Report on Debate:
Youth in India is very much conscious and aware of the political system in the country. What they need is the right platform where their voice will be heard. This point was proved when 305 students from 61 teams representing various colleges from different parts of Maharashtra participated in the Intercollegiate debate competition on " Youth for Political Reforms". The event was organised by Lok Satta Andolan in association with Times Foundation and Mumbai University in Mumbai. The elimination round for the debate took place from 20 th September to 26th September where the students debated whether "Proportional Representatio (PR) system would be better than the present First Past the Post (FPTP) System of elections in India"
Many of the participating youth belonged to Engineering colleges while others were from Political Science, Law, Arts, science, Commerce, Biotechnology, Pharmacy, Business and Hotel Management. Students had researched the subject very well and language was no barrier as they spoke in Marathi , Hindi and English to vent out their views about the present political system and their aspirations for a bright future for the country.
Students speaking in support of the present First Past the Post system of elections felt that it was a simple system best suited for a large country like India with many diversities. It establishes a clear connection between the voters and their elected representative and is supposed to provide stable government. They argued that the present political situation is not so much at fault but a problem of the people running the system and hence we need to create awareness among the citizen and encourage good candidates to contest elections and get them elected.
Students supporting the Proportional Representation system for elections felt that FPTP system has resulted in encouraging vote bank politics, use of money and muscle power, dynasty rule and narrow regional thinking . Proportional Representation system will ensure that every vote is represented and none is wasted as happens in FPTP and minorities & women get true representation. The PR system will shift the focus to larger national issues and prevent use of unfair means to win elections.
The debates were judged by eminent personalities including Mr. Bharatkumar Raut (Maharashtra Times News Paper - Editor and Rajya Sabha MP), Mr. Kumar Ketkar (Loksatta news paper - editor) , Mr. Suresh khare (a noted Marathi writer), Mr.Mani D'Mellow (Times Of India), Ms Ronjana Bannerjee (DNA news paper), Mr. Madhav Bhandari (Spokes person of Maharashtra BJP), Ms.Manisha Mhaiskar (IAS - Secretary Maharashtra Govt), Mrs. Nina Raut (A noted media personality), Dr.Jalinder Adsule (Gen. Secretary Mumbai Samajwadi Party), Mr.Bhimrao Raskar (A noted social activist & writer), Mr. Ketan Vaidya (NDTV), Mr.Raju Vernekar (Sahara Samay), Rafique Mulla (Zee 24 tas), Mr. Nitin Sapre (Director - Doordarshan), Mr.Shailesh Gaikwad (Hidustan Times), Ms Swati Deshpande (Times of India), Swati Soni (Time of India). Mr.Bhupendra Mistry (All India Radio), Ms.Vaishnavi Menon (All India Radio), Dr. Kedar Diwan (Lok Satta Andolan's Organisation Coordinator for Maharashtra) and Mr.Surendra Srivastava (Volunteer - Lok Satta Aandolan..
Spokesperson for Lok Satta Movement , Mr.Surendra Srivastava, said that Pre-independence, India was blessed with great leaders, provided mainly by politically sensitive collegian youths. Today time has once again come where India needs great leaders and they ought to and will come from the same source, viz., college going youths. Since the past two years Lok Satta Aandolan, is trying to reach out to the colleges mainly to increase the awareness and encourage the involvement of young and educated in "Politics", a word considered "dirty" in India. He furhter said that Just as Indians are making their mark in all fields internationally and nationally Lok Satta Aandolan is certain that soon we will have idealistic youth joining politics with a goal to reform the system. Even if they do not join politics we are turning out citizens with a deeper understanding of the countries problems and the solutions required. If such citizens carry the message into all walks of life our governance will improve automatically as we will have citizens who are aware and questioning. This will have a cascading effect and make our democracy vibrant.
Most of the Participating students felt that given the right opportunity created by political reforms , the youth in India is confident of achieving former President Abdul Kalam's dream of India 2020.
About LOK SATTA Aandolan:
Lok Satta Aandolan (www.loksattamovement.org) - India's leading civil society initiative and people's movement for wide- ranging governance and political reforms with several notable successes to its credit. Through partnership with several organizations, Lok Satta Aandolan works on the Vote India (www.voteindia.org), Vote Mumbai (www.votemumbai.org), Vote Juhu and Vote Police (www.votepolice.org) Campaigns for political & governance reforms.
For information: call 0 22 2373 2941 and email on loksattamovement@gmail.com
