Straight bat: Seats just don't drop from heaven

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If the young were once too immature to stand for elections, soon they will be too old for it. This is the plight of Youth Congress leaders, who used to get waylaid by the old guards in Congress in successive elections.

Soon many of these leaders will hit the upper age limit of 35 years and be no more youth. This Assembly election is a do-or-die battle for them because if they miss out this time, they will invariably be in the next league for competitions.
Which is why the YC leaders shot off an SOS to the high command in one last attempt, demanding that the veterans be told to give way.

The plight of today’s youth leaders is a far cry from the days of Mr Vayalar Ravi, Mr A K Antony and Mr Oommen Chandy, who took on entrenched leaders in an organizational tussle. They were the game-changers. Under the banner of Kerala Students Union, Mr Antony led the popular agitation against the ferry fare hike, known as “Oru Anna Samaram”, in Cherthala.

They did not have to hanker after Assembly seats as they had emerged politically strong through popular agitations. Later, Mr Antony took the fight out of Kerala, by criticizing Sanjay Gandhi’s role during the Emergency at the AICC session in Guwahati in 1976.

If Congress afforded a free forum for such individual flourishes, the cadre-based CPM made it too difficult for any such adventurism. Though the SFI and DYFI have functional autonomy, the cadre were always under the gaze of the party seniors.

Politburo member M A Baby, former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac and former SFI State president Suresh Kurup were picked up for important organizational responsibilities or drafted for parliamentary work quite early on in their younger days.

But those were days without TV channels and social media. The youth, who have fire in their belly, the imagination and proactive attitude would loft themselves to leadership, like in the case of the JNU student leader, Kanaihya Kumar. Before him, HCU student Rohith Vemula wasn’t destined to stay on to carry on his idealistic fight for the rights of Dalits. But he set the fire raging against rightwing politics.

The matrix of politics and mass agitations has changed. Those who exploit resources of modern communication will make the cut. The youth, whether it be in Congress or the Left, have to invent newer algorithms to come out of the shadows of their so-called indispensable seniors. The big challenge is to ignite the imagination of the youth, who have values and aspirations.