Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh interacted with the students of Sri Ram College of Commerce on Friday and talked about the present day perception of politics.
Singh regretted the “negative perception’ about politics in the country and said the NDA Government was working to change it.
“The perception about politics has changed over the years. The youth today thinks that the meaning of politics is cheating, telling lies, misleading and backstabbing...But this is not the aim of politics,” he said while addressing the students.
He said the NDA Government was working to establish its relevance again and that “right approach and ideology” was key between “performing and non-performing” assets.
“The word politics has lost its meaning and its relevance today but I want to appeal to the youth to be positive and assure you that our government is working to establish the same meaning and relevance again,” he said.
Quoting analysis of similarities between tech-giant Infosys and Al-Qaeda by Pulitzer awardee Thomas Friedman, the Home Minister said while one is boon, the other is a bane for society.
“One will be surprised to know the similarities between Al-Qaeda and Infosys. Both have global network, talented and creative youth and both were established during the same time frame but while Infosys symbolises creative talent, Al-Qaeda symbolises destructive capability,” he said.
“Similarly, having talent and knowledge is important but having the right approach and ideology is what differentiates between performing and non performing assets.”
Singh said youths are an asset for India and all they need is an opportunity to perform. “In our over one-and-half-year-long tenure so far, the Government has formulated many schemes to give those opportunities but we fear that the youth should not turn into a non-performing asset for our country and society,” he said.
“India is the country that has always considered its neighbours as its family. So, we do not want to be the superpower next to whom others feel afraid of standing, we want to take everyone together,” he added.
The Minister, who was participating at the 4th SRCC Youth Conference, said Indian youths today think that science and technology are key to everything and consider other countries as superior to them.
“Other countries might have all the knowledge, but India has all the fundamentals. We have always valued knowledge backed by culture and traditional values,” he said.
“Decades ago, when Swami Vivekananda was addressing a conclave in Chicago, his traditional dress had raised eyebrows to which he had responded that in your country tailor makes a man and in our country character makes a man. We should not forget the same even today,” he added.