GROUP DISCUSSION
Youth should exercise their voting rights
– Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam
Focus on election: Students of Dr. Lankapalli Bullayya College participating in a group discussion organised by The Hindu Education Plus.
When it comes to exercising their franchise, the college going students seem to have a mixed response. While on the one hand they unanimously say that exercising their franchise is their fundamental right, on other hand they have a critical opinion on the political system, especially on the present day politicians.
They came out openly at the group discussion session organised by The Hindu Education Plus on ‘rights and responsibility of students in regard to voting’, at Dr. Lankapalli Bullayya College. The students who participated in the GD were from the MBA stream of the college.
R. Sivaiah who initiated the discussion opined that casting of vote is the basic right of all Indians above the age of 18 years.
Adding to his statement Bhaskar said that youth should participate in the elections by exercising their franchise but at the same time he pointed out that the selfish political leaders reach out for the youth only at the time of the elections and dump them like hot potatoes once the elections are over. “After the elections the leaders do not come to the youth and they never try to address their problems. They don’t even encourage the youth to be a part of the political system,” he said.
Taking a cue from Bhaskar, Sunita said that certain key issues like providing better education facilities and safety of girl students are ignored by the politicians.
As the discussion raged, it meandered to the question whether the youth are proactive enough in regard to the issue. Most of them were of the opinion that the focus of the youth is on matters like fashion, career prospects and fast bikes and the awareness on politics is low.
A few suggested that it is the duty and responsibility of the youth to know about the political leaders and ideologies of the political parties before casting the vote. Raghavendra suggested that apart from casting the vote the youth should voluntarily join the political system to educate the public about the voting rights.
“To avoid misuse of the votes, we should make sure that the voting right is encashed by the rightful persons. We should tour the rural areas to educate the masses about the political parties and the voting rights, because ultimately in a democratic country like ours, it is through the general elections that the government is formed,” he said. Adding to his statement, Sunita opined that the education and motivation should begin at home.
Suneel Gupta pointed out that the education institutions should take up programmes to sensitise the students on voting rights and political systems.
The others who participated include T. Chandraiah, V.V.S. Ramakrishna, K. Suresh, M. Bobby, K. Anisha, D. Govinda Rao, V.V. Sambasiva Rao, B. Veerabhadra, P. Venkateswarlu, D. Durga Prasad, M. Ranga Naik and K. Ravi Kumar.
The Director of the Management Studies and Computer Science of the college K.V.S. Patnaik moderated the discussion and Director (Administration and Academics) K. Bhaskar Reddy addressed the students.
SUMIT BHATTACHARJEE
IN VISASKHAPATNAM
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