Podcasts · In Focus by The Hindu

In Focus-Parley | Should children be involved in political campaigning?

22 Oct 2026 · 35 min

Tamil Nadu recently went through a game-changing election that threw up a surprise. The TVK won largely on the strength of its appeal among young people; the younger the people were greater was their enthusiasm for the TVK and Vijay, the current chief minister. Many older voters were telling journalists that their sons, daughters and grandchildren were telling them to vote for Vijay.

Recently, a DMK candidate who lost in Salem North went to court, arguing that Vijay had appealed to children to persuade their parents to vote for the TVK, and that this was wrong. The High Court dismissed the petition but made some very caustic, very critical remarks about the trend.

Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy said that the entire act of involving tender children in elections “is in bad taste, and the tasks they are made to perform at home for making YouTube reels reflect poor parenting besides being a cheap and politically motivated act.” He said that it was for Parliament to consider whether such acts should be made a ground for setting aside the election of candidates.

Should children be involved in political campaigning? Here, we discuss. Guests: Andrew Sesuraj M., child rights activist, Chennai; Dr. Anil Pillai, behavioural scientist

Host: M. Kalyanaraman (host)

Producer: Jude Weston

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