The recent pro-jallikattu protests across Tamil Nadu held promise of youngsters taking a leading role in bringing about a change in society, said R. Murali, State general secretary, People's Union for Civil Liberties, on Monday. He, however, said that there was a need for youngsters to be trained ideologically.
“The youngsters have an enormous anger and dissatisfaction at the way politics is being conducted by a majority of the parties. However, they seem to lack necessary political and ideological coaching, which can be attributed to the failure of our education system,” he said, while speaking at a discussion on ‘The political situation in Tamil Nadu - A challenge for the Constitution and democracy’ organised by People’s Watch here.
He added that seniors from progressive movements, including the left and Dalit movements, should pitch in to channelise the efforts of these youngsters in the right direction.
Lamenting that criminalisation of politics had reached an extreme end, particularly with the recent turn of political events in Tamil Nadu, I. Devasahayam, Director, Institute of Human Rights Education, said that the primary reason was the failure of political left that gave room for other kind of politics.
Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director, People’s Watch, in his speech, said that along with the rightful criticism of political parties, the judiciary should also be questioned. He was referring to the inexplicable delay in delivering judgments in some of the cases involving high profile politicians, including the recent disproportionate assets case against former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
B. Thirumalai, senior journalist, R. Sathyamurthy, advocate, P. Kalidas, district secretary, Communist Party of India, K. Alagusundaram from Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Abdul Rahman Bawathi from Islamic Campaign Federation also participated in the discussion.
