PARITRANA

It is probably a bit late in the day to speak about the phenomenon that paritrana has become, or atleast made out to be in the blogworld and electronic media. It has been a while since they were in the news. The initial exictement generated by this party of five IIT-ans has evaporated just as fast as Juniour Mahajan's political career. The mainstream media seems to be perfecting their yo-yo act especially when it comes to promising and educated political outfits.

Paritrana as a party has to prove it's political mettle before it can be taken seriously. But what is surprising to me that not many students and youth in general seem to be aware of this transition in the state of Indian politics. I envisioned pomp and aplomb when urban youth would hear of students, and iit-ans at that, have ventured in active politics. One can blame it on the usual, cliched causes such as political apathy among the youth, disillusionment, unwillingness to take on the system, et al. But what is completely shocking is the majority of people I have come across haven't even heard of this "youth party for 21st century Bharat." And those who have heard or read about it in the media are uncharacteristically indifferent.

I don't know anyone from this party and my basis of knowledge is their website and random blog searches on various amateur publishing platforms. Yes it is true that they are still in their nascent stage and with, I guess, not much political backing, so their priorities would be to expand their base in terms of public support and financial aid. The understanding that it would take a couple of years to gain a strong foothold in India's electoral politics is practical and modest which implies that these guys are fully aware of their responsibilities.

Paritarana was registered as a political party this February, so it has been only 4 odd months since they were baptised in the sewage of Indian political system, as it is widely percieved. In the last few months, the reservation fire was stoked by a couple of medical students who dared to stand up for what they believed in which gave rise to another organisation, non-political though, called Youth For Equality. This sensitive issue which led to protests, hunger strikes and widespread display of angst against a inept and short-sighted government policy by the students saw no strong political backing. I wonder what kept them from joining in the protests more vociferously, agitating strongly against it. They did have a press release ascribing importance to meritocracy but again not much was heard or noted in the mainstream media.

It's ideology is promising and they have their hearts in the right place. Most of their objectives at a level seem utopian but with a fair amount of understanding in what goes into achieving them. A well structured organisational paradigm with corporate style functioning is alluring and immensely satisfying as it indicates the arrival of the next generation of political class which today's youth can relate to. As of now the reach of their voice seems to be limited to internet-yuppies and blog-fanatics, the cyberspace in general. But yes as time progresses I am sure that this movement will gain momentum as the notion of a youth driven party making a change in the rusty annals of Indian political system is very appealing and befitting considering the fact that 60% of the population is below the age of 40.

How much can they achieve, will they be able to convert goodwill into electoral sucess is anybody's guess, but the general perception of politics is about to change. With young blood hopefully there will be a new and progressive vision. It remains to be seen whether they can withstand the fickle nature of an Indian voter, until then I wish them goodluck. I have a feeling they are going to need it.

The link below is an interesting interview of Chandrshekhar, the national treasurer of Paritrana, by Vikas choudary, a blogger.