“We are a team of ignited young minds trying to bring a change in the system and current political atmosphere.”
From the beginning of this world, as we know it, Change is one thing that has not changed. It is because of those changes, we have evolved from Cave men to modern civilized men and women. We have seen the Industrial revolution of the 18th Century to the Information Technology Revolution in the 21st century today.
What was once a dream for our ancestors, is now a reality for us. We are enjoying pleasant days for the toils and tears of those great men who stood against injustice. All over the world, wherever there were dominant power, there had always been a revolution for change.
We, as young population of India are seeing our nation being exploited by the Politicians. But is it only the politicians who are spoiling the country? Who should take the blame for the Poverty, unemployment and increasing crimes? How can we bring a change in this atmosphere?
To get an answer for these questions we should look back at our mission statement. “To bring a change in the system and current political atmosphere through Youth Power”. Let us look one by one.
What is our current political situation?
We all know about the tragedy in 2012 when a girl was brutally raped and murdered in a running bus in Delhi. In a very unusual way, a vast majority of the country raised voices for this. Even the middle class population which normally do not come out of their comfort zones fought for justice. There were protests from all around the country and it gained a mass media coverage and even a documentary was released in the name “India’s daughter”.
In the same year, 1574 Dalit women were raped as per the records. This is just the number of reported cases and records indicate that only 10% of such cases ever get reported. You can imagine the scale of the crime. Why was this not known to any of us? (I guess they are not India’s daughters) We cannot blame the media. They are just selling the news for money and they would sell what the customers (in this case us, the viewers) want to read/see/know.
Few more facts which would give another perception at our country
· 77% of the Indian population that is 836 million people are living with less than a dollar a day. – Reuters report based on “Conditions of work and promotions of livelihood in the unorganized sector”
· “Forbes: India’s billionaire wealth is much above the country’s fiscal deficit”. Top 100 wealthiest people in India contribute to 25% of our GDP.
All these happened when India overtook Japan as the third largest economy in the world by PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). It is very easy to blame the politicians for such imbalance in the society. But how many of us have been a responsible citizen? As a young pillar of the country what have I done to change this?
Youth Power
India has the largest Youth population in the world. With such a huge dynamic youth population we should have seen tremendous changes and revolution. But the reality is not even close to that. We can attribute several reasons for that. One, more than 75% of our youth population does not have a good understanding about our society. We do not have the intention to see beyond the news that was given to us by the media. We only see the world through the LED screens of our TV, Laptops and smart phones.
Secondly, we are so good in playing the blame game. We have a lot of fire and anger, but we are always manipulated by some or other to use that fire for their personal motives. It has always been a ruling party vs opponent party, and when the side change our fire starts to burn the other way. Any revolution or change brought by Anger is only temporary. All we need is a change in the ideology and perception.
And thirdly, we are so easily addicted and manipulative. We have so many issues surrounding us but we are fighting in social media for our favorite actor. Most of our productive hours are spent on social media which in turn is used to manipulate our emotions and make us just a market. Everything is a troll for us and sarcasm has become a national language of the youth. We should be standing against the injustice in the society but we are standing in front of TASMAC wine shops. Our Patriotism comes only when India is playing cricket (It didn’t come that extent during commonwealth games or the Olympics) or sharing a video about India’s national anthem winning best national anthem.
Most tragic thing is that most of us believe what is shown to us as news. We do not want to see the other side of the story. That is the reason they call us “Unattached”. In other words, we are simply dictated by the media (which is funded by corporates and sometimes owned by them). Our attention span is so short that we change our focus from one issue to another. By us, here I mean most of the youth population.
These criticisms should be duly noted and looked into before we begin our action.
Who are we fighting against?
This is a million dollar question we should be asking ourselves before we go further. Are we just fighting against one political party to bring a change? Or is it all of them? Is it the system today or Government itself?
In movies until recent times, we would see a guy who always breaks the law and does bad to the society. It has been so easy to identify the bad guy. But that is not the case today. We see a Cancer Hospital donated by a corporate giant as a corporate social responsibility. On the other side, he is the one who runs the tobacco business which sends people to that hospital.
