Dear Modiji,
All is not lost. A mark of a great leader is one who takes the heat and comes out unscathed. Neither you nor our CJI would have envisioned this day—that a series of disconnected events (the naming of youth as cockroaches followed by NEET) would have awakened the youth of India.
There is no going back now on why all of this happened. It is how you shall handle
what comes next that will determine the fate of Indian youth and their faith in you. There are many thoughts that may be going through your mind. These may be as follows: How can this situation be managed so that the agitation stops, Indian youth go back to their homes, and the media goes about with conspiracies, half-truths, or near-truths? How can the opposition, and all those who chose to voice themselves, be handled in time, as they all may have some weakness or another that can be brought to the fore? What policies and projects can be rekindled in order to show the Indian population that there are many other aspects to being a successful government than just managing central exams and the Indian youth?
One can zoom out and draw a tree which charts the course of actions that you (the
government) shall take in the near, mid, and long term, considering the planning that has
been a hallmark of the present government. The top of this tree is marked as the CJP event in our capital. And the branching that happens in the strategic planning halls of the government has already been sketched. The first branches have been the moving or sacking of those heading the education ministry or those who held some titles heading the NTA.
Next in the set of branching came the intent to bring into force stricter laws to discourage anyone from leaking exam papers again by way of longer jail terms and hefty fines. I am guessing these may be followed up by the usual frenzy of unveiling infrastructure projects, signing moreFTAs, and other fanfare. All of this is in the hope that passing time shall ensure that whatever happened shall be lost from the Indian youth’s memory, and will be available only in news articles, YouTube videos, social media, etc.
But are you the great leader that we have come to trust in the highs and lows over the years, who has given the opportunity to your government to lead India out of being just a developing country to a country that knows how to truly reform too? By that, I mean, will you muster the heart to deploy apolitical resources to find the “root cause” of how the exam papers were leaked, set up a non-political academic body to truly understand the gaps in the current examination system, and understand how advanced countries are doing this successfully—even looking at how our neighbor China does this at scale without such
recurring issues?
Only then can you restore faith in the hearts of the Indian youth, who shall be the adults of tomorrow and go to voting booths to once again cast their votes for future leaders who belonged to the team that had the courage to put aside everything else today and
decided to truly reform the Indian education system from the inside out. This is but a test of the faith that the Indian youth already have in you. Easier said than done, but consider this as not the Indian youth conspiring with antisocial elements outside India.
Not the Indian youth standing beside political parties who may or may not be taking
advantage of this situation. Instead, please consider this as the Indian youth saying to you,
“Sir, we have already trusted you for the last many years. This is us trying our best and
expressing our hearty feelings that you are the only one who has the courage to understand us and enable a transformation.” Of course, there shall be all those “root causes” like conspiracies, antisocial elements, and so forth.
But how about attempting to truly understand the core “root cause” behind the voice of the most vocal critic, and then having the courage to carve out a plan to address that and convey with your heart that, “Thank you. You have trusted me till date. This is what we are going to do. Trust me again.”
Hope the above letter reaches the youthful heart in you that you had when you were in your twenties and also the courageous one that you have now. All is not lost.