Young people with ethical conduct are not willing to come forward to join active politics. Suggest steps…

Question

Young people with ethical conduct are not willing to come forward to join active politics. Suggest steps to motivate them to come forward.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Ethical youth can be drawn into politics by lowering barriers such as money power, criminalised tickets and closed parties, and by reframing politics as public service through role models and training. ADR found that 46% of the MPs elected in 2024 had declared criminal cases.

**Introduction**

Gandhi called "politics without principles" a social sin, and ADR found that 46% of the MPs elected in 2024 had declared criminal cases. Ethical youth stay away, so both the barriers and the attitudes must change.

**Steps to Lower the Barriers to Entry**

SKETCH: forcefield | Ethical Youth into Politics
center: Ethical youth join politics
driving: Clean funding, Open party tickets, Civic education, Role models
restraining: Money power, Criminalisation, Dynastic parties, Toxic discourse

1. **Clean the money**: Partial state funding, proposed by the Indrajit Gupta Committee (1998), and full disclosure after electoral bonds were struck down in 2024 would let honest newcomers compete.
2. **Decriminalise tickets**: The Supreme Court in 2020 required parties to publish why they field candidates with criminal cases; fast-track courts would add teeth.
3. **Open party doors**: Inner-party democracy, urged by the Law Commission's 170th report (1999), and a 2023 parliamentary committee's call to lower the Assembly candidacy age to 18 would widen access.

**Steps to Change Attitudes and Build Pathways**

1. **Reframe politics as service**: Credible role models such as Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri can persuade youth that politics is the widest form of public service.
2. **Train through practice**: The National Youth Parliament Festival, the LAMP fellowship with MPs and Lyngdoh Committee (2006) student-union norms offer a safe apprenticeship.
3. **Invite openly**: The Prime Minister's 2024 Independence Day call for one lakh youth without political background gives the effort national backing.

**Conclusion**

With clean funding, open tickets and politics seen as service, honesty stops being a handicap in public life. Ethical youth would then restore constitutional morality to legislatures and renew trust in democracy.

Young people with ethical conduct are not willing to come forward to join active politics. Suggest steps to motivate them to come forward.

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