Democracy found a young classroom in Patna on Monday, 2 November 2026, as Union Food Processing Minister Chirag Paswan took the stage at PRYS (Patliputra Rashtriya Yuva Sansad) 2.0 — a youth parliament simulation — to share his vision on governance, parliamentary traditions, and India's long-road goal of Viksit Bharat @2047.

The event, held in Patna, drew a distinguished gathering: Bihar Governor Syed Ata Hasnain, Member of Parliament Shambhavi Chaudhary, and PRYS founder Sayan Kunal were present on the dais as young participants debated and deliberated in the spirit of the national legislature.

What Chirag Paswan told the young participants

Paswan addressed the gathering on four pillars: democracy, parliamentary traditions, good governance, and the Viksit Bharat @2047 vision — the central government's framework, outlined by the Prime Minister in 2023, for a fully developed India by its centenary of independence. His message, delivered in Hindi, was a call for young citizens to internalise these values rather than observe them from the sidelines.

He also offered 'heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for a bright future' to all participants who won awards for outstanding performance — a nod to the competitive, merit-recognition format that PRYS 2.0 employed to keep student engagement sharp.

PRYS and the long tradition of youth parliament in India

Youth Parliament programmes have been a fixture of civic education in India since the 1990s, when the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs began organising them to give students hands-on exposure to legislative procedure. PRYS 2.0, led by founder Sayan Kunal, follows that lineage but positions itself as a state-level, community-driven edition — giving Bihar's youth a locally rooted forum rather than a purely institutional one.

The presence of Governor Hasnain — a retired Lieutenant General and former Army commander with a long record in conflict and counter-insurgency zones — added weight to the proceedings and underlined that the event had drawn Bihar's highest constitutional authority to its platform.

Bihar youth and the NDA's civic engagement push

MP Shambhavi Chaudhary, among the youngest members of the current Lok Sabha and a key NDA face in Bihar, attending alongside a Union Cabinet minister signals that the event was not simply ceremonial. Forums like PRYS form part of a broader NDA-era emphasis on drawing students into conversations about long-term national goals — making civic education feel less like a subject and more like a stake.

For a generation that will vote, govern, and build during the 2047 window, that framing matters. India's youth parliament circuit is expanding; events like PRYS 2.0 are both its symptom and its engine.