Why I have little faith in India's youth
In the recent Delhi University Students Union election, the RSS backed Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad won 3 out of the 4 posts. Everyone knows that RSS is a communal organisation, and so the result of this election is an indication that most of our youth has become communal or casteist in nature.
In the JNU Students Union elections no doubt the left wins most of the posts. But what kind of "revolutionaries" these are can be seen from the fact that recently it was announced that Kanhaiya Kumar, former president of JNUSU, is going to contest the Lok Sabha election from Begusarai. And no doubt that other great "revolutionary" Shehla Rashid will also soon enter politics and become an MP or MLA, and later perhaps even a Minister, like many of her illustrious predecessors at JNU.
Many people say that the youth are our only hope. That could have been so had our youth been genuinely patriotic and with scientific minds. But I have hardly come across youth of that kind. Once I went to JNU and found a group of young boys and girls shouting "halla bol, halla bol" outside the VC's office. I suppose all these "revolutionary" youth can do is shout "halla bol" and "azadi".
They are emotional, but they have no scientific solutions to the country's problems. That is why I have little faith in them. And it was young people, not elders, who lynched Akhlaque, Pehlu Khan and Rakbar Khan.
When the Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani was killed, the JNU student Umar Khalid reportedly declared him as another Che Guevara.
But Che Guevara had a certain modern ideology. What was the ideology of Burhan Wani (and of other Kashmiri militants )? It was ( and is ) Islamic fundamentalism. So even assuming the militants win and Kashmir becomes azad, what will be the outcome? What will Kashmir become? It will go back into the dark middle ages, sharia law will be imposed, women forced to wear the burqa and stoned to death for adultery.
Moreover, before issuing such a statement, did Umar Khalid even care to know a bit more of the 'foco' theory of Che Guevara? According to this theory, even if an objective revolutionary situation has not arisen in a country, it can be created by a handful of people.
This was nothing but the old Narodnik theory of pre-revolutionary immature and impatient idealists in Russia, and it was the same petty bourgeois adventurist theory which led to the debacle and fiasco in Bolivia in 1968 in which Che himself perished.
Just because revolution was successful in Cuba in 2 years ( because of some specific conditions in that country ) Che reckoned that everywhere a similar victory could be achieved quickly. But did Umar Khalid care to inquire about all this? I doubt it.
So I am sorry to say but I have little faith in Indian youth. Most of them are simple careerists, and once they get a cushy job as an IAS or PCS or police officer, or as a business executive in some firm, or as a teacher, or they become a lawyer etc their revolution will be over. Many will join politics and become crooked like most of our politicians.