The Legislative Assembly. Lots of people (MLAs) clad in white shirts and dhothis enter the hall. Their appearance suggests that most of them are probably illiterate or not much educated. Along with them, 4 youngsters in t-shirts and jeans enter the hall. A glaring difference between these 4 and the rest in the hall.

This is how Mani Ratnam's Yuva (Aayitha Ezhuthu in thamizh) ends. This is Mani's dream - that more and more of educated youngsters will enter politics - which will hopefully satisfy the ultimate goal - a developed India - in the near future!

But, how soon can we expect this to happen? I was shocked to hear some statistics quoted by my professor Mr. R*ajeev G*owda in class today. Mr. G*owda is a congress party member and is contesting for the Legislative Council elections to be held in 2 months time. He is contesting under the P*rofessors Q*uota (or something like that!!), for which the electorate will consist only of graduates. And, when he told of his decision to contest in this quota, all that he got was discouragement!!!

The reason? The number of graduates from Bangalore who voted in the last Lok Sabha election, was a mere 27,000. The electorate consisted of about 5 Lakh graduates. That is just 5.4% polling from the graduates!!!

Why is this so? How can people be so irresponsible?
If the educated people are so careless and and are so hesitant to spend just a few minutes of their time cast their vote, can we expect them to enter poiltics?

It is a small consolation that there are at least a few well-educated youngsters like Dhayanidhi Maran in the cabinet. I started this post saying that educated younsters in politics is Mani's dream... Well... it is my dream too... And, it must be the dream of every Indian.