‘Kirron Kher Did Nothing In 5 Yrs’: Chandigarh’s Youth Demand Jobs

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
Cameraperson: Aishwarya S Iyer

With jobs on their mind, Chandigarh’s youth get candid about sitting MP Kirron Kher’s prospects of being re-elected as Chandigarh MP for a second consecutive term in in the upcoming 2019 elections.

Bringing up the sensitive political issue of demolishing villages (bastis) in Chandigarh, 28-year-old Gurpreet Singh says, “Kirron Kher did nothing. When she came here, there were slums being demolished, slum-dwellers protested. Kirron Kher told them, ‘You are my kids, I am the MP here, I will not let them demolish your homes.’ But she made false promises, the villages were demolished.”

Maanvi Sharma who has been jobless for two years, despite a masters degree in psychology, says, “Last elections Kher came to Chandigarh to ask for votes and then I have not seen her.”

Sahil, a 21-year-old Botany student, is upset due to the depletion of Chandigarh’s cleanliness, “In Kirron Kher's regime there is a downfall in cleanliness which is both unprecedented and scary.”

Asking political leaders if they think the common man is dumb, Sahil says, “These leaders have started this new thing, that at night they are fixing roads. Do you think people are mad so you'll fix the roads at night and people will think solid work was done in the last five years?”

They also speak about the reach and impact of Congress’s Pawan Kumar Bansal and AAP’s Harmohan Dhawan. Panjab University president Kanupriya says, “It is not like when Pawan Kumar Bansal was MP here, the students in the university had a merry happy time. During his time as well we had fee hike struggles and other student struggles.”

While some people said they continued to look at the AAP as a viable alternative to BJP and Congress, many did not know much about AAP candidate Harmohan Dhawan. The infighting and MLAs leaving the party in Punjab has further disillusioned some. Nineteen-year-old Karandeep said, “AAP has no stand. Recently they wanted to collaborate with Congress, and initially they used to fight amongst themselves, they wanted to head into the polls alone. But they have failed on all fronts, they do not have effective leadership and the people cannot put trust in them.”