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Jantar Mantar uprising was an epochal moment in India’s contemporary history. The rules of the game have now been re- written for all times! It was an explosion of a simmering volcano of youth power, who were disillusioned with the terribly inept & incompetent system leading to leak after leak in various exams and most alarmingly in NEET, which decides the fate of millions of students every year. While the NEET papers have leaked ad nauseum in the past, this time the poisonous roots of the malady had spread across the country, with leaks emanating from the top – the paper setters at NTA. The fallout was immense – the cancellation of the first NEET. The re-examination threw lakhs of students in a tizzy & in a fresh bout of uncertainty – creating chaos. This took a devastating toll on a few who couldn’t cope or who had no means to even undertake a second exam, and sadly took their lives, shattering their families. The disappointment, helplessness & frustration reached an unprecedented high and was waiting to erupt. The leaks, their devastating aftermath and an injudicious comment by the CJI created a stir, with Abhijit Dipke founding CJP, which in tandem
with Sonam Wangchuk channelled this angst into a huge movement ! They were actually mere detonators to the powder keg of seething frustration of years of apathy, broken promises, subjugation of meritocracy to craft & graft, that we as a nation, as a polity, failed our most precious treasure – our youth. It manifested, thru the omnibus social media, in the form of spontaneous protests/marches and by students across the country, with its fount at Jantar Mantar.
This time the usual tactics of the ‘rulers’ didn’t work. Brute force didn’t. Nor did, getting the blind bhakts to fool themselves & others by trolling the huge Tsunami of gen Z power, thru lame & regressive trolls – sample these : this is not a student movement with 5% students & 95% politicians, anti national elements, destabilizing India, or Dharmendra Pradhan was targeted as he tried to re-cast the history curriculum by bringing in Indian heros and dispensing with glorification of mughal emperors & similar rhetoric. The digital media savvy machinery of the ruling party who, in the past, were quick to hit the right spot exploiting sentiments of religion, community, castes etc tried their best by getting several women & men (and also AI creations) to whip up passions & dis-credit the agitators with the same tired trolls dubbing the protests anti national, but failed miserably.
Also, most/all right minded people are resentful of various political parties who tried to piggyback & exploit, and even tried to hijack the agitation. The stark fact remains that they didn’t succeed – from Delhi to Mumbai and all the cities in between, it was all about the young Indians – politicians of all hues be damned.
As regards accountability, point is not whether Dharmendra Pradhan was personally culpable of leaks. The fact is, under his watch the NEET (and other exams) have leaked like a sieve year after year. This year the leaks were extremely grave – starting right at the nucleus of NTA. The buck had to stop at the top and with him. The demand for his ouster was not outlandish or unreasonable. While his mild penalty is just stepping down, the culprits directly responsible like Prof V M Kulkarni & others, who have blood on their hands, should be tried for culpable homicide amounting to murder.
Needless to say that fixing the system will not happen with ouster of one minister. Making it fool proof will take a complete overhaul and rigorous planning & implementation, with severe penal deterrence for wrongdoings. But perhaps, the road towards that has been paved with the formation of Nandan Nilekani led committee, to revamp the system.
The ruling dispensation, after seeing that no use of might – lathi charges, tear gas, FIRs, closing metro stations, removing Sonam Wangchuk to hospital etc is working, finally read the writing on the wall – that this Tsunami of youth power couldn’t be tamed. That, no amount of brute force and intimidation was going to work. And only then, Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down and the government agreed to all the demands of the CJP. This was a huge victory for Gen Z, the youth, shattering of the invincible aura of the ruling party. The government then tried to get the optics right, with two senior ministers meeting the CJP representatives & addressing a joint press conference. While we desperately hoped that the lesson had been learnt, the myth was broken by the brazen grandstanding & warm reception which Dharmendra Pradhan was given in the parliament by his fellow MPs as if he had returned triumphant after a big achievement. It is amazing that politics takes precedence over common sense, and politicians never learn.
Yet, the lesson is you cannot not take the Gen Z, the youth, the students seriously, and it would be a fatal political error to take them for granted. All the political parties & politicians will be well advised to not trifle with Gen Z, nor tamper with their aspirations and sensibility. Slowly but surely, the politics of religion, community, caste, whipped up identity, regressive ideology has to go out of the door. The rhetoric has to give way to meritocracy, focus on economy & development, research & innovation, robust (and not shoddy) infrastructure & elimination of corruption.
Now nothing can turn back the unleashed tide of youth power – the students have become the teachers ! The renewal through our young is upon us – we must gleefully embrace it!
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.