Author Chetan Bhagat on Sunday urged the youth of the nation to put down their phones and ask the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government 'questions about economy'. Bhagat's criticism comes after India's April-June quarter GDP contracted by a massive 23.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY). This was the first GDP contraction in more than 40 years.
“The youth is busy in their phones, lost in their cheap 4G data packs, watching silly videos, playing video games, consuming porn and maybe fighting with people on social media all day. It’s all useless stuff,” Bhagat said and added that the youth needs to shut the phone and rise.
Bhagat also took a jibe at the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over her “Act of God” statement. Sitharaman had said, “This year we are facing an extraordinary situation. We are facing an act of God where we may even see a contraction.” She was referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ‘2 States’ author wrote, “If we continue to hold the fatalistic belief that ‘God created the problem, God will only fix it,’ well, it won’t be fixed. God gave us all a brain, which can be used to figure out solutions to get out of a problem.”
Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor applauded Chetan Bhagat’s piece. “Superb piece by @chetan_bhagat on all that ails our country & what we should do about it. Chetan’s great virtue is the simplicity and directness of his writing. His message is clear & I hope his fans in the government act on it,” Tharoor tweeted.
Twitter also appreciated Bhagat’s article. “A well written article. It is not going to find favour with many people but high time somebody said it,” a Twitter user wrote. “Could not agree more, thoughts well penned...hope the architects of the nation can take some clue,” said another Twitter user.
Here are a few Twitter reactions:
