Spur youngsters to reflect popular will in budget session

The budget session of 18th Lok Sabha would begin from July 24. If we dive into the list of winners we would find that it is has fresh faces which includes Gen Z. farmers, Physicians, business tycoons and entertainers from all over the country who are bubbling with ambition and hope.

Of the 545 MPs there are about 280 debutant MPs. They represent diverse backgrounds. The figures show that there is marked change in the thinking of Gen Z voters who had sent about 52 young MPs and the highest of them are from Telugu Desam and Samajwadi party and few from Congress party.

A similar trend was witnessed in the post emergency polls in 1977 and later in 1980. Naturally the youngsters would be full of energy and would like to show their talent on the floor of the house. But the question here is will the political parties which they represent give them that kind of opportunity?

The general experience is that it is the seniors who would consume most of time, plan the floor management and it is they who decide what issues to raise and the youngsters are not given a chance even to express their ideas on the issues that need to be raised nor are they given chance to speak on the issues decided by the party. Most of the time, they end up thumping the desk when the leader of the parliamentary party speaks.

This attitude of the political parties is resulting in sort of monotony in Lok Sabha and people feel that political considerations will continue to dominate whether the session was short one or the longest one called the budget session. Even if it was compulsion, we have seen how well the young MPs like K Ramamohan Naidu of TDP who is now a Union Minister had performed well in Parliament and how even the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had listened to his speeches with rapt attention. They have the talent only thing is our political parties refuse to recognise the fact.

Now that the longest session of the year, Budget session is going to begin, the question is will the focus again be on the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition only or will the political parties give enough chance to the young brigade to discuss and debate various issues and come up with solutions or will there be repeat performance of holding protests every day, stall the proceedings of the Parliament and claim that they had put the government on mat.

Still there is about a week’s time for the session to begin and it is time the Congress and BJP led NDA work out a strategy to give enough chances for the youngsters to take active part in the proceedings of the Parliament and give them chance to present fresh ideas in the Parliament. People had seen enough of theatrics and jibes of the present leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi and other leaders. It is time the youngsters take centre stage at least during the budget session.

But the irony is so far no such thinking seems to be there in any of the major political parties. The house of people reflects the popular will. The debutants should not be considered as spring chicken. They are educated and given proper chance they can be rock stars and stand a chance to present fresh ideas. They are the youth icons and they deserve greater opportunities. In fact whether it is the leader of opposition or the leader of the house, they should reserve their energies for major issues and encourage the youngsters to reflect the popular will. It is time the leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi switches from his youth icon image to a seasoned senior politician. Both the opposition and ruling party should also give equal opportunities to the women MPs.