risk to win also. This kind of pragmatic and selfish indoctrinations bombarded the youth and put their life away from political participation. According to a survey conducted by Coca-Cola (KO), the primary ambition of young Indians from the smallest villages to the largest cities is to ”become rich.” Young people hope to achieve this goal through enterprise and education.[6] Every youth wants to become millionaire like N. R. Narayana Murthyof Infosys and Shiv Nadar of HCL. They certainly believe that money making in a right way is not possible in politics so they honestly concentrate on their work. And it is very interesting to note that all these people are strongly believe that entering into politics may harm their money wallet so it is better to stay away from politics to save money without losing it.

Lesson to learn from Corporations and Global organizations

Everyone knows the power of youth including all politicians in India. Cleverly they use youth as errand boys to fulfill their vested interests and political agenda. However, Indian corporate companies are catching potential youth to develop their business empire. The Reliance, one of world’s biggest Indian companies believes in youth power. There is an appropriate blend of Youth and Experience with approx 50% of the workforce below 40 years of age. The average age of around 34 years continues to move downwards in alignment with the company ethos of providing and entrusting responsibilities at a young age.[7] It has many creative programme to develop their youth. One of the programme called Dronacharya, launched at Jamnagar manufacturing division. Under the programme, a senior person called “Dronacharya” takes under his tutelage 2-3 youngsters – “Arjunas” – and trains them ready to manage independent positions in 3-6 months. This programme has had resounding success with over 1500 “Arjunas” being trained. With the resounding success of this programme, this is now being rolled out to other manufacturing divisions.[8]

Infosys, another biggest software company in India strongly based on youth. It has implemented several programmes to utilize youth power. One of them is Catch Them Young(CTY) CTY is a two-week program that gives school students across India a head start in understanding Information Technology. Top performers in the program get an opportunity to work with our experienced professionals on exciting projects. Since its inception in 1997, CTY has introduced more than 1,000 school students to various facets of IT.[9] Another one to include village students is Project Genesis, it is aimed at addressing the talent requirements of the business process outsourcing industry, by making youth from Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns employable in the IT-enabled Services (ITeS) industry. Genesis includes programs like Train the Trainer and Principal’s Conclave to align curriculum and teaching methodologies at colleges with industry requirements. Started in 2005, Project Genesis has now spread to 407 colleges across five states in India.[10] This is all the success stories of corporate companies. They know they can survive, grow and compete with global power only with youth power. Politician should learn from this corporate success of blending and balancing youth and old in leadership.  There is a common complaint that elites are taken by corporations and junks only come to public service and politics. But it is not true. On the whole corporate professionals count less than 1% of total youth population .The real story is corporate companies are pouring out money in their youth force and make them potential professionals. They understand their potential youth are the backbone and are investing generously upon them to develop their skills is the only way to make their companies stronger.

The global organizations like UN and WCC understand the importance of youth. They came to a conclusion that policy making without youth participation is incomplete. And global policies should reach every youth in order to implement effectively. Consequently, UN every year publishes an exclusive youth edition of Human development report (HDR) prepared by global youth for global youth. World Council of Churches, move further and employs global youth in its head quarter as a staff through its highly competitive internship programme and teach them to become global leader and provide them tools and freedom to learn and grow in the international city of Geneva. These are all examples how organizations investing on people understanding their worth. Indian government as well as all the global political institutions should know the value of youth and help them to be part of politics and policy making.

Youth in politics: re framing the future

It is time to accept youth into the politics and give space to them to make politics very fresh and energetic. They are ready to come in but nobody ready to include them into their fellowship of policy making. First, the government should accept youth in their policy making portal they are the fountain of creativity and empowered with modern technological advancements to do things effectively as well as swiftly. In order to give space to youth, the old politicians should retire when they feel its time. At least Indian politicians should retire at 70. Nepotism should be removed in politics through judicial intervention and should be considered as an offense if it is illogically implemented. For example many of the politicians relatives and children into politics without any commitment, knowledge of politics and so on their only criteria is “leader’s relative”. Because of their entry many of the young visionaries chances have disappeared. Indian government should reserve 25% of election seats to young candidates in order to increase youth participation.

