Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, film director Deepa Mehta, author Chetan Bhagat and other eminent personalities would exhort youths to join politics in an event to be organised in Pune from January 10 to January 12.

MAAER’s MIT School of Governments would organise the 4th Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (Indian students’ Parliament) on its campus in Pune in which eminent personalities would address youths and would try to ignite their spirit to join politics with a purpose to serve the nation.

“Around 10,000 students from 28 states, including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, are expected to take part. From Bihar, 550 students studying in different universities, including Magadh University, Patna University, Veer Kuer Singh University and others would participate. The aim of this event is to motivate youths to join politics,” said Utsav Prakash, the brand ambassador of the event.

He added: “Today, most of the youths shy away from politics. If you would ask them to express their views about politics, the most probable answer you would get is that politics is full of filth and corruption and so they hate it. If the youths continue with this attitude, nothing is going to change. If politics is full of filth, join it and clean the mess. Only then you would be considered a responsible citizen. Former President Kalam, Mehta, film director Mahesh Bhatt, Aam Aadmi Party member Shazia Ilmi, MP Shashi Tharoor would be among some of the speakers in this event.”

Rahul Tiwary, another brand ambassador, said: “The event would be broadcast live in 200 universities. Many Speakers of Legislative Assemblies of various states would also take part, apart from vice-chancellors of eight universities. Sixteen young MLAs and 10 outstanding persons from different states would be felicitated. Speakers would focus on other issues in their address such as ‘Consumerism consuming India’, ‘What young India wants’, ‘Political leadership’, and others. A resolution will be passed and each session would be chaired by a Speaker of a Legislative Assembly.”

“On January 1, I took a resolution of being politically active. I thought the common man can’t do much but the recent victory of Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi elections made me realise I can join politics,” said Neha Srivastava, a postgraduate student of Chandragupt Institute of Management, Patna.