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25 July, late evening, as l key in this, Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Education Minister has resigned. The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) and the opposition – who took zero initiative on their own – are celebrating victory. Having tasted success, they are baying for more blood…resignation of the HM and even the PM, or, in the least, an apology from him. This fledgeling movement, which started with Boston based Abhijeet Dipke taking exception to an innocuous remark from the CJI, who called out-of-work, frequently litigating lawyers ‘cockroaches’, garnered unprecedented support on social media, with millions of followers on Instagram etc in a week. Whether or not these were bots, Pak agents or paid subscribers, as alleged, remains to be verified.
Dipke parachuted into the maelstrom of the NEET controversy and started a protest, which initially found little traction. Then Sonam Wangchuk, 59, a Ladakh activist, joined in and started an indefinite hunger strike, demanding, inter alia, the resignation of the Education Minister. Until his arrival on the scene, the protest was largely ignored by politicians and even the media. Wangchuk galvanized the motley group, with have-beens from Bollywood, many septuagenarian, joining the bandwagon with the cliched and done-to-death idiom of solidarity. These well heeled worthies were suddenly the champions of the downtrodden!
So now that the brohuahua is presumably over, let’s see if it all adds up, with some questions. A disclaimer before that – all right thinking Indians have their sympathies with the students and parents who indeed suffered untold anguish and loss due to the paper leak and lapses of NTA.
The first question therefore is: were all protesters students? By all accounts, not more than 10-15%. So the rest? In all likelihood, lumpen elements and paid goons with dubious motives. Then, who pelted stones and broke police barricades? Not surely the students (who are acutely aware of the consequences of a police record and its effect on their careers), but hoodlums, the proverbial career anarchists, adept at such practices. Next, who paid for the logistics support, such as food and water for days? Dipke, with no personal interest in NEET, certainly did not spend his own money for this. Apparently he and the CJP received huge funding…from within the country and outside. How and why did Article 370, statehood for J&K, Umar Khaled, Burhan Wani,entirely unrelated to the issue at hand, come up at the protest?
Why did the CJP march towards the Parliament, a very high security zone, without police permission? Why, later to the PM’s residence, which is the country’s most secure zone? Why were drones flown near the PM’s house, when it is a declared No-fly zone? Some of the answers must come from Delhi Police, responsible for this high security zone. Did they not have intelligence? It is their failure too.
Talking of the police, there are reports of police heavy handedness and even brutality. TV visuals corroborate some of this. While baton charge on innocent students cannot be condoned, the question again is – were they students? As per SOP, the police uses graded response from water cannon, tear gas, lathi charge, pellets and finally live firing (fortunately the last did not have to be resorted to). What is the police expected to do to lawbreakers when they turn violent? Silently watch from a distance? And what about the 150 odd policemen who were injured, some seriously? Now the sympathisers are seeking immunity for criminals. In my reckoning, each one of them should be charged and meted out the most severe punishment under law. Students, if any, can perhaps be spared with a warning.
Some other questions in the political realm. Was the govt wise in buckling down? Did they show sensitivity or weakness? Were they arrogant or empathetic? Could they have talked to the agitators earlier? Will such capitulation open a Pandora’s box and embolden others? In a country like ours, there will always be persons and groups with grudges. Is this the only way to get redress? Can anarchy and mobocracy be allowed to go unchallenged? Did the govt have no option other than to bow down to the demands of a fledgeling group, with shady antecedents …and most likely external support?
Leading opposition netas, who have been losing political ground, smelt an opportunity and like hyenas, closed in to scavenge. Will these embattled parties get a shot in the arm? Does this event spell the beginning of the end for the BJP? Probably not…but it certainly casts a shadow on their prospects and makes their path ahead thornier.
My final thought : NTA was staffed with just 24 permanent staff and about 200 contractual/outsourced hands. That is pitiful for a central testing body, responsible for so many national level examinations. All have been reportedly sacked. A good move. Whatever the answers to the questions put forth above, one thing is clear: our education system, from Primary to PhD level is broken and immediately needs to be fixed. If this sordid chapter in India’s democracy acts as a catalyst for that change, despite its dubious character, it will have served a noble purpose.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.