Government and political institutions should invest on youth to develop their capacity as politicians by guiding them though eminent politicians and straight forward statesmen .Political leadership training should be given starting from the school level to the college and the importance of politics and policy making should be taught to the students regularly. Meantime, youth should remove their biases against politics and enter into politics in order to create a better world. The attitude of money making and education for employment (encashment) should be changed and they should understand that life is beyond money. They should understand that the politics is one of the best ways to execute good things to the masses. They should consider public service as a noble one and should not be carried away by consumerism alone. They should be ready to be challenged, sacrificed and speak out; it is the need.

Conclusion

The courageous and committed youth who have passion for positive change are everywhere. Finding them, molding them and letting them in the right place matters. Committed governments as well as the political institutions should undertake this noble duty of mentorship to find, cultivate and fix our youth in policy making and politics will result in a new positive world of possibilities and challenges.   It is not possible without the help of existing politicians and political structures, the present people should generously accommodate these youngsters in order to revive politics. I hope Indian politics will change with more youth representation and will reach every corner of democracy with all its energy, enthusiasm and creativity.

Written on 2^nd February 2009 and posted on 7^th January 2011

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[1]India’s Youth, Business Week Online : October 11, 1999 http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_41/b3650015.htm

[2] http://www.manmohansingh.org/php/showContent.php?linkid=2

[3] http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/content/view/341/256/

[4] http://www.tn.gov.in/tnassembly/mkarunanidhi.htm

[5] Money power, nepotism obstructing youth entry into politics: Rahul New kerala.com, New Delhi, Feb 8 http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-89334.html

[6] India’s Youth, Business Week Online : October 11, 1999 http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_41/b3650015.htm

[7] http://www.ril.com/html/aboutus/human_resource.html

[8] Ibid ,

[9] http://www.infosys.com/investors/reports-filings/annual-report/annual/Infosys-AR-08.pdf

[10]Ibid,

A Call to share what you have

‘The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same”’ (Lk.3:9-11).

It is believed that John the Baptist probably belonged to the Essenes. The Essenes were an ascetic Jewish sect during the times of Jesus. John calls people to return to God. Without more ado, the people pose a question- “what should we do.” That is a sincere response to the divine message, and John explains the way to repent. I would like to highlight two simple things from his teaching of repentance that will nurture our life and faith.

Basic needs should be shared:

Firstly, people ask John what they should do to repent. Immediately he replies that anyone who had two dresses could share with the one who had none, and similarly with those who had more food. Personally speaking, this is an amazing fact! If someone came and said that one has to just share one’s dress and food in order to obtain repentance that would be the greatest joke. Yet here, a prophet says this! What does this mean? Is he trying to minimize repentance to a simple act of sharing?

“Food and dress”-the basic needs of humanity! Food is given by God, but dress is human-made; food is natural, but dress is artificial; yet, both are essential to human life in this world in order to live a life of dignity. Repentance was not a new concept for those people; it was a part of their life and spirituality. However, the teaching of repentance of John the Baptist is new in terms of method. In essence, men who repented tore their tunics (dress), fasted and prayed to God, in order to return to God from their transgression. Here, John the Baptist calls for repentance and asks people to repent sensibly by saying, “Don’t tear the tunics, please share it with the needy and give your food to the needy, rather than just abstaining from food in the name of fasting. For John, real repentance should reflect in one’s action. The same idea is already recorded by Isaiah, pointing that real fasting was to share food to the needy, and not just fasting alone. Also in Luke 19: 1-10, when Zacchaeus says “half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over,” Jesus immediately replies, “Today salvation has come to this house.” It is very important for us to make our spiritual practice relevant to the community needs rather than just remaining isolated.

Sharing should ensure equality:

When we talk about sharing it is very important to think about the proportion, how much we have to share, and how much we have to keep back with ourselves. Our society always teaches us to share what remains after we have filled ourselves sumptuously. In societal point of view our sharing should in no way affect our personal life. However, the Gospel of Luke also known as the “sharing gospel” particularly takes us a step ahead into telling us that sharing should ensure equality and not hierarchy.

