Need More Young Politicians In Our Parliament: Shashi Tharoor
The Gandhi Mandela Peace Initiative celebrated the 150th birth-anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and the 100th birth-anniversary of Nelson Mandela. BW Businessworld Chairman and Editor-in-chief, Dr. Annurag Batra in association with Tarina Patel, Founder of RBP Foundation and Kartikeya Sharma, Founder of The Sunday Guardian Foundation organized the event in Delhi on July 11.
While making a keynote address titled ‘How the lives of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are relevant and source of inspiration for today’s youth', Senior Congress leader and Parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor maintained that that politics as a profession in the country has not been very representative of the youth despite the country having an overwhelmingly huge base of young population. “India is a country where about 65 per cent of the population is under 35 years. Now, let us turn to the temple of democracy, Parliament, and only 2.2 per cent of all parliamentarians are below 30. And, one in every four MPs are below 45 years”, Tharoor said. He also stated the 16th Lok Sabha saw the lowest number of MPs in the entire age group of 25-40, adding that the 2014 election saw the highest number of young votes ever participating in the electoral exercise.
Quoting former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who said that a politician in India is born at the age of 50, becomes a teenager at 60, and a youth icon at 70, Tharoor suggested that India needs more young politicians today. He added that India is currently the world’s number 3 start-up hub and it is the duty of the government to provide them with capital and other resources to commence their business. He further stressed that more women should step out and explore their extremes.
Tharoor also added that earlier Roti, Kapda, and Makan (Food, Cloth, House) were considered as basic needs, however, now, they have been replaced by broadband and opportunities. He also criticized PM Modi by saying the youth of the country need 4G, not him.
