Straight bat: Youth across parties, unite

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: What the Marxist ideologue, E M S Namboodiripad, had advocated decades ago rings true this election, too. While remaining fully committed to his party and ideology, Namboodiripad radically suggested a single organization each for youths, students, farmers and labour to fight for their individual priorities.

One organization cutting across party lines to espouse the cause of youth and another for farmers to raise common grievances, was how he had mooted it. Instead, in his days and even now, organizations remained yoked as affiliates of parties, compromising their collective autonomy.

The question was how to translate his idea into reality when the polity is polarized party-wise. That’s a task that he had left to posterity though he tried in real earnest to sell the idea of grassroots development shorn of party politics. That it had not taken off is no commentary on the wisdom of the patriarch.

Youth in different parties remaining beholden to their parent organizations shows the need for trying out the non-party EMS line. The frantic bid to wrest a proportionate number of seats from parent parties is not limited to any particular youth organization. Across parties youth feel short-changed. The jumbo delegation of Youth Congress, descended on Kerala House in New Delhi in expectation of seats, say it all.

The Left parties do not allow such street demonstration for parliamentary office. But poll-time posters and graffiti display the anguish over the choice of candidates, ignoring claims of youth. Protests against actor Mukesh are not against him as much as they are against the party honchos for ignoring deserving youth.

CPM youth leader M B Rajesh, MP, says there are changes on the horizon. Dwindling education opportunities in Government sector and poor rate of job growth on account of economic slowdown are behind the outpouring of protests on the campus, be it JNU or HCU.

This has brought together students from across the spectrum. Students who are Left-minded, pro-Congress and even others swearing by identity politics are on the same page on the campus taking up larger issues concerning the student community.    

But the worry is that not enough youth are being attracted to the movement. Only 6.5 percent of the CPM’s members are reportedly below 25 years of age.
The CPM’s 20th party congress documents show that there were only two delegates below 30 years of age out of the total 727 who participated in the congress held in 2012. The number of delegates between 30 and 40 years was around 28. The number of delegates aged 50-60 and above 60 was 267 and 338, respectively.