Indian Youth Congress - A Dream Fulfilled but the Journey Continues

A Day To Celebrate For the Indian Youth Congress

Five years ago, a dream was born. It was a dream to empower the youth of India and open to them the doors of the world’s largest youth organisation, make them leaders and allow them to elect their own leaders. It was a revolutionary thought, and the man at the helm of it was Rahul Gandhi ji.

It was October 2007,  only a month ago, Rahul ji had been inducted into the AICC as a General Secretary, and given the responsibility, like his father before him, of being the in charge of Congress Party’s  two main frontal wings – the Youth Congress and the NSUI.

In his first meeting with the National Executive, Rahul ji articulated the idea that the doors of the Youth Congress and the NSUI, hitherto only ajar, with entry primarily limited to those either with political backgrounds of their own or with connections to those with such a background, should be wide open for all.

The idea to open the doors of the organisation and change its prevailing membership structure – where you could become a member only if you knew an active member – to one, where literally “one should just be able to send a postcard to get membership” was a breath of fresh air, as was the thought that henceforth positions would not be given, but had to be earned through fighting organization elections.

Rahul ji’s third idea was to strictly enforce the age limit of the organisations. While there was initial apprehension as to how this entire system would work, along with some level of insecurity for the incumbent office bearers –“humara kya hoga?”, the entire IYC and NSUI team put their heart and soul into the process, and the IYC and NSUI transformation process began to take shape.

With a core team from both the organisations piloting the endeavour, gradually the 6 pillars of the transformation process were identified – Membership, Elections, Training, Programs, Performance Measurement  and Code of Conduct.

Discussions would begin in the morning and carry on till late into the evening. Every single point, every single clause was intensely debated. Consequently, drafts were prepared and submitted to the National Executives of the organisations for feedback. It was a thoroughly democratic process, and finally around September 2008, the structure was ready and Punjab was chosen as the first state to have open membership and organizational elections.

The results were amazing, to say the least. While the previous membership drive in Punjab in 2006-7 had seen membership of only around 30, 000, this time the figure went up to 3 lakhs. The youth of Punjab came out in hordes to support the process and hailed the new system and Rahul ji’s vision. Ravneet Singh Bittu created history by becoming the first elected Youth Congress president in the country.  The successful completion of the membership and election process in Punjab convinced even the naysayers that change was possible, and the team put in even greater effort to fine tune and improve the process as we went along.

With time, the election juggernaut moved to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Tripura and then more and more states across the country. With every election there were new learnings and modifications. For example, after Punjab, it was felt that the traditional Block, district, State model was not working well, so the Youth Congress election model was changed to Assembly, Lok Sabha and State.  Gradually, we moved even further down to the Wards and the Panchayats and today, the Youth Congress is the only organisation to have teams even down to the Booth level.

Other changes have also taken place. While initially, only three positions – President, Vice President and General Secretary were contested for, today, we have expanded the team and also have elected Secretaries in the committees. The Youth Congress elections are also unique for ensuring that every section of society – women, SC/ST, minorities – are adequately represented in the committees through due reservation of positions.

This is a unique endeavour to bring all sections of the society into the political ‘mainstream’, something that no other organisation in this country can replicate.

The Indian Youth Congress membership and election process has brought about a new vibrancy within the organization. The Youth Congress members today come from every corner of the country, and from different walks of life, from newspaper vendors to IT professionals. Apart from membership and internal elections, other pillars of our transformation process are a comprehensive training regime right down to Assembly and Panchayat level and a detailed program calendar.

For the first time, a process of performance measurement called ‘Pehchaan’ and a scientific unit management system to measure performances of individuals and committees have been conceived of and initiated. A code of conduct and disciplinary mechanism has been put into place which is followed by all elected office bearers.

Participation of women in the process has been a real game changer. Initially, in many cases, the women who got elected did not participate. In the last two years, we have seen a number of women, initially reserved and subdued, really come into their own and begin to assert themselves.

Today, having completed the election cycle in all states (with Nagaland and Sikkim due to complete in the next few days), we are justifiably proud of ourselves. At the same time, we realise that this is not the time to rest on our laurels, but to pledge to work even harder and strengthen the organization.

And as Robert Frost said:

The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep

Inputs from YUVA