It has been a common grouse against the educated youth that they don't participate in elections. But lets for a moment keep the apathy argument aside and search for an alternative theory. If we look at it, most of these youth have jobs which are highly mobile in nature. In the space of one cycle of general elections they move more than once. Even a change of house changes the constituency they fall under and hence changing the contest that we are eligible to vote for. We only have the power to elect locally or at a constituency level and if one doesn't have that connect or understanding of the area it really doesn't make sense to vote. There is no broader election of PM, CM or President that the aam admi's vote counts for. So for someone who is always on the move such narrow voting rights really doesn't make great sense.
I think there are greater merits is shifting from our current system to American model than just making an effort to make these youth relevant.
For one, we can have domain experts as ministers and avoid people like Arjun Singh from embarassing themselves and the nation. This will also give the MPs/MLAs time to work in their constituency rather than handle ministerial responsibilities.
It will help in reducing the complexity of the coalition politics by giving a uninterrupted 5 year term to the head (unless impeached).
It will reduce deep party bias and sychophancy as there are no ministerial berths available, which will make politics lot more bearable.
It empowers people to bring about a change at the top.
Brings in clarity into the elction process. People will be sure what they are voting for in an election. Right now when people go to vote, it is a cocktail of local issues, national politics and the party they represent. A good MP candidate may lose out because the other party had a great Prime ministerial candidate which doesn't at all make sense.
A system overhaul is hard to come by, especially when electoral reforms themselves are moving at snail's pace. But as more and more parties come up, the political parties in the near future will have to make some hard decisions to bring some kind of stability and order. I hope this will be one of them.
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