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“Act today to ensure a better future for you and the country,” Lok Satta Party President told youth in an open letter to them on National Youth Day on January 12.

The following is the text of Dr. JP’s letter:

Dear friends:

Let me convey my greetings to you on National Youth Day on January 12.

Youth today constitute 73 percent of India’s population, and 94 percent of future belongs to you, compared to the six percent to those who are above 35.

You are the inheritors of a 5000-year-old civilization and culture, and can look forward to the prospect of becoming partners in a vibrant India.

Despite many shortcomings and challenges post-Independence, we have survived as a nation, and preserved our democracy, unity, and secularism. We have just weathered global recession and started marching forward on the growth highway.

To ensure a bright future for you and the country, you have to become a partner in wealth creation. It is possible only if you equip yourself with quality education and skills. You will forgo growth and constitutional guarantees if you are not ready to shape your destiny. In this day and age, the future belongs to those who have knowledge and skills, and can create goods and services for the society.

Even as you acquire good education and skills, you have to become a responsible citizen and voter by taking interest in politics. Politics encompasses every sphere in life and it ensnares you like the coils of a snake, as Gadhiji said. You must be actively engaged in politics for the improvement of conditions around you. But you must not be obsessed with politics of power, faction, and day-to-day abuse and invective. You must realize that politics should be society’s servant, not its masters. Politics plays a key role in our lives, but should not dominate our lives. Your life is for living with dignity and fulfilling your potential.

As you are aware, corruption has become a hydra-headed monster and is seen in every walk of our life. It has tainted Governments, political parties, legislators, higher judiciary, and media. You can ignore corruption only at your peril, for it enables a privileged few in politics and public office to prosper at your expense. You have to reclaim the republic stolen from you.

Besides fighting corruption, you have to strive to preserve and promote the country’s unity and integrity. You should not become a pawn in the hands of any section, which tries to promote its partisan interests by fomenting hatred and violence. The India of our dreams is greater than any caste, region, religion, race or language. The sum is greater than the parts. It is your duty to demolish these ‘narrow domestic walls’ fragmenting India. Unity and integrity of our mother-land, and fraternity of all Indians devoid of hatred and envy are of paramount importance to secure your future.

Draw inspiration from Swami Vivekananda in whose memory we celebrate National Youth Day. He was one of our best and brightest children who represented India’s spiritual wisdom and robust nationalism.

Swami Vivekananda says, “We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.”

Act today to ensure a better future for you and the country.

Sincerely yours,

Jayaprakash Narayan