Sanjay Kumar Jena
Dharmendra Pradhan has worked as president of the youth wing of Orissa unit of BJP and later as national secretary of the party. He shares some of his time with Organiser correspondent Sanjay Kumar Jena to talk of his priorities and plans as BJYM national president.
Where do you place today'syouth via-a-vis national development?
Yes, today we are striving to make India a developed nation by 2020 or maybe even earlier. This can only be accomplished by engaging and harnessing our youth in nation-building activities. Compared to the West, this proposition assumes greater significance in India as the numerical strength of youth here is almost one-third of country'spopulation and the number is in upward trend contrary to the West, where the youth population shows a declining trend. So India may be termed a nation of youth compared to its Western counterparts.
Tell us about Yuva Morcha?
The BJYM is the torch-bearer of the guiding principles of BJP'sideological committment. In every phase of a nation'stransition, the youth needs new direction. For time and again the youth in the country has toiled hard for preserving the country'shonour?may it be in the battle-field or in the laboratories. It is the youth who have always remained in the forefront of social transition. They have to be harnessed for the party work as well as for the country.
How do you plan to help the youth and influence them to join your party and ideological movement?
We must visualise our future road-map to attract more and more youth to our ideological movement and inspire them with our constructive principles. That would certainly make them committed to our party and the nation.
Interview with Dharmendra Pradhan, Member of Parliament, president Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
What programme have you chalked out for that?
Our three time-tested programmes?agitative, constructive and organisational have proved successful in creating an urge in the young people to work for the greater ideological movement.
Youth power must be mobilised for newer challenges like disaster management, water management and other developmental activities through NGOs, human right activists. Our karyakartas must be inspired to take up cooperative movements and institution building. We must remember that we are not in the power game to be in the government like other political parties; rather, we are part of a broader ideological movement.
Don'tyou think the challenges before the today'syouth are ever increasing?
The youth are falling prey to the socio-cultural divide. It'sa matter of concern that a sizeable section of our youth in the border states is falling prey to secessionist movements, misled as they are by nations across the border. The challenge is to bring them back to the national mainstream. Unemployment is the single most serious challenge that needs to be overcome in the shortest possible time.
The negative impacts of globalised communication network and the unbridled craze for consumerism are being forced on our youth by profit-mongering market forces. The total effect of both the factors are corroding our cultural roots and misleading the youth power towards promotion of self-interests. The result is showing in the disintegrating family and social systems. Ways and means have to be found to address these novel challenges.
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