Politics of a disengaged generation

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Anil Ambani presented interesting statistics in his address at IIM Bangalore: "75 per cent of our total population is below the age of 40 years and 72 per cent of our MPs in the Lok Sabha are over the age of 50 years".

The generation mismatch between those who represent and those who are being represented is stark and serious. In such a situation, to expect the existing political establishment to address what matters to the nation's young, and indeed its majority, is a bit far-fetched.

On their part, the young Indians are reacting in a perfectly rational manner to the circumstances as they perceive them. As they enter adulthood, the new generation faces a particularly acute economic insecurity, which leads them to turn inwards and pursue material well-being above all else.

They see the outlines of very real problems ahead "" social, gender, and environmental. But in the nation's political system they perceive no leadership on the issues that concern them. So Generation Next seems to have decided, at least for now, to tune out. After all, they ask, "What's the point?"

This results in another political paradox: even as a young and politically aggressive leadership is emerging, the rest of the new generation has enshrined political apathy as a way of life. Across the country, one finds that the younger generation is less politically engaged, exhibit less social trust or confidence in the government, and have a weaker allegiance to their cause or the political parties than their predecessors.

In political terms, it is a disengaged generation. This lies at the heart of the problem of the GenX politics and has serious implication for the future of politics. One can already see that the traditional civic participation, community cohesion, and collective action are on the decline among the young.

The result is a fundamental loss of trust: between citizens and elected officials, between employees and employers, and, ultimately, between leaders and their people. Such trends don't bode too well for the future of operating democracy.

To be sure, today's young don't have a great deal to be thankful for. What have they inherited? They have come of age in a time of social chaos, communalisation and criminalisation of politics, minority bashing, gender insensitivity, and absolute material deprivation.

The only way for Generation Next to reverse the sad situation is by entering the political arena that they have every reason to loathe. After all, collective problems require collective solutions.

The new generation cannot reasonably expect the political establishment to address, let alone fix, the sobering problems they are to inherit, unless they start participating in the nation's political process, and learn to flex their generational muscle.

Whether or not they do so will depend on two more immediate questions: Does this generation share a set of political beliefs? And if so, how might these translate into a political agenda and an economic philosophy?

What can then be the hopes and ideas for the future? What is necessary first, is that the new generation of leaders should be able to offer not a solution of exclusion but one of inclusion and co-existence. The political discourse of GenNext has to move away from being exclusivist to being inclusivist.

From this will emerge a new age concept of ideology and political participation. Political struggles are contests of will. These are 'superstructure' issues, which will be carried on but they have to be built on 'base' issues of economy and welfare. It is a shift from the superstructure to the base, that politics of the new generation has to bring about.

To go along with this, what is needed is a value-conflict model of politics. A political set-up that acknowledges the reality of problems faced by citizens in today's world; one that acknowledges the citizen's fundamental right to freedom of belief and conscience.

At the same time, it should actively assist the resolution of conflict, both between and within individuals. This represents a fundamental move away from more utopian models which present democratic systems that are idealistic and unrealistic "" the possibility that democratic politics can be fraught with frustration and corruption should not be brushed under the carpet as we have been used to doing.

Our greatest intellectual challenge is to find a new value consensus that lies somewhere between the secular indifference of the Left and the cultural intolerance of the Right.

And, that can be done by making ethnicity an important element in our political discourse and rethinking our political attitude towards it. If this becomes the agenda, it will help banish cynicism and apathy toward the resolution of conflicts.

haseebd@business-standard.com