Sorry Hindu, you got this one wrong!!

I have always been a fan and an avid reader of the The Hindu. It is perhaps the only news source that seems to protect my sanity in times like these. I’d be exaggerating if I say that I read the entire thing but yes, I make it a point that I go through the entire paper and make sure I read all news that make sense to me and yeah the su-do-ku too. Also, their recent media campaigns taking a dig at a rival making them look stupid are things that I thoroughly enjoyed that and when they came out with yet another video recently, I was sure it is going to be impressive. To be entirely fair, my initial reaction was like

“Hahaha… you always know how to do this Hindu.”

I even shared the link on my Facebook profile. But it took time for me to realize that it was not at all what it seemed to be and indeed, Hindu missed it this time.

In case you haven’t watched the video, here it is: Click Here

(As this is a free blog, I cannot share videos directly, so just use the link)

The video shows a bunch of college students displaying their “parliamentary” behavior in the classroom. While this seems funny and appears to have made a point, all that it has done is project the Indian politician in a bad light. More importantly, it gave an opportunity of an average Indian youth (like always) to escape the light and not take responsibility for his/her actions. There is no denying that youth at times can turn violent and display actions as such, but we should honestly ask ourselves if that have anything to do with the actions of the members of the parliament? Should they be blamed and targeted for things that we do? We need to discuss more.

But we do fight don’t we? We fight when there is a collision of vehicles even when it’s just a tiny scratch. We raise our voice if the waiter gets our order wrong. We tend to offend people of other religions and caste when they do the same to us. We protest out of love for the region that we live in. We argue supporting our favorite film actor. We plan on taking revenge when a beloved person cheats on us. But do we plan on taking responsibility? I guess not. Does this behavior have anything to do with what we (might) have learnt by watching the Parliamentary sessions? Firstly, do we ever watch the Parliamentary sessions? Something to think about.

How many of us have sufficient knowledge on the politics of our country, at least to have an opinion on an issue? By opinion, I mean something that you can stand for after the prejudice subsides and rationality uncovers. Do we properly know how many seats are there in the LokSabha? Do we know how many people gets elected to the Parliament (both the houses) from our state? It is very good if you do but if you don’t, I know this idea can very well be refuted by an argument that not everyone knows the political structure and I have nothing to say to you. However, I do agree that it is healthy in a democracy to have criticism and more importantly it is necessary in a sad world to have a good sense of humor for laughing at others and at ourselves too. But where do we stop and judge. For example, we make so many jokes about the Prime Minister being silent all the time and never opening his mouth. But did we listen when he gave an elaborate explanation in the parliament regarding the coal block allocations?  Not many I suppose. Just because a national leader is not outspoken doesn’t necessarily mean that he/she is inefficient.

Just to make it clear, I am not supporting anybody here. After watching what The Hindu wanted to show, I felt kind of bad for the Indian politician. After all, he/she is elected through a democratic process and more importantly, he is called a “representative” for a reason. One may argue stating the malfunctions in the electoral procedures but one cannot deny completely that at the end of the day, those selected group of individuals are sitting in the Loksabha because all the eligible people of this country elected them by procedures prescribed by the constitution. So, if there is anybody to take the blame, it is the people. More importantly, isn’t there a need to ask ourselves whether we have the moral right to criticize them?? If there is anything we can do, we should vote them out of power.

The general notion that all politicians are evil is not at all healthy in a democratic country. Over the decades, this idea has become stronger thanks to every movie where a politician is the villain and every one fighting against him is the hero. This is the same reason why Aseem Trivedi (a YOUTH mind you) was projected as hero when he insulted our national emblem while “fighting” against corruption. While it is understandable that he did not take into consideration the history of the symbol and what it stood for, what did he do with the popularity he got? He tried his luck in the Big Boss-6 reality show. That is why, rallying behind anybody who seem to be against the “system” is not a good idea.

In a nutshell, all I wanted to say is, while trying to send a message to the political leaders of the country through a media campaign, The Hindu forgot that it is the youth that needs to be addressed and not just the politicians. The campaign would’ve made more sense if it was “Youth of the nation, Behave yourselves- You are the future.” And as for the campaign itself, though your idea of taking care of the youth is appreciable, it is not correct to blame the Parliamentarians and Sorry Hindu, you got his one wrong.

P.s. In case you didn’t notice, I considered myself a youth here and I hope there is nothing wrong in that. 😛