Politics seemed ‘dirty business’ when I was a student: Delhi CM Atishi

New Delhi: Twenty-three years after Delhi Chief Minister Atishi passed out from the elite St. Stephen’s College in Delhi University, she was back on the campus on Saturday to interact with students and showcase her journey in politics.

Delivering an address on Founder’s Day at her alma mater, the AAP leader and former Oxford University scholar said, “When I was a student, politics was considered ‘dirty business’. Politics was where these gundas went, politics was where people with white, starched kurta-pyjamas would go. Middle-class parents used to tell their children to maintain distance from politics and politicians.”

“But not anymore,” she said.

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The Delhi Chief Minister also shed light on the challenges she faced in politics. “It has been a difficult journey but it’s been worthwhile because of the change we have been able to bring in and the impact that we have had,” she said, talking about her decade-long association with Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party.

Asking youngsters to be agents of change, she said, “What change happens in our country is not in anyone else’s hands but in our hands. And, if change is not happening and if we feel there is a problem, then it is not just others who are responsible, all of us are responsible. Because, as citizens of the country we are going to get the kind of governance that we ask for.”

Highlighting how politics has opened up as a career option now, she said when she was in college, most of the students did not even know how to enter politics or people who wanted to make a difference didn’t consider politics as a means to do so.

But things have changed now, she said, adding that when well-meaning people stay away from politics, it leads to a situation in which all important decisions about our lives are taken by politicians and elected representatives.

“So what kind of educational opportunities that I will get or my children would get, will be decided by politicians, same with health facilities,” she said in the address whose video she uploaded on a social media platform.

“My safety when I step out of the house and the chances of getting a job after education are also in the hands of politicians,” she said.

“When educated and well-meaning people stay away from politics, we end up leaving most important decisions about our lives in the hands of the worst kind of people,” she said.

Encouraging people to join politics to bring about change, she said, “There is a need for people who care about this country, to engage with politics and engage with democracy.”

Talking about challenges to the mission to bring about change, the CM said that she and many of her colleagues were shocked to see the kind of vested interests that existed in politics.

“We were amazed by the kind of obstruction and vested interests that existed. For the last year or so my colleagues have been in custody because we had hit against vested interests,” she said, in a veiled reference to the imprisonment of former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy scam.

“So the question arises, is this the path that young people should think about? My answer in bold capital letters is: Absolutely. You must,” the Delhi CM said.

“My life changed when I entered a government school’s run-down premises as a politician in 2015,” Atishi said.

“But today, 2,000 students from government schools have cleared IIT-JEE and NEET and got admission to good engineering and medical colleges,” she said.

When we made bus rides free of cost, there was skepticism. But today, 11 lakh women a day are stepping out of their homes because of the right policies of the Delhi government, she said.

“It is this change that gives hope that if decision-making is in the hands of the right people, India can change,” Atishi concluded.