Yesterday my friends and I were returning from a batchmate’s marriage. It was a four hour drive to and four hour drive back! So obviously we had a lot of time to kill. :)

On our way back, in order to keep people awake, alive and discussing, I brought up the topic of politics. It is a very touchy topic for all youngsters like me. I have never voted in my life, never taken a voters card. Hell, the fact is, I don’t even know how to! I don’t know if I am eligible or not to vote from where I stay as my permanent address is elsewhere. I have absolutely no clue and I am sure my friends are just as clueless or more clueless than I am!

I guess when it comes to being apathetic, this nation’s youth are the most apathetic to politics I know of. None of the people from any premier institute have shown any inclination to do anything about the political system. Most of us have no clue how the nation’s administration works, how the judiciary wors or for that matter how the electorate works. I don’t think I know any politician in our state apart from the CM and the opposition leader (thanks to TV!) otherwise I would not even know that.

I think the answer to: Why is it so is fairly simple:- The youth of this nation have not had to deal with any national emergency, no major wars which affected the entire country and more importantly, they are all most economically well off. For those who are not, they are struggling to make ends meet – so politics is out of the question. Even the few who are cued in on what is happening, who’s who and what not are just passive onlookers. We are all watching the great Indian Political Circus! No one really wants to do anything significant about it. I guess the main reason is that Politics doesn’t really pinch you – doesn’t affect your daily bread and butter. The only time the youth of this nation get a bit agitated is when there is a clampdown on “the internet” or there are sanctions on premiere institutes like the IIMs.

In the recent past, we have rarely seen any student movement worth mentioning. We have rarely seen any real political change brought on by the students! Unlike other nations where when students go on a protest, the center sits up and bites their nails, our nation is one where the police whip out their lathis!

I was also arguing that none of the premiere institutes in this country has any students who are aware, let alone know how to contribute. Someone mentioned the fact about some IIT junta starting a political party. What makes a bunch of engineers capable to run a nation? What understanding do they have of the system? Who says leadership should be coming from there?

I believe that leaders should be coming from where people really know what is happening – at the grass roots levels, and know what kind of macro policies need to be in place to ensure local implementation! We need the people doing Civics, economics, Political sciences, Commerce etc. to step up.  We need colleges that impart great knowledge in these fields as they are going to affect the very fabric of our nation quite a lot!

In advanced nations people study to become speech writers and campaign managers! These guys are definitely not engineers or MBAs or doctors! They are more often than not, arts or political sciences students.

I guess the question of this post – who should be running the country? is not an easy one to answer. After all India is a huge nation of a billion plus and growing fast! The current set of politicans are those that emerged out of the system in the 70s and 80s when might was right… People with a criminal history, people with no education, people with little or no understanding of how the political system works. Education ministers in certain states have never taken education seriously for themselves – are they the ones who would for the rest of people? The current situation is driven more by globalization and economics! We have moved from Might is Right to Money Matters Majorly!

I suppose this post is going to end with more questions. Perhaps in a later post I can address some of the questions and think of a few things we can start doing immediately to change the scenario! There is a lot of things wrong with the political system starting from the basic question of who should be in it – who should be running the nation? Let’s see if we can address each of them.