Our young & old

Ira Pande

AFTER the noise and shock defeats of many known and confident politicians and the endless post-mortems on TV screens and podcasts, life is slowly adjusting to a familiar and boring rhythm. And thank God for that! Watching the reaction of several friends over the Uttar Pradesh and Punjab results (to say nothing of my homeland, Uttarakhand), I wondered whether they really believed that simply because they wished certain parties to win or lose, they could will it to happen.

As I heard commentators highlight the enormous anger among our aspirational youth and broken promises, I wondered whether many of them were even capable of passing a simple school-level test. The dire levels of basic communication skills should be evident to anyone who has had the misfortune of holding a conversation with such youth. I can understand their lack of fluency and confidence in English, but even their own native languages operate out of a limited vocabulary. Very often, they resort to expletives and fillers such as ‘Y’know’, ‘I mean’. They all want to qualify for the civil services exam, NEET and what have you, but are incapable of even passing a high school exam. This frightening epidemic of ignorance has been highlighted by several reports commissioned both by the government and NGOs such as Pratham, but we are willfully blind to their alarming feedback.

What breaks my heart is how poor parents work themselves to a bone so that their children go to an English-medium school, yet perhaps one of 10 such children is focused on education. All of them ask their parents to buy them smartphones (especially now so that they could participate in online lessons), but if you scroll through the history of their searches, you will find innocous downloads, porn and worse. The damage that uncontrolled access to the Net has done to our young far outpaces the good it was meant to do. While others wrote admiringly of the huge crowds that Akhilesh Yadav’s rallies drew, I noted how virtually no young girls or even women were to be seen. In our haste to greet new faces, what we miss out is the underdog and the silent or absent presence in election rallies. Young men on bikes, bandanas wrapped on their heads shouting and driving dangerously — this is the new generation that is impatient for change, but unwilling to change themselves. Yet, let us never forget that it is the women, the young girls and the old grannies that have kept the home going throughout these terrible times. And they were the ones who swung elections in one direction. Psephologists need to factor in this into future electoral calculations rather than micro-study caste divisions. Never forget that women represent one solid constituency that cuts across religion and caste.

To come now to our own Punjab: what can one say except that one wishes the new government well. My sister asked me whether I knew anyone among the now elected MLAs and I laughed as I said, ‘Not one!’ People such as us, who moved out almost three decades ago, have a limited frame of reference anyway, but I never thought I’d live to see the day when the Maharaja of Patiala would be ousted from his own seat or Badal Senior lose Lambi. Many will say they had it coming, but it makes me wonder why many (especially politicians) can never leave an active life when they are at their peak to mentor a new generation. It isn’t just the two names mentioned above; this list goes back many decades and cuts across political parties of every hue. I used to joke that there is no greater bore than a retired bureaucrat, but now let me add that there is no greater fool than a has-been politician. The Congress party is in the throes of death but even now, the Family believes that it has relevance.

In this respect, one has to admire the ruthlessness with which the old guard of the BJP was quietly nudged into retirement. Even then, several people felt that they had been treated unfairly but today, we feel differently about this culling. The lesson of bowing out gracefully is one that all seniors must learn. In the Ramayana, Dashrath handed over the reins of his kingdom to Rama when he saw the first grey hair on his head. More harm was done by the ‘Abhi to main jawan hoon’ ghazal than we dreamed of. The importance of the older generation in any organisation can never be denied, but their retirement is equally important to consider. From sports to industrial houses, from teachers to humble homemakers, when it’s time to go, go!

Finally, after the joy and exultation of the AAP victory settles down, we all hope that Punjab gets the kind of governance that it has needed for a long, long time. One that is free of sycophants, family hangers-on, corrupt businessmen, self-serving and lazy bureaucrats and a police force that is bloated on the pickings thrown its way over the years. Remember that the police bandobast in Delhi — where the AAP has ruled for all these years — is firmly kept out of its hands. While this is a fact that Kejriwal has long bemoaned, it has also added as a check on a man who likes to have his way.

Good luck, Punjab!