Postmodern understanding of charity is negative in terms of justice. The Greco-Roman world was also known for its sharing to the people, carried out in order to fulfill their religious practices. Here, John the Baptist challenges the crowd that the spiritual practice should ensure social justice. If you have two dresses share one; logically taking this into an account, if you share one when you have two, the recipient who receives it also becomes equal to the donor, as both would now have one each. In the Zacchaeus event also, it is very interesting to note that when he said “half” of my positions and “4 times” of repayment he did not talk about charity but justice. How is our sharing? Are we sharing in terms of charity to help a person just for the present, or for justice, which not only reaches one’s need but also gives a new identity and social recognition? Sharing food means making a commitment or relationship between two people not just in terms of subsistence sharing. Christian sharing never subjects people; it enriches their life and empowers their day-to-day experience. Here, John the Baptist calls for a radical generosity in which everything beyond subsistence necessities is vulnerable to the claim of need.

This gives us a clean chit that living in Christological hope does not ignore social concerns but provides the ground for such concerns as well as its motivation. John did not require his followers to follow his typical desert life-style; rather the life of one awaiting the kingdom of God was to be lived out in the world. The ultimate point is that right repentance will show itself in right behavior. When Jesus walked on the earth he never made anybody rich but he called many rich folk to share their wealth with the poor. Jesus knew that it is not socialism or capitalism that controls economics but human hearts and its desire.

Christian life is a life to share what we have: our wealth, knowledge, and above all, our life as our Savior gave life for you and me. May the good Lord give this grace to each one of us. Amen.

*Short transcript of a sermon , preached in UTC chapel,Bangalore .

Taize: Christ and Love. That’s it!

Taize spirituality is the eastern version of the western Christianity which greatly absorbed the ideas of community life, corporate worship and Christ centered theology. Ecumenical in character, inclusive in liturgy and simple in lifestyle. On the whole Taize is trying to reconstruct the whole European Christianity which was in a great search for peace after two cruel world wars through geopel centered “love doctrine”. Though it was started in 1940s after 1950s only people were attracted towards it,according to Taize website. Geographically it is an European movement strategically serve the needs of European countries and its people without any biases. Bro.Roger, the founder of this movement is an outstanding leader and who started and built this community to a larger extent. I think his own efforts to innovate an alternative movement on the basis of gospel values and the doctrine of love ended up in Taize community, however I am very happy that it did not  emerge as an another institution at the beginning itself.

Brother Roger says  “God is love and love alone” , the emphasis on love from a gang of men is amazing however I did not find any way for a women in this society of  compassion and common living. Sometimes it reminds me of Puritans of Briton as well as the Pietist movement of Germany idealogically. However the liturgy uniquelly differentiate Taize from everyone, it’s a mixure of orthodox and catholic liturgy open to every traditions. Throughout my I stay I never come across an old Testament reading or bible meditation from Old testament, that challenged me a great extent and  proved me  living with gospel as well as the doctrine of Christ is possible though they never under estimated or ultimately subjugated Old testament as well as Old testament God.

I met vaiorus youths from throughout the Europe and their search for God is amazing.  Youth  involvement is remarkable in each and every area of this camp site starting from chapel to the wash room.  The religious hierarchy is still on with Taize I feel, though it could be avoidable one. I could not understand Taize community too follow the same monotanous alter table hierarchy. Living away from money and power is really surprising but meanime the pertaining question is whats their ultimate contribution to the larger humanity?

They have their own art expressions and standardisation of symbols which established as a trade mark of Taize. Symbols are expressed though modern art rather than a classical painting. To conclude Taize community has all features to be a church but its not. And all brothers are looking and working like priest  but they are not. Its an unique experimentaion how a simple life in the name Christ in this selfish and broken world is possible and a great extent this spirit of love and simplicity will spread throughout the humanity though the Taize visitors and volunteers. Taize will survive at least for a century since they are living in aloof. However , it would be wonderful if they reach out the larger world through love in action which Bro.Roger professed.

*Written after visiting  the Taize community, France.