[ Soubhik Dev ]
The most dangerous thing a young society can inherit is not poverty, distance, or hardship. It is the habit of believing that progress is a joke. That is why the recent viral debate around the so-called ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ should be seen as more than an internet meme. It is a reminder of how quickly digital satire can harden into self-contempt, especially when frustration is left without direction. The uploaded article warns that if a nation begins to describe its youths as parasites, it risks weakening its own future. That warning deserves serious attention from Arunachal Pradesh as well.
From the perspective of Arunachal, the issue is not simply one of online language. It is about identity, aspiration, and responsibility. Arunachal’s young people grow up in one of India’s most strategically important, culturally rich, and ecologically sensitive regions. They live at the meeting point of tradition and transition. In such a state, youth identity cannot be built on mockery, resentment, or borrowed digital theatrics. It must be built on competence, discipline, and a sense of purpose. There is no shortage of talent in Arunachal. Across districts, young people are preparing for civil services, joining the armed forces, entering higher education, building local enterprises, working in tourism, and preserving indigenous cultures. Many are the first in their families to access modern education. Many are learning to balance local roots with national ambition. This is not a generation in decline; it is a generation in formation.
Yet the digital age has made formation harder. Social media rewards outrage, irony, and instant recognition. It gives young people a fast language of protest, but not always a durable language of construction. In that environment, grievance can easily become identity. Disappointment can become ideology. And satire can become a substitute for action. Arunachal cannot afford that trap. A state with such immense developmental potential cannot allow its youths to be reduced to spectators of their own future. The real challenge is not that young people question authority. Healthy societies need questioning minds. The problem begins when questioning turns into permanent contempt. A youth culture that laughs only at institutions but does not build better ones will eventually run out of moral force. A generation that defines itself only by what it rejects may end up rejecting its own duty as well.
Arunachal’s answer must be different. It must insist on positive identity. A young person from this state should see themselves not as peripheral to India’s story, but as central to it. Arunachal is not merely a frontier region; it is a living example of how diversity, geography, and national integration can coexist. The children of its hills, valleys, and border communities should carry that confidence with them into classrooms, offices, laboratories, businesses, and public life. This is where development and dignity meet. Better schools, stronger digital access, local skill training, entrepreneurship support, and cultural preservation are not separate goals. They are connected. When a young person in Arunachal learns to code, starts a business, manages a farm efficiently, or serves in public administration, that person is not just earning a livelihood. They are expanding the meaning of citizenship in the state.
The message, then, is simple but urgent. Arunachal’s youths must resist the temptation to wear cynicism as a badge of sophistication. They must not mistake online noise for political maturity. The strongest youth movement is not the loudest one; it is the one that leaves behind institutions, enterprises, ideas, and service.
India’s future will not be built by those who call themselves parasites in jest or despair. It will be built by those who choose to be problem-solvers. Arunachal should lead by example: grounded in culture, open to innovation, and fearless in ambition. The state’s young people are not a burden on history. They are its next chapter. The nation needs them confident, not bitter; skilled, not distracted; constructive, not cynical. That is the real choice before Arunachal’s youths. And it is a choice worth making. (The writer is a journalist and a screenplay writer based in Guwahati, Assam)
