By Alekya Pratap
As an ordinary karyakarta of the world’s largest political organization, the Bharatiya Janata Party, I wholeheartedly welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visionary announcement to groom nearly one lakh young karyakartas into future leaders. This is not a routine party initiative. It is a declaration of national intent — a conscious effort to fortify India’s sovereignty, democratic resilience, and civilizational confidence at a time when the global order is being shaken by uncertainty, power politics, and revived colonial attitudes masquerading as moral authority.
Across our neighborhood and beyond, we are witnessing how misled youth, driven by half-truths, digital propaganda, and the lure of foreign validation, are being pushed into anarchic movements that ultimately harm their own nations. Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka offer sobering lessons on how instability is often engineered not just through economic pressure, but through narrative warfare — a steady drip of disinformation that convinces young minds that disruption is patriotism and chaos is courage.
Telangana, with its vibrant youth population and deep historical consciousness, cannot afford to be a passive spectator to these global and regional tremors. The streets must not become classrooms for political adventurism. Social media must not become the new textbook of half-baked ideologies. The youth of this land deserve a future built on opportunity, innovation, and national pride — not on borrowed slogans and imported outrage.
It is in this context that the BJP’s emphasis on structured youth leadership assumes national significance. While some political formations seek to mobilize young people as foot soldiers for momentary protests, the BJP’s approach is to nurture them as stakeholders in governance, development, and nation-building. There is a fundamental difference between using youth as a crowd and grooming them as a cadre. One creates noise; the other creates nations.
Critics often scoff at this model, but the proof lies in the party’s internal evolution. The rise of leaders like Nitin Nabi — a 45-year-old grassroots worker who, despite financial hardship cutting short his formal engineering education, rose through perseverance and public service to win five consecutive electoral mandates in the most politically volatile Bihar — reflects a political culture that values commitment over pedigree, service over surname. This is not symbolism. It is a statement that leadership in today’s India is not inherited; it is earned.
As the head of an educational institution, I see daily how young minds stand at a crossroads. On one side lies the promise of skill, innovation, and constructive engagement with a rapidly transforming India. On the other lies the seductive pull of instant activism — likes, shares, slogans, and street theatrics that offer visibility without responsibility, for a few chips. The need of the hour is to guide our youth toward the former, not let them drift into the latter.
Prime Minister Modi’s call is, at its core, an appeal for active-body politics — politics that demands discipline, learning, and long-term commitment, not just momentary outrage. It asks young Indians to step out of the comfort of commentary and into the challenge of contribution. It urges them to move from being critics of the system to becoming its custodians.
Telangana’s youth must recognize that national sovereignty is not safeguarded only at borders or in parliament. It is protected in classrooms, in community service, in informed political participation, and in the refusal to become pawns in someone else’s geopolitical or partisan games. A nation of 1.4 billion cannot be held together by institutions alone; it must be anchored in the consciousness of its youngest citizens.
History will not remember who trended for a day. It will remember who stood, worked, and built when the nation needed them most. The choice before our youth is stark: to be spectators in India’s rise, or to be its architects. The BJP, through this initiative, has made its choice clear. The question is — will Telangana’s youth rise to meet it? They will and I shall strive hard to.
