In the coming Lok Sabha election we have a country where almost seventy percent of the total population is under the age of twenty-five. This is the new generation which has only read about national movement for independence in schoolbooks and for them Nehruvian era is just nostalgia. For the new generation apart from nationalism everything else related to that ear seems old-fashioned.
Different parties – different politics
In politics we see many changes now with Congress becoming inefficient and not considered national unifier with lack of any intent or interest and just has its family legacy to show. We also see some reinvention going on in politics with parties like AAP trying to usher in major changes in governance.
If we compare BJP and AAP, we find that BJP is now a grown and mature party, which is putting in all the effort to win the elections and create government at the center while AAP is still growing and trying to develop as a national level party.
Negatives in Politics
The new generation is also witnessing some negatives with politicians such as Narendra Modi of BJP making institutional structure of BJP look very archaic. Modi’s political campaign gives us a feeling that his presidential style is not what Advani and Jaswant Singh are used to.
Change in ideologies
The ideologies in politics have also changed over time with it becoming more intolerant. Earlier, politicians used to be rivals and not enemies and quite a few politicians used to be friends outside of politics but this is not so anymore. The same thing is noticed in media during political debates.
We see a witch-hunt for people media finds politically incorrect and society supports such media behavior by marking them as sedition.
Neglected issues
In current Lok Sabha election campaigns, we do not see any mention of issues such as farmer suicides, soil deterioration and agriculture’s fate. The marginals of the community are almost neglected but if democracy has to succeed then it is important that any social activity include them. Additionally, there is no mention on unemployment or inflation in most of the political campaigns.
Thus, this election is mix of surprises and disappointments. It is now to be seen which way the new generation of India will go. There are anticipations and expectations that the political scenario in the country is going to change with this election, but what will happen in actuality remains to be seen.
