Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has been naming all his pet projects as ‘Young India,’ whether it is the Young India Skills University, the Young India Sports University or the latest Young India Integrated Model School.
He is breaking the convention of naming institutes after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi like a typical Congressman.
Sources close to the CM said that ‘Young India’ signifies that Telangana is a state of the future and that the youthfulness of the country is reflected in its name.
“The CM’s mission and my slogan for everything will be Young India moving forward. The name is to inspire Telangana. Telangana is pitched as a future state by the CM reinforcing the vibrancy of the young state and eventually, it looks like a torch. We want to make Telangana synonymous with ‘Young India’ across the world and not just in the country as the state is largely about youth and youthfulness,” the sources said.
Acknowledging the gap between the skills of the youth and what industry needs, the Congress government went ahead with establishing the Young India Skills University to address this mismatch.
The establishment of the Young India Sports University aims to improve India’s performance in the Olympics.
Focussing on nurturing talent, the government is also setting up Young India Integrated Residential Schools on 20 to 25 acres in all constituencies to provide training and education for Telangana’s youth.
Some seasoned Congressmen attributed this to Rajiv Gandhi’s idea. A Congress leader said, “Rajiv Gandhi once said that India is an old country but a young nation. I too have a dream. I dream of an India which is strong, independent, self-reliant and occupying the front rank among nations. Telangana has a rich history but is a young state. We want to make it a front-runner in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi used Young India to disseminate his ideas regarding non-violence and to urge readers to consider, organise, and plan for India’s independence from the British.
Meanwhile, critics pointed to the Young Indian Private Ltd company owned by the Gandhis. The ED has been investigating Sonia Gandhi and her family regarding the ownership of Young Indian Private Limited (YIL) by the Gandhi family and its shareholding pattern in the Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the company that runs the ‘National Herald’ newspaper.
