This country was founded and its constitution framed with a vision and hope for millions of poor people. Over the years, however, everything in this country, including its natural resources, was robbed by a few, turning the rich into a thin elite of the super-rich, and pauperising the poor further. Indian democracy has become by the rich, for the rich and of the rich. The young MPs your cover story talks about (A Dream Died Young, Aug 5) have been born with a silver spoon in their mouth and tread the beaten path of their ancestors. If 300 of our MPs are millionaires, what can one possibly expect them?
K. Mohamed, Tumkur
How many of these chaps have any academic achievements to speak of? When has any one of them struggled hard to earn a day’s meal? Feudalism survived in India for centuries, when rajas and nawabs enjoyed luxury at the cost of the hard labour of their subjects. It is shameful that a Nehru-Gandhi, a Scindia, a Pilot or a Jaganmohan Reddy wants to enjoy and roam the corridors of power with no contribution whatsoever of their own. It’s equally sad that our media, controlled by the rich, wants to please these modern rajas.
N.K. Swamy, Hyderabad
What great expectations did we have from the young generation of leaders who were ‘selected’ by their parents and then pushed into Parliament through the formality of elections? Our young MPs are no grassroot products but blue-chip products of dynastic hierarchy. They have no vision or path different from those higher in the hierarchy and know no other kind or style of politics than that of their mothers, fathers, chachas and taus.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow
The dream did not die young. It was killed, at least in the Congress. To highlight their incompetent prince, the intelligent, hard-working young MPs who are known for their performance and integrity are not allowed to outshine him and perform to the fullest.
Gilbert D’Souza, Bangalore
I’m not sure what dream has died. There was none to begin with, only a nightmare—the nightmare of dynastic politics. None of these ‘scions’ are in politics for national service, they are there only for self-service, like their fathers before them. How else do you explain the crores of rupees they are declaring as assets? How does one build assets worth Rs 20-30 crore at the age of 30?
Rajesh Chary, Mumbai
Not one of these young MPs is a vote-getter except in their pocketboroughs. Making them ministers doesn’t seem to have helped as they don’t have a single original idea between them. Does India need leaders with a preconceived notion of their being born to rule? Some of their parents came to limelight only by currying favour with Indira, Rajiv or the present avatars of the pseudo-Gandhis.
Dr V. Mahadevan, Chennai
Are our leaders in political parties generous enough to give their younger colleagues opportunities to grow and assert themselves? If they hog all the attention themselves, they will cause apathy and frustration down the ranks.
Anwaar, Dallas, US
You can well imagine the talent of all those young studs who think of Rahul as their leader!
Adithyan, Chennai
Ah well, great expectations beget great disappointments. It’s really sad ‘young’ India is at the mercy of aged leaders.
K. Chidananda Kumar, Bangalore
When all of them—including these young MPs—join politics expressly to make money, surely they won’t have time to attend to small issues like governance or nation-building.
Dinesh Kumar, Chandigarh
It is sheer naivete to assume that a young MP will do a better job, particularly when most of them come from political families known for their power hunger and arrogance.
G. Natrajan, Isere, France
You only have to look at the big picture accompanying the cover story to see that not one of them is a self-made leader, just the kin of some bigwig in politics. No wonder they were doomed. How can politics be a legacy in a democracy? They should consider themselves lucky that they got elected thanks to this gullible nation. On merit alone, they wouldn’t even land a simple government job.
Gayatri, Madrid
