Young ho or gung ho?

(From left) Praful Patel, Jayant Chaudhari, Shaina NC, Priya Sahgal and Milind Deora at the 'Young Turks on the Political Turf' event at Nehru Centre's Hall of Culture. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

It was some turf talking at the Asian Society's 'Young Turks on the Political Turf' event at the Nehru Centre's Hall of Culture (Worli) late Wednesday evening. A panel discussion featured Jayant Chaudhary, vice-president of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Milind Deora, former Congress MP from South Mumbai, Praful Patel, senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Shaina NC, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson and treasurer, Maharashtra. The discussion was moderated by political journalist Priya Sahgal. Patel though, as senior statesman, also intervened in the ebb and flow of the debate.

Aspirations shift
The seasoned politician went on to warn his audience, which spanned the gamut from young to those with more salt than pepper in their hair, "whichever government comes to power will never be able to meet 100 per cent of people's aspirations." Patel cautioned younger politicians that, "Longevity in public life is going to get increasingly challenging. I am here to stay though, not going anywhere," he said to laughs.

Changing times
Milind Deora, addressing Patel as "Praful uncle" claimed that news has undergone a complete transformation. "From 24 hours to three to four minutes that is how much news emanation and reading of news has been compressed." Deora also stated that the Right to Information (RTI), "empowered citizens to ask questions bypassing their elected representatives". Chaudhary claimed that the, "younger leaders are challenging the old, political equation." Chaudhary added small regional parties have a place on their election turf, "because we cannot have just two ideas of India (two political parties as biggies) and then vast nothingness."

Defining Hindutva
The BJP party's introduction by moderator Sahgal was: "the party's username is development and password is Hindutva." Shaina laughed at the description as she stated, "I would define Hindutva as justice for all and appeasement to none." Deora said, "One reason governance suffers locally is that in the past electoral Modi wave, we saw that people were more concerned about whom they wanted at the national level. When they voted, they looked at the national picture and ignored their local representation." Shaina NC riposted, "it is going to happen again this time," Deora shot back, "that means you agree local leaders are weak,' to which Shaina said, "this means the leadership is strong."

Question quota
The interactive session had a young man in the audience asking the panelists, "if there is one thing that is common between Bollywood and politics besides all the drama, it is nepotism. How does new, young blood come in?" Patel said, "it is not a closed-door entry for those who do not have a legacy." Deora made light of a direct question about whether he would contest these elections, simply saying, "if you vote for me, I will," as the session ended.

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