Youth of Bengal indifferent to politics

Kolkata, Feb 23 (UNI) The computer mouse seems to have more relevance to today's Bengali youth than the principle of Mahatma Gandhi or the ideology of Karl Marx, as career triumphs over political aspiration in this east Indian metropolis.

Even as the state's political scenario has been heated up by the government's firm move to set up new industries on farmlands and the Opposition's crusade against it, a survey amongst students reveal that the future generations of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Khudiram Basu are now only concentrating on their personal welfare and becoming apathetic towards active politics, if not apolitical.

This indifference towards active politics among the city youth has assumed a new dimension with SEZ, Singur and Nandigram becoming household terms and the state witnessing the Assembly elections only last year, political observers feel.

A number of students from different colleges across the city and the age-old Calcutta and Jadavpur Universities echoed similar views, saying they still have faith in the country's democratic process, but would no longer allow political parties to 'exploit' them at the cost of their career as had happened during the past 59 years.

Corruption and criminalisation are giving birth to overall degeneration in politics, which in turn is creating this apathy towards the prevailing system making them leaning further towards their personal goals, the students observed.

Political Science student of the prestigious Presidency College Animesh Chatterjee said, ''We cannot afford to affect our career further in the name of political adventurism as witnessed in the late 60s or the turbulant 70s while corruption and criminalisation eclipsed the polity of the world's largest democracy in the 80s and 90s and came out nakedly in the new millennium.'' ''Certainly I prefer to utilise my time now visiting the book fair for reference books rather than engaging myself to comment on developments in Singur or Uttar Pradesh,'' Animesh maintained.

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