The Asian reporter., April 21, 2014, Page Page 4, Image 4

ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
April 21, 2014
Young voters have numbers to set India on new path
YOUNG ELECTORATE. Indian voters wait in
queues to cast their votes during the first phase of
elections in Dibrugarh, in the northeastern state of
Assam, India. With 814 million eligible voters, India is
voting in stages over a five-week period in a staggered
approach made necessary by the country’s vast size.
Voters are choosing representatives for the 543-seat
lower house of parliament. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
By Katy Daigle
The Associated Press
ANGALORE, India — What do
India’s youth want from their
politicians?
Clean
water,
universal healthcare, women’s safety, food
for all, better education, less corruption,
better roads, more investment, and, above
all, more jobs.
In short, they want it all, and they want
it fast.
As India goes through its weekslong
election process, the enormous population
of ambitious, tech-savvy, and politically
engaged youths has great potential to
sway the outcome. More than 378 million
of India’s 814 million eligible voters are
between 18 and 35 years old, according to
census records.
And while the youth vote is a diverse and
unpredictable bloc in a country of 1.2
billion people, India’s young voters have a
world view that in many ways is strikingly
different than their parents’ and
grandparents’. They have grown up in a
time
of
enormous
international
opportunity, technological innovation, and
high-speed economic growth.
“Our parents believed you can be happy
only with financial security,” said Sushant
Bangru, a 21-year-old biology major at the
Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore.
“But we know that passion and knowledge
is above money. It’s about doing what you
love to do.”
Nowhere is the power of India’s youth
more clear than amid the bright cafés and
technology companies of Bangalore, seen
as the economy’s beating heart and brain
trust. With 63 percent of its population
under 25, Bangalore is one of India’s
youngest cities.
Interviews with dozens of young adults
in Bangalore suggest that the most
pressing priorities are financial: more jobs
and better economic opportunities.
India’s once red-hot economic growth
has slowed in recent years, after a decade
under a coalition led by the Congress
party. With many worried about finding
work, the opposition Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) has honed in on that weak
spot, presenting itself as a purely
capitalist, pro-business party. Congress,
led mostly by the Nehru-Gandhi family
since the country’s socialist beginnings in
1947, is considered more of a welfare
party, mixing capitalist reforms with
handouts for the poor.
The main national parties in the
B
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running are heavily courting young voters,
launching social media campaigns and
introducing new candidates from outside
traditional political circles. Rank-and-file
members of the BJP are up in arms over
the party replacing party stalwarts with
dozens of untested candidates.
Congress party leaders have reportedly
quarrelled over letting younger members
take more control, even as 43-year-old
Gandhi family heir Rahul emerges as the
most likely prime ministerial candidate.
Despite his youth and dimples, Rahul
Gandhi is seen as having failed to connect
with many young Indians, instead
appearing privileged, aloof, and out of
touch with everyday Indians.
The upstart Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) —
or Common Man’s Party — has drawn in
droves of students and other young voters
attracted to party leader Arvind Kejriwal’s
outsider status and his anti-corruption
platform.
Anxious to pursue their dreams, young
people are particularly concerned with
India’s ability to add jobs. India added
fewer than 3 million jobs between 2005
and 2010, far below the 1 million needed
each month to keep up with student
matriculation and the growing ambitions
of Indians.
India’s first-time voters came of age in
an era of economic reforms that eased
socialist-leaning policies and allowed more
imports and foreign investment. Annual
per-capita income nearly tripled between
2002 and 2010, while India moved from a
country mostly concerned with securing
food and shelter to one in which priorities
are jobs, electricity, and infrastructure.
But the riches have rolled out unevenly,
creating a conspicuous wealth gap that has
fuelled frustrations by putting lavish
lifestyles in close proximity with the 400
million Indians — a quarter of the
country’s population — living in poverty
and making less than $1.25 per day.
Those gaps are even more visible and
public with the technology explosion.
Twenty years ago, people had access to
only a single state-run television channel
and most had no telephone. Today, there
are more than 200 television channels —
with some 40 devoted to news alone —
while three in four Indians has a cell
phone.
“We have no toilets in my home village,
but everybody has a smartphone, and we
all check every day for what’s happening in
the
campaign,”
said
22-year-old
Hanamanthray Biradar in the southern
state of Karnataka, where Bangalore is
located.
