The recent fiasco with Narendra Modi and Wharton Business School, got me thinking, when was the last time an Indian leader or politician visited a local college or University and got talking with India’s youth?
Last year Arun Jaitley, one of our best speakers in the parliament today, flew down to New York to talk at Columbia University, along with a motley bunch of other politicians, but try inviting him or any other politician, across party lines, to speak at an University in India and you’ll realize, our leaders have no time for us.
We oft hear our politicians talking about the greatness of India lies in its youth, how the youth which comprise such a large part of the population is the future of this nation and all of that, but I don’t see any active measures being taken by our politicians save for a few to actually interact with this youth, find out their aspirations, interact with them and understand what the youth really wants. You want India’s youth to come out vote? Build a connection with them. India’s youth won’t care about voting and getting you into power, if you behave like we don’t exist. Power doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We are your largest constituency today.
The odd time, when a politician does speak to University kids, its in Delhi. It’s like the rest of India doesn’t actually exist. When was the last time you had a national leader hang with college kids in Chennai? Hyderabad? Or even Mumbai? I can’t for the life of me recall. Look at Obama, he goes and hangs out in schools with high school kids, kindergarten kids and others.The only time I’ve seen my wax like prime minister with kids, is when he posing with award winners for a photograph, in Delhi. The look on his face screams “I’m bored, let’s get done with this” and there’s surely no camaraderie he shares with those children, or at least none that comes across to the citizens in those pictures.
So dear politicians of this great nation, we’d like you to come, talk to us, figure out what we want, build a rapport and there’s a good chance, you’ll get our votes if you can do that. Narendra Modi’s speech at SRCC was a good start, but really I’d like other politicians and leaders across party lines to come visit us in other parts of India and talk to us. We’d like to hear you, and we’d really like for you to hear us.
After all, we vote for you, not students at Wharton, Yale or Columbia :)
Update : March 4th 16:35PM A professor at University of Hyderabad, a premier central university just mentioned that in 2010, an invitation was sent out to the likes of Shashi Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi etc, and none of the leaders responded. Interesting ain't it?
The views expressed here are personal and not of the newspaper.
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