Indian youth are selfish and they should be, says Chetan Bhagat

India’s youth are selfish but there’s nothing wrong with it since in the long run it will benefit the country’s economy believes best selling author Chetan Bhagat.

“I am not judging anybody and I am not saying it is wrong to be selfish. I think it is great to be selfish. I am just here to tell truth to the people,” Bhagat said to CNN-IBN.

Incidentally, Bhagat happened to be speaking about his latest book,  What Young India Wants, his first foray into the world of non-fiction books.

Bhagat said that the youth is selfish in securing their future and they should be, as it helps making India a richer country.

“People think I wrote this book What Young India Wants and therefore I will have some great intellectual thoughts on all the social issues. But the most important thing for the youth is to secure their future,” he said.

“I think the youth should secure their future not just to fight inflation and survive. If the youth doesn’t want to be rich how do the country ever become rich,” he added.

The writer doesn’t hold out much hope for the older generation though and says that unlike the youth, “the older generation in power are exploitative”.

But while endorsing a mantra similar to Gordon Gekko’s ‘greed is good’ , Bhagat throws in a caveat and said it is fine to selfish only as long as you don’t exploit anyone in the process.

“I think the youth want a good job that’s great to be selfish. As long as you make your money in right way in honest way with integrity, with innovation, there is nothing wrong with it,” he said.