India's youth vote rises from ashes of Mumbai

MUMBAI, India - Before the November terrorist attacks on this city left three of his friends dead, Kaizad Bhamgara, 19, spent his evenings jamming with his hipster goth-rock band or chilling on the wave-sprayed boulders along the high-rise-ringed shoreline.

But the pain of his loss and his frustration over the ineptitude of the government's response to the attacks moved him to put down his drumsticks and pick up his laptop.

He set up a Facebook page called "Rise Up Mumbai! Rise Up India!" It soon expanded into a Web site, a YouTube channel and a blog, all devoted to encouraging his peers to vote in India's national elections, which will be held in five phases from April 16 to May 13.

"For young India, there was an explosion of anger after the Mumbai attacks. We didn't want that energy to be wasted," said Bhamgara, at the popular Leopold Cafe, one of the 10 sites attacked. "Young India is restless and desperate for honest political leaders, for better security, for a voice."

The three-day siege that left more than 170 people dead and more than 230 wounded has spurred India's disillusioned middle-class youths to previously unseen levels of political action. At a time when young Indians have rising aspirations for their own futures, the attacks forced them to question why their expectations for their political leaders have fallen so low. Indian political analysts say young voters will play an unprecedented role in this year's vote, which will determine the composition of India's next government.

Known as India's 9/11, the assault on Mumbai exposed governmental dysfunction and security gaps that allowed 10 gunmen to bring one of the country's largest cities to a standstill. Tips about the attacks were ignored; untrained police lugged rusted muskets to crime scenes; members of India's elite National Security Guard spent nearly two hours stuck in traffic.

In past elections, India's middle-class youth blew off voting as a waste of time. The country's bureaucracy exasperated them, as did politicians' reputations for corruption and criminal behavior. But now the same high-tech tools that help teens engage with one another are being used to expose the misdeeds of politicians.

In the past, police harassed young people when they massed for street demonstrations. But Indian youths now gather on Facebook or organize over text messaging, a powerful medium in India, where 385 million people own cell phones, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India.

Sabita Pradhan, 24, an events manager for fashion shows in Mumbai, said that before the attacks, she had never thought voting mattered. "We have so many problems: poverty, water, education," she said, putting on her iPod to listen to other young people talking about how they would vote. "After the attacks, I thought: I'd better vote. Indian youths have to care about our own country."

Youths elsewhere across India are also becoming more active. In New Delhi, Charu Khera, 22, said he was inspired by Barack Obama's win in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, which many young Indians say reminded them that democracy can work.

"The American election motivated me to vote and to think that maybe we can get India's Obama, someone with a dynamic nature and not the kind of politician that we currently have," said Kehra, a technology writer.

Ankur Dwivedi, 22, of Lucknow, in northern India, said he had not voted before. But after watching an ad campaign that chastised youths that if "you aren't voting, you are asleep," he felt motivated to register. Lately, he is even interested in entering politics.

"I was watching TV, and that campaign just got stuck in my mind . . .," Dwivedi said. "In our generation, every third person wants to become a doctor or an engineer; nobody wants to be a politician. It came to my mind that, why can't I be a politician if I have interest in politics?"