The massive election is held in April and
May. Ballots will be counted May 16. The
first two days of voting took place in the six
states of India’s remote northeast. The
vote now moves south into mainland
India’s 22 other states and territories.
Voting is geographically staggered to
give millions of police and paramilitary
forces time to move around as voters cast
their ballots. Whether or not the youth
vote swings the result, analysts agree their
participation has turned India’s political
scene on its head.
“Indian democracy is at a peculiar stage
of maturity or evolution. There has been a
particular way democracy has been
functioning for the last 30 years, and there
is a backlash against it,” said Jagdeep
Chhokar, who heads the Association for
Democratic Reforms in New Delhi. “With
all the talk of the young electorate, the
political parties are now scrambling to do
whatever they can to grab young voters.”
The engagement of India’s youth in
politics reached a pinnacle three years ago,
as they joined urban middle-class
protesters marching in protests against
endemic corruption. Their demands for
honest governance and an independent
anti-corruption watchdog led to anti-graft
legislation and the formation of the AAP,
which has become the third national party.
The AAP delivered a stunning upset in
Delhi’s December regional election,
launching Kejriwal to national renown
and a 49-day stint as Delhi’s chief
minister. He quit the post, saying the
entrenched political system prevented him
from enacting real reforms. Instead, he
said his scrappy party would focus on
national elections and on denouncing deep
graft in Congress and BJP.
Some voters say they’re already
disillusioned by politics and unhappy with
the candidates. But they plan to cast their
ballots nonetheless, taking advantage of a
new choice on the ballot — for “None of the
Above.”
South Koreans crave Asia’s smelliest fish
Continued from page 2
making hongeo is to put the fish on a bed of
hay in a clay pot, pile more hay on top, and
leave it.
Learning to love, or at least tolerate,
what many consider the smelliest fish in
Asia, takes perseverance. Fans commonly
say that if you try it four times, you’ll be
hooked. Nonfans may be mystified by how
anyone could meet that threshold.
“It’s a freaking punch in the face,” said
Joe McPherson, the founder of ZenKimchi,
a Korean food blog, and an eventual
devotee of the fish. “Like everyone else, I
gagged the first time.”
Natives of the southwest say hongeo
should be eaten plain. They sometimes
complain that the copious garnishes
provided at restaurants disguise the taste
and smell.
Most first-timers, however, tend to
embrace all the extras they can, creating a
hongeo “sandwhich” with garnishes that
can include red pepper paste, salty mini
shrimp, raw garlic, chili salt, slices of fatty
boiled pork, and some extraordinarily
strong kimchi.
Even with “some of the most powerful
flavors in the world to put up against it ... it
does not cover up the flavor at all,”
McPherson said.
The extremely chewy texture — spongy
flesh and hard cartilage — also makes for
tough swallowing. And the smell of
ammonia is so powerful it lingers for hours
on clothes, skin, and hair.
PUNGENT & POPULAR. Skates are displayed at a fish market in Mokpo, South Korea. Learning to love,
or at least tolerate, what many consider the smelliest fish in Asia, takes perseverance. Fans commonly say that if
you try it four times, you’ll be hooked. Nonfans may be mystified by how anyone could meet that threshold. (AP
Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
The second time, if there is one, is the mouth — two things that can be as
usually a little better.
important to Koreans as flavor. There’s
One trick is to inhale through the mouth also something convivial about hongeo
and exhale through the nose while eating. restaurants, where large amounts of
This helps fight the smell some and also strong Korean booze are as ubiquitous as
intensifies a surprising tingling and the fish.
cooling — almost minty — sensation in the
Still, while some Korean restaurants in
mouth, throat, and face.
the United States serve hongeo, it’s
There are various theories explaining unlikely to catch on except “in hardcore
the food’s popularity. Some Koreans foodie circles,” McPherson said. “I can see
describe their craving as similar to the maybe college fraternities hazing their
desire for a cigarette: You want it despite freshmen with this, but it’s very much a
its obvious negatives. McPherson says the ‘dare’ food. Like live octopus.”
fish is also valued for its interesting
AP writer Jung-yoon Choi
contributed to this story.
texture and the sensation it produces in