We have seen so many catchy slogans during elections on making India as super power or promising economic development. While we were so busy in selecting which one to vote from their fancy ads, 600 villages in Chhattisgarh were vacated by the government using military force. Those lands very given at a cheaper price to a single corporate for extracting bauxite which would be further processed as aluminum and exported to USA and European countries. This aluminum is used to make fighter plans and jets which our government would buy on loan from World Bank to add strength to the military which vacated the villages. Whoever has not vacate their villages are named terrorists and shot at sight. This has been happening for past 2 decades in the central states of India.
Our Government sells 1 liter of Mineral water at Rs.10 to the common man which might seem a generous price compared to the market rate. It is the same government which sells 1000 liters of water at just Rs.16 to a multinational beverage company. This is not particular to any government. Even the states ruled by communists are facing similar conditions.
Any ideal government or leader people argue about (Like Kamaraj in TamilNadu) have existed before the 90’s, before the Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization to be specific. Experts suggested that it is the only means of development. But even after 2 decades, our condition is remaining the same. At this point of time, even if Kamaraj is the CM of TamilNadu, the situation would be the same. We have privatized our profit making public sectors. This has led to accumulation of wealth in fewer hands. For those who still argue that Privatization is the only way to bring good governance, privatization of railways in the UK has been termed as a “Great robbery” as billions of pounds were looted by corporates.
If we are trying to bring a change in the system, the first thing that we need to understand is that the system itself is polluted. Laws have been changed to help the people who loot the wealth of the nation and there is not enough awareness among us to raise voice for. Crime has been legalized now.
Our Approach:
Our go forward approach should be formed on the basis of a strong social understanding and political maturity. We should start acting on those which we intend to do after coming to power. In a political word, where people ask for votes and then promise change, we would do Good to the society and let the people decide the votes.
Here are some of suggestions on the approach we could follow. This is open for debates and discussions.
First, we would establish different functional wings inside the organization with a common goal – "Change for good". Here are a few examples:
· Agricultural Wing
· Women and Children Wing
· Labour Wing
· Social Awareness Wing
· Village Upliftment Wing
· Students Wing
· Media and Communications Wing
· Legal Wing
Each of this wing would have a short term goal for one year and a well drafted five year plan. The need for these wings would be identified from the society. People who are interested in any particular area or their specialization could choose a wing and contribute their service. Once we become to power, these wings would become advisories to the respective department.
For example, friends who have knowledge and interest in agriculture would be part of the agricultural wing. We would understanding the farming population and come up with a plan. We could give a voice for their concerns. By the time we come to power, this wing would know the pains of those people and they would be in a position to solve them. Even if we do not make it to the power, we could still bring change and awareness through these wings.
If we could build a structure like this and make use of this very well, we would be able to bring good governance outside of the system. This has its own challenges as well. That is the reason we should have our own legal and media wings. There are thousands of issues and problems going unnoticed. We could bring them out to the world at the least.
Party Operations:
Apart from the Functional wings, we would need some internal wings for running the party smoothly.
o Public relations
o General Administration & Grievance
o Mentors
The General Administration team would take care of the governance and manage the other wings on the whole. This team would be responsible for holding elections within the party to select the leadership. Let us practice democracy from our home (Party).
Funding – At first we could start with our own funds or support from friends and family. But to make us even bigger, we would need support from the people. This would impose a responsibility upon us to answer them for our actions. We will make sure that our party comes under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
In short, we are sowing seeds now for a bigger change tomorrow.
Our Immediate Actions:
In order to bring a mass change in the society we need lot of like-minded young people. First we need our Media and communications wing to promote our ideology and recruit youth.
- We should identify the different wings that we would need now so that the newly joining members can select their area of service.
- Within the next 3 months, we should come up with the short term plan for the year for each wing and a 5 year plan as well.
- Party registration process should simultaneously. Our Legal wing would be taking care of the same.
- Collect a list of issues/problems as much as possible through our different functional wings.
- Each member of the party should take a pledge that we will be the change we want to see in the society.
- Reach as much as people as possible.
Educate ! Organize ! Agitate!
கற்பி ! ஒன்று சேர் ! புரட்சி செய்!
No comments:
Post a Comment