Sunday, January 24, 2016

Youth suicide as a political issue

Every person, has rights to live. It hurts utmost when someone commits suicide. And it hurts more, if that person happens to be young. Because, like every young men and women, they have eons ahead of them, they too have a dream and unwisely decide to procrastinate their unfilled dream by killing themselves.

When does a person decide to end his or her life ? It's not just the frustration with their life, it's more due to the lack of care or concern for the rest of the world, which includes their near and dear ones. If I feel suicidal for some reason, I may resist that thought for a moment, if I think of my family, if not me. Apparently they don't care about their loved one and decide end their life at the spurt of the moment, never getting a chance to regret it later.

Suicides in college campuses are not uncommon. Surging teenage hormone can create havoc in hearts and minds, which can be due to failure in academics, love or bullying by others.

There is an alarming increase in IITians committing suicide in recent years. I have a close friend from IIT, who during his trips to India visits his professors from Alma mater. They told him - gone are the days when intelligent, creative students used to come to these premier institutes. Now many mediocre students churned out of innumerable coaching institutes mange to clear the entrance exam. Once in, they can't cope of the aggressive curriculum and choose end their lives.  

A great tragedy in this context, is the death of an young man Rohith Vemula, who recently committed in an Hyderabad University. He was young and I am sure he too had a dream. So also many young minds who decide to prematurely end their life. But hardly any issue is made out of it. The news of their death dies within a few days of their death. But this case is different, for a different reason.

The greater tragedy is the myopic eyes of our NETAs, whose jaundiced view can rarely see beyond the colors of caste and creed. It feels sick to the stomach to see our politicians back home, busy milking political milage out of this tragedy. Rather than fixing the issue, they try to fix their rivals to get one step ahead of them in the rat race for power.

The greatest tragedy is silence of the silent majority, which is conspicuously deafening. Can't resist repeating my often mentioned joke. A person once went to an astrologer, who after seeing his chart said " You will beg after two years". "What will happen after that ?" asked the person who now was somewhat concerned. The astrologer responded "You will get used to it". So may be the silent majority has got used to the chaotic system.

No comments:

Post a Comment