Desh ki Baat Foundation organize online “Indian Youth Dialogue” 15 August to 22 August, 2020
Making country strong through integration ofeconomic, social and political justice along with environmental conservation and national unity through Positive Nationalism.
we are passing through a very challenging phase, where the shadow of death caused by the pandemic triggered by COVID19 looms large over us, whilst our economy too is disintegrating at a rapid pace. The country’s economy was already in shambles and whatever was still standing has been further wrecked by the spread of the coronavirus. The situation has adversely affected everyone from casual labourers to employees of big multinational companies. According to estimations, due to the pandemic, unemployment in India will increase from 23 per cent to 45 per cent. COVID19 has impacted economy to the extent that major section of youth is facing unemployment. There already existed an employment crisis in the country, which has been further compounded by the virus attack and the central government’s total incompetence in dealing with it. India has one of the largest youth population which is more than 65 per cent of its population. But the condition of youth in our country is worrisome. The problem of rising unemployment is a question which no one wishes to address. Current government is oblivious to the question of employment.
Rising inequality is one of the main reasons for the economic condition of our country. India went through land reforms after independence. The reform attempted to wealth redistribution but couldn’t succeed as except a few states, the same was not strictly imposed in whole country. One the other hand, India which started out as mixed economy soon transformed into a capitalist economy which led to its complete surrender to international economic organisations. Rather than developing technology in accordance with India’s condition, our governments chose to stay behind other countries. This acted as hindrance in the pace of positive development. This led to polarisation of wealth with rich becoming richer and poor becoming poorer. According to OXFAM’s report, India’s richest 1 per cent hold more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 percent of the country’s population.
Instead of finding solutions to the increasing unemployment and economic disparity in the country, current government regime is instead trying to divert the attention of the people by sabotaging the social fabric of the country. The statements in media, social media and by political party’s spokespersons constantly attack social unity of our country. Today along with our economic condition, our social and national unity has lost its power. The prevailing negative sentiments in the country, is on the verge of causing a psychological disruption in the country.
We all know that social unity of all the residents of the country are essential condition for strengthening the country. India’s social unity cannot be guaranteed till the time social justice is not properly constituted. Social justice is not limited to caste system and reservations, social justice in reality means guaranteed justice for every member of the society. This includes justice towards other components of society such as religion, sect, class, language, gender, region and language which have been the basis of social discrimination. Social justice along with social unity is an important step towards eradication of this discrimination and for providing the society of equality and brotherhood. For this, Indian youth will have to move towards this direction with an open mind.
During independence struggle it was envisioned that there would be political justice of everyone in independent India. Our constitution guarantees the same. India, these days, is experiencing shrinking political rights of its citizens. There is constant attempt to suppress dissent which can be seen in context of issues like freedom of expression, right to protest or the right of criticising anti-citizen policies. Presently, speaking against the ruling party or its leaders, is equated to speaking against the country. Such an outrage can either lead to the charge of sedition charged against you, to being labelled as an anti-national or worse, you may be lynched on the streets. All this is done in the name of ‘patriotism’. This shows that how patriotism is toward one person, one party, one idea and one glory. In this patriotism, there is no place for those constitutional values which talk about defence of ideas and rights of all.
Along with social, economic and political issues, the environment has become a serious issue today. In fact, over exploitation of natural resources and consumerist lifestyle has brought environmental pollution to a level that has become a major cause of crisis on human life today. Significantly, India is a prosperous nation in terms of environment, but neither our governments nor the general public are sensitive about it.
Present problems, whether it is economic and social equality, widespread hatred or attempt to break national unity, have their roots in ideology of Negative Nationalism. Negative nationalism, instead of ensuring economic security, social equality, political rights and national unity, is working to benefit the big capitalists, deepen social inequality, spoil its fabric and break national unity. This is because the basis of negative nationalism is hatred, which rather than helping in solving real social issues works towards putting people against each other. This helps them maintain their political position. They, in order to maintain their political interest, chant raga of religion, culture and nation so noisily that even educated population falls prey to the illusion and accept the same as the ultimate truth.
All issues stemming out of negative nationalism and the resultant hurdles can be addressed through the idea of positive nationalism. The central emotion around which positive nationalism revolves is love and its aim is to ensure that India provides for economic, social and political justice along with environmental conservation and national unity that leads to strengthening the country inside out. According to positive nationalism, patriotism is not limited to blindly following a party or its leader, but is all about focussing on providing basic needs like food, cloth, house, education, health and employment to every citizen, this would help plant sentiments of positive nationalism amongst the people.
The ‘Indian Youth Dialogue’ is being organized by ‘Desh ki Baat’ as an initiative to make country aware of the questions of economic, social and political justice along with national unity. Leading our country towards India of the dreams of freedom fighters. This would be a strong country of every Indian’s dream. Let us then all unite, especially the Indian youth, who love this country, forge new thinking, learn to dialogue with each other and unite.
Come and be part of Indian Youth Dialogue.
Register Here:- www.deshkibaatfoundation.com
