Mani Shankar Aiyar urges youth to enter politics by making use of Panchayati Raj system

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Wednesday urged the youth to enter politics making use of the panchayati raj system and build an economic base first so that they do not convert ''politics into commerce''.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony of Yuva Bhagidari Foundation, Aiyar said there is a mistaken impression that the youth of India have not been given adequate opportunities to participate political life. ''I would draw your attention to the arena in which the youth of India have enormous opportunities and that is the panchayati raj institutions of rural India and in the urban local bodies,'' he said.

The opportunities there are enormous because unlike Parliament where only about a few hundred people can get in, the panchayati raj system has arrangements for 32 lakh people to be elected, the former Union minister of panchayati raj said.

''Our system of reservation for women is of such a nature that we have 14 lakh out of 32 lakh members as women,'' he said, adding that they constitute the single largest body of elected women in the whole world.

He also urged the youth to develop their economic base if they want to join politics, asserting that ''if you don't have enough money to live on, even a frugal life, you will be compelled to convert politics into commerce and that is the root of all corruption''.

Former vice president Hamid Ansari , who was the chief guest at the event, stressed on the religious pluralism of India citing the views of Swami Vivekananda and asserted that it was not a creation of the Constitution but it was an existential reality of the country.

He also encouraged the youth to participate in the democratic process and discourse of the country.

Former Union minister Mohsina Kidwai and AICC secretary Pranav Jha also addressed the launch of the organization founded by Indian Youth Congress leader Gautam Seth with student activist Gurmehar Kaur as a co-founder.

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