Both, the Central and the State governments should be made answerable for their utter neglect of the country's youth that has cost the country dear. The claims that their Youth Policies were always in place is highly misleading for those policies were never implemented, whether honestly or not is out of question.

Thus the dreams and idealism of youth, their aspirations and expectations, their love and compassion, their altruism and patriotism, and their youthful energies were stifled by successive governments that failed to recognize their worth and denied them necessary opportunities to grow and share national responsibilities. As a consequence resentment, frustration and disillusionments obsessed the left-out youth. Since social leadership was late in coming or was not sufficiently powerful and resourceful to take care of the youth and vital national interests, the political and religious leaderships, which were on the look out for enthusiastic and unquestioning followers, weaned them away from the mainstream of the civil society, enslaving them by shrewd manipulations.

The first casualty of this take over was of course the social leadership that was overwhelmed and weakened by the political and religious leaderships combine "a veritable tragedy for democracy because in matters of faith there is no compromise or room for tolerance as faiths are insular in outlook and by their very nature are confrontational and prone to violence.

But matters social are humane, altruistic and all-embracing in nature and substantially affect every citizen without discrimination. Riding high on the immense enthusiasm and powerful shoulders of the youth, the political parties and the religious organizations have grown from strength to strength and in the wake of their acceptance and popularity among the unsuspecting masses and the selfish, intellectually dishonest middle class, have rendered the social leadership quite redundant.

The politico-religious combine wields such great authority and money power that they have a complete sway over the country's national life. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and this was precisely what happened. Corruption, violence, intolerance, and hatred became synonymous with them and swept across the country that held the civil society to ransom.

SIMI presents the best example of what can happen to an organization in the absence of a powerful social leadership. I am not taking the case of SIMI for broader discussion for my purpose is to prove my view point that collapse of social leadership is devastating for a democracy specially the multi-faceted Indian democracy. A student named Ahmadullah Siddiqi founded SIMI (1977) in Aligarh for the betterment of the Muslim students.

Siddiqi left for America, acquired his doctorate in Physics, but abandoned it and now teaches Journalism at the Illinois University. Without agreeing or disagreeing upon the present status of SIMI, he claims that he had created an organization only for the benefit of the students. I want to offer the plea that had there been a recognized social leadership of Muslims in Aligarh SIMI would have been a powerful democratic forum wherefrom the Muslims could ventilate their grievances and voice their concerns.

In the absence of social forums the young, of all religions, have no other outlets except religion and politics, which to my mind are the two most unsocial and un-national bodies. What have faiths to do, broadly speaking, with social life? The frustrated youth, who should have a say in the country's affairs and policy making, therefore follow the politico-religious leadership that at least gives them recognition and offers opportunities and outlet to their energies.

When it comes to social service or other services to the nation, our youth are laggards and a discarded lot. In the organized sector like schools, colleges, universities and other professional institutions, young men and women hardly contribute anything to the nation in terms of social/national services. Scarcely 3 to 4 percent students join NCC and opt for NSS, the rest stay away or just are not called upon to participate in national and social campaigns on health, education, poverty, environment and social justice.

They have therefore no feel for the pulse of the nation and are ignorant about its problems: such citizens can be easily misled. The rural youth are the worst sufferers for they are universally exploited. We know it is difficult to engage the political and religious leadership for they wield immense authority and enjoy great popularity among the gullible citizens.

But we can at least strengthen our social institutions and inspire genuine patriotism among our youth, so that they learn to distinguish between pseudo-patriotism and pseudo-secularism. If we succeed in this and wean away the youth from the politicians and from those who play the Politics of Paradise, the nation will pass into sensible and enlightened hands. To write off such a mighty, freely available, enthusiastic and willing work force from national duties is not only disgustingly shameful but perilous too.