Young leaders in politics ? Look beyond the Congress and see 

Importance of youth can scarcely be understated, especially in a country like India which is demographically young. Therefore, looking for young political leaders in politics is not unusual. What is unusual, however, is the tendency to single out one party for allegedly sidelining ‘young’ leaders. Pointing fingers at one party alone does not appear to be fair. Politics in India is not confined to the Congress and the BJP; there are dozens of other parties—some with the BJP and some in the Opposition. And a rough scan would show that about the only ‘youth’ in their ranks are dynasts.

Politics in UP has largely revolved round Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, BJP and the Congress. Outside the family of Akhilesh Yadav who are the other youth leaders in the Samajwadi Party? Ask anyone to name one ‘youth’ leader of note in the Bahujan Samaj Party. Interestingly, the BSP chief Mayawati had declared that a nephew of hers would take up the duty of running the party. He is rarely seen or heard. In Bihar, one of the two sons of Lalu Yadav virtually runs the RJD single-handedly with no known youthful face of any prominence.

BJP is said to be popular with the youth in the country and it also claims to have many young leaders within the party. But how many of them are being groomed to take over the reins of the party and the states? The ‘young’ chief ministers of the BJP face no rivals within the party because none is being pushed to replace them. Those who argue that India needs ‘young’ leaders should also educate the public about the real state of youthful leaders in other parties, particularly the BJP

In May 2014, Narendra Modi was hailed as a ‘young’ leader when he was 64 years old. He was ‘young’ only relative to the man who was supposed to have become the BJP prime minister, L.K. Advani. Advani has now crossed his 90th year.

There were leaders in the BJP who were much younger than Modi and certainly endowed with better intellect. Sections of the media had projected at least two of them as BJP candidates worthy of consideration for the top post in the country. But the BJP projected itself as a party of the young and dispatched leaders older to Modi in the party to the BJP created Siberia called ‘Marg Darshak Mandal’.

In recent weeks Congress has been accused of sidelining the young, the talented and the ambitious. The narrative in the media has been that the Grand, Old Party discourages the talent of its young leadership. Jyotiraditya Scindia, a fresh defector to the BJP from the Congress, led the accusation from the BJP to which many ‘liberal’ observers and commentators, not to mention newspaper editorials, have gleefully lent their support.

‘Liberals’ are known to be fiercely opposed to the saffron ideology which is bent upon creating an illiberal and unrecognisable India. But it is strange that--rather like the BJP-- many of the ‘liberals’ are so eager to trash the Congress, particularly the Nehru-Gandhi family, at the first available opportunity. It would appear that for many of them the priority is to keep the Congress out of power rather than work to dismantle the dangerous edifice of hate built by the Modi-led government in less than six years.

Some in the media have taken their notions of fairness a little too far. They may have condemned attacks on the media and its emasculation by the current regime but have shied away from the more pressing need to run a relentless and sustained campaign on the government’s pursuit of its dubious agenda of Hindutva and fascism.

Journalists have been arrested not only on frivolous charges but have been slapped with serious charges like sedition. Critics of the government, including pregnant women, have been arrested for protesting even when they were nowhere near the protest site. Can this kind of situation be fought if an Opposition leader or his party is to be criticised by questioning the timing of his critique?

The question of a party leader’s place in the Congress is a matter for the party and its members to decide. But it does strike odd that large sections of the media seek Rahul Gandhi’s abdication from politics, ostensibly because the Congress has lost two elections under his watch. But how many consecutive elections did the BJP lose before it galloped to power on the basis of Advani’s Rath Yatra which had left a trail of blood in the country? At one time the BJP had only two members in the Lok Sabha. But Lal Krishna Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee would take turns to occupy the post of party president, irrespective of the party’s show at the hustings.

It is no secret that the BJP topples elected government by luring members with the help of money and misuse of power. Breakdown of moral values has made elected members greedy and look for opportunities to amass wealth by any means. Ideological commitment has become an obsolete word. If defection makes it possible for a member to fill his or her coffer so be it. The president of a party or any other functionary cannot prevent the bolting of these horses.

It may not be wrong to say that other than the Congress no other party has been consistently raising voices against the present regime. It does not amount to holding a brief for Rahul Gandhi to say that he has appeared to be the only Opposition leader consistent in seriously questioning the Modi government. He has ‘dared’ to question the government on the situation on the Ladakh border. The government has done its best to mislead the nation and hide the truth.

But he has been criticised not only by the ruling party but the media for his ‘unpatriotic’ act of questioning the government on border incursions. In fact, barring a handful of defence experts and a few retired Generals, the country has swallowed the half-truths dished out by government through its ‘sources’ on the Chinese incursions.

If the people in this country—in the civil society, media or elsewhere—believe that the country is being steered in a wrong and dangerous direction, they need to speak up almost on a daily basis. But the relentless criticism of the opposition and the Congress and incessant fault finding by the media and allegedly liberal sections appear not just misplaced but also motivated.

Views expressed are personal and not that of National Herald