India
Urging youngsters to join the public life, Patra said, "There is a famous saying -- if good people are not ready to be part of politics, then they should be ready to be ruled by the bad ones"
New Delhi: The BJP, Congress, and the AAP Saturday asked the youth to shun the notion that politics is a "dirty job" and appealed to them to join the public life to take the country forward.
The parties' spokespersons -- Sambit Patra (BJP), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Congress) and Raghav Chadha (AAP) -- said this during the inaugural session of India Today Mind Rocks Youth Summit here.
Urging youngsters to join the public life, Patra said, "There is a famous saying -- if good people are not ready to be part of politics, then they should be ready to be ruled by the bad ones."
He said the energy Prime Minister Narendra Modi exudes has been able to attract youngsters.
Chaturvedi said youths should "connect with politics if they want politicians to speak their language".
She said every politician should be a role model for the youth and should be able to fulfil their aspirations and that's what the Congress would be focusing on in times to come.
Chadha said, "Traditionally, families want a lucrative, standard, conventional career for their children such as medicine, engineering, and chartered accountancy. They usually think that politics is dirty work."
He said, "Sixty-five per cent of India's population is aged below 35. In 2020, the average age in India will be 29. Therefore, it is important for the youth of India to step up and participate in politics."
On dynastic politics, Patra of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said, "It did not allow people like you and me to enter the mainstream politics for years. One of the biggest deterrents to development politics is dynastic politics."
He said Congress leaders started treating Rahul Gandhi as the future president of the party the day he was born and "this defines dynastic politics".
"BJP chief Amit Shah had a humble beginning. He used to put up posters before he joined the BJP. This is how he became the party president," Patra said.
Citing the example of Narendra Modi, he told the audience that any one of them could become India's prime minister.
"When a 'chaiwala' can become prime minister, any one of you in this hall can become the prime minister of the country. This is the core of the BJP's policy," Patra said.
Chaturvedi said, "Narendra Modi is not the only prime minister who rose through the ranks. There were Congress leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri and Manmohan Singh who had humble beginnings and went onto becoming prime minister," she said.
Chadha said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has always opposed dynastic politics and its constitution says "only one member from a family can contest elections on its ticket ever".
He said his party gives an opportunity to younger people. To drive his point home, he said he was made the AAP's national spokesperson when he was just 25 years old.
"There are some elite families that rule the roost. These families have captured and dominated Indian politics for a very long time. There are entry barriers. If youths want to join the BJP or the Congress, they cannot because they will need a political godfather, money, muscle and media power," he alleged.
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