BJP youth wing chief slams government

NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) youth wing Monday got a new chief, Anurag Thakur, who slammed the Congress-led central government for not having an effective policy for the young population.

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morch (BJYM) chief said his organisation will connect to the youth through “struggle, service and sacrifice”.

“Youth is the biggest resource of the country but the government has no effective policy for them. Not many youth are in politics though it is a means to transform the country. We will reach out to the youth and connect them to the BJP,” Thakur told IANS.

Thakur, 35, who is among the youngest BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha, said he will create awareness among the youth on problems such as the Maoist threat, price rise and corruption.

“We will struggle against the anti-people policies of the Congress-led government and guard interests of the common man. We will also try to develop a spirit of sacrifice among the youth,” he said.

Asked about the efforts of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who has made Indian Youth Congress an instrument of political change within the party, Thakur said that the two parties had different working styles and ideologies.

“We are not a person-centric party. It is not based on individuals. We believe in organisation and team work,” he said.

Thakur, who is the son of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, said the BJYM will work hard in states where the party was weak.

He said the new team of BJYM office-bearers will be in place in about a month.

The new BJYM chief, who has been the chief of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) for the past 10 years, said the organisation will build multi-discipline sports facilities in all districts of the state in the next four years.

He said apart from the international stadium at Dharamsala where a cricket match of the Indian Premier League was held earlier this year, stadiums had come up at Hamirpur and Bilaspur.

“When I took over as president of HPCA, the budget of the association was Rs.20 lakh. It now has a budget of Rs.30 crore with fixed assets of Rs.90 crore,” Thakur said.

Senior BJP leaders Ananth Kumar and Ravi Shankar Prasad were present at the function in the party office Monday to mark Thakur’s formal taking over as BJYM chief.