Alternative democracy

Few days ago, a letter was sent to a college in Tamil Nadu by the Higher Education Department asking for an explanation about the programme conducted in the premises of the college where an actor criticised the functioning of the Tamil Nadu government. The substance of the letter argues how the educational institution allows individuals to talk about politics inside college area. The same question was raised by Tamil Nadu government few months back when Rahul Gandhi participated in a programme in a lady's college at Chennai and interacted with students on politics. The actions of the state government were criticised by many deeming it is an anti-democratic act. Yet, the fact of the matter is how the political regimes in Tamil Nadu, in the past three decades, carefully managed to prevent any political socialisation among the youth, especially the educated youth. It is also a fact that the same Dravidian parties came to limelight and power only through intense political socialisation that took place in the educational institutions with the active involvement of the teachers and students. Thus, knowing the power of the youth, the people in power are allergic to such any political interactions and related activities in educational institutions.

The government remembers the wrath of the youth in the Jallikkattu agitation recently and it well understands how difficult it was to manage and tackle the agitation. The political parties even knew what the youth had discussed during the agitation. Hence, any congregation or assembly of youth in the form of agitation or provocation for a struggle was curbed. Social media's influence has made the youth critical of the state.

Questioning is a fundamental value of democracy. However, here in Tamil Nadu, questioning is against the discipline of the organisation and institution. Questing the authority is viewed as undermining the power of the authority. And sadly, a culture has been built around it. Debate, discourse, argument, questioning and dissent in public are the core values of democracy but here, these all are considered against the establishment or negative thought or rather causing disturbance to the orderly government; the poor understanding of leaders about the values of democracy fuels it. The youth is against the existing political order and system. But that does not mean that it is against the ruling party alone. The anger of the youth could be seen only through social media.

There is a debate going on against the existing political culture by bringing the historic speech of Greta Thunberg of Sweden in the UN conference. It was a five-minute speech which shook the whole world. A 16-year-old girl hailing from a European country transformed herself as an environmental activist and soulfully questioned the world leaders fearlessly. She had an intense obsession and a world vision which fueled her conviction to speak. It is a persuasive and forceful speech drawing the attention of the whole world. At this age, she has emerged as a thoughtful leader to figure a way to save the planet. The episode was reminiscent of the obsession of M K Gandhi when he returned from England to South Africa in 1909 to show the alternative way by negating the violent economy which came through the industrial revolution and western civilisation. He himself communicated to his friend Henry Polak even before he wrote it in the ship that something is brewing in his mind and that should be communicated. It is nothing but inner illumination which made him communicate, and hence Gandhi wrote the "Hind Swaraj". His thought came soulfully and he himself translated the Gujarati version into English as he felt that it was born out of obsession meant for humanity and hence he treated it as a treatise without any correction in his lifetime.

Greta also did the same thing and she has a conviction that the new consciousness created by global leaders lacking a prudent outlook and assiduously working for economic growth by inducing consumption which is bound to damage the environment. Greta has been the subject of discourse in many social media fora. In this context, we have to look at our democratic practice. It is to be understood why our government is always not interested in cultivating democracy among the youth. It is a known fact that it would create formidable challenges to the present form of politics, governance and development. From the discourses emanated out of Greta Thunbug's argument in the UN conference, one has to infer how the search is on for alternative governance, alternative development paradigm and alternative democracy. Substantially, the youth have to be involved in all those discourses to find a solution to all ailments of our modern democracy, globalised economy, development practices and modern governance.

(The author is a former Professor and Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Gandhigram Rural Institute. Views expressed are strictly personal)