Why are today’s youth least interested in Politics and how to solve this problem
India has the largest youth population in the world and most of them are least interested in Indian politics. They seem to be indifferent to any news or information pertaining to politics and consider it a waste of time. This is a worrying fact as this would mean that the largest democracy will have a very large percentage of its population having a vague, or worst, absolutely no clue of whom they should be voting for. They end up voting purely on baseless propaganda and claims, thus taking things on face value without fact checking anything, and we know how that turned out for the Americans.
Thanks to technology, access to any information has become so easy that it is leading to “Information overload”. However, the downside to this is that nobody fact-checks anything and blindly shares it. The higher the melodrama in the news, the better it’s chances of getting viral. In summation, generation “Y” has simply forgotten to ask why.
Who is to blame and how can we solve the issue?
There are 3 major root causes for this. The first one is parenting. During my childhood, my dad, a diehard communist from Kerala, a state in southern India, used to discuss his ideologies and his respect for E.M.S. Namboodripad with his friends. These conversation, though gibberish to me in the beginning, started making sense with age and fuelled in me the inquisitiveness to learn more about communism, the CMP party in Kerala and ultimately an interest in Indian politics at large.
On the same lines today’s parents need to involve their kids more in conversations and encourage them to express their opinion. Having no opinion is as good as being ignorant. Unfortunately, thanks to social media our opinions about almost everything has dribbled down to single words; “awesome”, “fun”, “cool”, “wow” and the worst of the lot “interesting”. What IS the meaning of “interesting” (Ref. Captain Fantastic), it means nothing. Having dinner time conversations on socially relevant issues will not only make them socially aware but encourage them to have an opinion. Informal debates can teach children to agree to disagree, a skill many of us struggle with even in our day to day work-life.
The second problem is unfortunately the political scenario in India. During the days of the Indian independence struggle politicians were not just leaders but heroes to whom people of all ages looked up to. These leaders won the trust and loyalty of the masses and could make people do anything for them on their beck and call. However today’s politicians have lost that trust and loyalty due to corruption, caste politics, hate mongering and lack of basic political etiquette. The image that most politicians have are of illiterate hooligans who come to power not to serve the people but to sever themselves. Even if a good politician does exist, he/ she hardly resonates with today’s generation due to the vast communication gap. Social media has proven to be as important as rallies and tours for political campaigning. Testimony to this is the current BJP government, whose monumental win was also attributed to its very effective social media campaign.
Today one can see cabinet ministers who are extremely active on social media. Activity updates, policy announcements and expression of opinions have been primarily through this medium thus maximising reach, visibility and transparency. PM Modi’s strong message through multiple mediums has managed to inspire the youth and win their loyalty to such an extent that the government was confident enough to implement something as staggering as demonetisation, a move many political pundits called out to be political suicide.
The third and perhaps the most important is the existence of satires. Satires, from time immemorial have been very good tools that have helped people to start thinking and not get carried away by ill intended rhetoric. Be it Plato’s Republic, or Orwell's animal farm and nineteen eighty four, these works of literature have always managed to make us sit up and start thinking about our thought process and interpretation of the everyday world. Presenting the politics of our day via satires will not only be an entertaining way of communication of information to todays generation but will also make them think. Munshi a 3 min sketch that used to be aired before the 7:30pm news on Asianet, a malayalam cable channel, is a very good example. In my childhood days, I remember often waiting eagerly to watch Munshi but avoiding the daily news as I found it too boring. Many such shows have come up (AIB’s On air with AIB being one worth noting) and more need to be promoted.
At the end of the it is only in the hands of the people to empower themselves and those around them. Inform your peers about the state of politics in the country, make it a subject of your lunch conversation in office or chillout sessions at home. Irrespective of the outcome of these sessions, ensure that people around you have an opinion because not having an opinion is as good as being ignorant and ignorance is what what separates democracy from anarchy.
