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Youth Congress goes the AAP way to attract young crowd
Worried over losing its space to the youth wing of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Youth Congress is replicating the former’s method of protests to attract a young crowd.
Worried over losing its space to the youth wing of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Youth Congress is replicating the former’s method of protests to attract a young crowd.
Recently, the grand old party’s youth wing organised street protests across the country to press its demand for resignations of top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders over the Vyapam scam and Lalit Modi controversy. To convey its message, the Youth Congress sed different forms of protests, such as street plays, picketing, even tonsuring of heads — on one occasion, samples of hair and nails were sent to the Prime Minister’s Office for DNA testing.
The AAP had been very effective in using street plays during the Jan Lokpal movement led by Anna Hazare in 2011 and even during the two previous Delhi assembly elections.
A Youth Congress leader admitted there have been concerns over the “growing popularity” of the AAP student wing in colleges and universities in Delhi and other parts of the country. “So, the focus is on how to connect with the youth,” he said.
As a part of its revised strategy, the Youth Congress recently organised a street play, with its president Amarinder Singh Raja Brar as the anchor. A scene during the 30-minute play showed 49 bodies, of whistle-blowers and key witnesses who allegedly died in connection with the Vyapam scam, lying on the street.
Samples of hair and nails were collected afterwards from 51 youth activists and sent to the PMO. The aim was to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “break his silence” on the alleged corruption scandals involving his party colleagues.
“The PM should test these DNA samples sent to him and analyse the demand of the country’s youth,” Brar said. “We will hold similar protests across the country till the tainted BJP leaders resign.”
