Bini Dahal

Everyone has his/her own interest and they are driven by it. So, any individual and group working on meeting their needs should motivate and mobilise others through their perceived benefits. While this can be an important tip and track for field of study like organisational behaviour, many political parties are found using this as a tool of propaganda today. The only difference is that the motivating benefits are in the form of deceit.
After Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had decided to dissolve the House of Representatives more than two months before, there was uproar from another faction of his own party as well as the opposition forces. Many political parties took to the streets to protest against the Prime Minister's move. In course of protests for the same, as per media reports, a very amusing incident took place in Chitwan. A number of college students had participated in the event without understanding what was going on.
Unlike in the past, youngsters now do not show much interest in political affairs. Those innocent students were made to believe that Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, the top leader of the Prachanda-Nepal faction of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), would address their grievance of colleges charging fees without conducting online classes. With this hope, they were taking part in the rallies by carrying the party's flags and chanting different slogans. Yet, they were unaware of what was going on in the political upfront of the country. Neither did Prachanda address the protest nor were their concerns talked about at the mass meeting. The students were only mobilised to show that there was an encouraging number of participants in the protest rallies.
Such is the situation of youths in our country. What is really funny is that many youths don’t even know who their reigning prime minister or president is. And whatever they have learnt is mostly from social media. There are many things that remain beyond their understanding and interpretation. Yet they are ready to participate in things that they feel will benefit them without realising that the whole thing is a trap. Cost-benefit analysis is quite high here. Because students felt their issue could be resolved, they joined in the rally. Otherwise, would they do so?
Making politically disengaged students participate in political rallies in the pretext of helping them is a propaganda move by the political parties. These kinds of activity need to be stopped. The political parties should be mindful of people who are associated in some way with them. It is their responsibility to ensure that students carry pens and copies and not party flags.
Increasing political consciousness among every section of the society is necessary. But as it is said, little knowledge is dangerous. What the students are being pulled into does not boost their political empowerment. Rather, they are given a wrong message that protest is the only way to find a solution to every problem.
This way their budding political awareness will die. So, it is essential to prevent such kind of participation. Protests can only be effective when fully aware people are mobilised to support the cause. Inviting disengaged and clueless people is wrong and in no way can change be brought in this manner.