Thanks to Rajiv Gandhi, Indian citizens having attained 18 are entitled to be voters. The largest number of voters the country are from the youth brigade. The scenario in Odisha is also similar. But instead of a regeneration and reform of the socio-political system, conditioned by the needs and future of the youth, we now have a disoriented mass of youth power. They are poached upon by different political parties for sub-serving their limited and, very often, unethical needs.
The young, as they grow up, have no personality to inspire and guide them as an “ideal”. They see around them the capabilities of money power. They experience at their own cost how the declining and degenerating socio-political system uses them as tools for achieving the improper needs of amassing money and power. Nearer home in Odisha, they have been watching yesterday’s nobody to have suddenly become rich and influential somebody of today. The means adopted for this are also known to the youth to be unethical, improper and contrary to the interests of the youth itself. In a disoriented condition, they run behind persons in power with the hope of getting some benefits for themselves. If opportunity comes, they enrich themselves to become another reincarnation of the persons who are controlling them. This has a negative snowballing effect, and we provide no benefit to the society but enrich the exploiter. Scam after scam tends to convince the youth that being a scamster is also a way of life and it gives you a clout of political power, if you know how to misuse the ill-gotten wealth for further enriching yourself in a wider sense. They start thinking of newer ways of amassing wealth at public cost. Whether at the Assembly or Parliamentary constituency level or at the State level or at the national level, the malady is spreading its tentacles. It is accepted as a pattern of life that democracy dishes out to people.
The international scenario is no better if the high and mighty of the every State or country is now not only in Swiss papers but also in Panama papers. leaders of any activity of the society though looking very strong in external terms are also found to have feet of clay. One has to be analytical of the prevalent pattern of the society we are trying to engulf the youth into. Gullible as they are, the youth are enamoured by the glamour and glitter of power and money chasing the mirage of good and comfortable life. We are inspiring the younger generation to be of a worse nature than we have been in value terms and in real terms. Criminalisation of youth has reached its zenith. We have already distorted the next generation, and the trend seems to be for further continuous degeneration. This should ring an alarm bell.
let the youth dream of a Government of the youth, for the youth and by the youth. There has to be resurgence and regeneration of the youth power to frontally challenge the disturbing decline in the values and ethics that condition our society. The trend demands a reversal of gears. To enable this, the leadership must necessarily emerge from amongst the youth. No doubt, they would be inspired and guided by some elders. This will call for a big sacrifice by the elder exploiters as they would not like to lose their vice-like grip.
A tsunami of youth power should wash away some of the so-called leaders who parade the stages for huge garlands and massive ovations, while stacking up their ill-gotten resources in newer and newer methods of aggrandisement. From the time a student leader is financed by political parties or persons to win an election of the college or university union, the poison stands injected. The poison has already saturated and made them toys in the hands of the rich, greedy and powerful. The youth do not realise the machinations in which their future has been doomed. At best, they will turn out to be worse than what the so-called elders are.
One should not sound pessimistic. Majority decision-making has not always been rational. To undo the tyranny of majority and the tyranny of status quo, a volcanic movement is bound to emerge as the molten lava is boiling under the ground and in the belly of many, who still remain sane among the youth. When this youth upsurge takes place for a better tomorrow, there will be many to sabotage it. But the planning in advance should be directed towards fighting out with a zeal and mission. A beginning could be made in our Odisha, which is already sufficiently criminalised, power-dominated and rich-controlled. The State has a dubious distinction of having no educational institution in the list of top institutions in the country. We are endowed with non-renewable natural resources with a built-in advantage. We have the potentials of non-polluting renewable sources of energy. We have already done lot of propaganda coupled with debasement of the rural and urban society. The youth should now forget looking at political parties. They are a force by themselves; their future lies with the State. let them not be subjected to exploitation by the high mighty. let them organise themselves as a force to acquire power with preannounced prioritised goals of structural changes of fundamental nature. They should be reminded of Gandhiji’s saying, “There is enough for everybody’s need, but there is not enough for everybody’s greed.” let the greed-based society, culturally and in value terms, convert itself into a need-based society. It is very often commented by the haves that there should be a qualification of education and wealth for electoral offices. let there be a dramatic change of disqualifying some of the presiding deities out of the domain of electoral politics. let there by a movement to ostracise the ones who have eaten into the vitals of the socio-political structure. These ideas can be styled as a rebellion. But at the same time, we should not forget that acquiescing into the present downhill trend is a crime against society. The question that worries one is whether there are elements in youth power to respond to such calls or are they all of the same herd mentality so as to flock together and dance to the tune of the masters. let the immense potential of the overwhelming youth power bring a new dawn so as to cause a reemergence of leadership to rebuild our society in quality terms. Prosperity bereft of principles is as immoral as any human behaviour without any ethics. While many of us raise this issue at different places, the reactions of a dominant section of the youth are very encouraging and need to be nourished and guided towards providing a new class of leadership. This would necessarily involve all of us because this calls for an upheaval in an otherwise morbid or moribund society. let us roar out this thought with the hope of its reaching the right ears and to thunderously resound so as to bring the youth under one banner for our State and our nation. This appears to be a need of the hour. And, this certainly concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)