At the end of this journey, no matter now it ends, these youngsters will know something essential about the Indian government, the Indian judiciary, the Indian media, the Indian police, the Indian laws and indeed about Indian society, asserts Aakar Patel.
Key Points
- India's problems of incompetence and corruption are real, structural and societal. Only the delusional believe that the prime minister waved them away with magic in 2014.
- The mother of democracy is extremely intolerant to her children when they disagree.
- Even in the most oppressive and tyrannical State, peaceful protest will make an impact that cannot be bulldozed over.
A few thoughts on the Cockroach Janta Party's protest come to mind.
The hunger strike by activists including Sonam Wangchuk had one demand: The minister of education should resign.
Why? Because the minister failed at one of the most important tasks he was assigned: Holding the NEET exam without corruption.
Readers may recall that in 2024 the paper leaked and the same minister was in charge but clung on.
This year the government was compelled to accept there was corruption in the matter and it cancelled the exam, inconveniencing 20 lakh students.
Add their families and it is one crore Indians we are talking about who are directly affected. All put through high levels of stress, anxiety and the insecurity that constantly plagues Indians.
Twelve young girls and boys killed themselves in the 37 days between the cancelled exam and the retest. These are only the ones we know of.
The government conceded that the education ministry could not be trusted with the papers and gave them to the air force to carry to the centres.
We can interpret this as a stunt or as a real threat to leakage. In neither interpretation does the government come out looking good.
But having accepted his education minister failed at stopping corruption in NEET, the prime minister rejected the idea of accountability. He chose to retain the education minister and we can tell ourselves stories about why.
Those who dislike the prime minister will speculate that it was because autocrats shy away from admitting mistakes because of their arrogance. Or because it reflects poorly on them.
Those who are fond of him will similarly make up some story about why Modi retained Dharmendra Pradhan.
Neither story is important. The fact is that Pradhan has been retained despite the scandal and despite the demonstrable incompetence.
What happens from here on is that he will remain as a liability and a target for finger-pointing. India's problems of incompetence and corruption are real, structural and societal.
Only the delusional believe that the prime minister waved them away with magic in 2014.
The second thought that comes to mind is that protest, even one that is peaceful, even one that does not inconvenience absolutely anyone, is forbidden in India because we are only partly democratic.
This is something several indices have concluded and evidence of it appears before us daily.
Over the years, peaceful assembly (Article 19) has gone from being a fundamental right, meaning something that enjoys a high degree of protection from encroachment by the State, to a nuisance, and then to an offence.
The mother of democracy is extremely intolerant to her children when they disagree.
The judiciary and the executive have narrowed the physical space in which peaceful protest may be held. In Mumbai it is consigned to Azad Maidan, in Bangalore it is in Freedom Park where protests go to die, and in Delhi it is Jantar Mantar.
Now Indians have been informed that even protests in these 'designated areas' are unacceptable to this government.
The third thing is that when protestors have resolve and strategy, they often win and force the government to retreat.
The farmers did that most spectacularly when they laid siege on the matter of the farm laws.
The prime minister tried to sit them out, failed and then not only surrendered to them but also apologised.
Peaceful Protests Can Force Change
It is not thought in the same way, but the success of the protests against the National Register of Citizens is the reason we do not yet have concentration camps with lakhs of Indians in them.
Even in the most oppressive and tyrannical State, peaceful protest will make an impact that cannot be bulldozed over.
There is a reason the world knows about a place called Tiananmen Square. Those brave enough to put their heads above the parapet may bear the consequence but will also have their stories heard.
This is, of course, the reason that the government scuttled the Wangchuk hunger strike.
Those who had despaired that it was not achieving anything did not see that structurally the protest had everything going for it. It had attention and it had sympathy.
So what happens from here on? The problem for the government is that the protestors have not given it much room.
The Cockroach Janta Party's demand is modest and reasonable: Remove the minister responsible.
The government's response as far as it can be understood is: Yes, there is a problem but no, we will not act. That is not tenable and the protestors know this. The momentum is with them.
Lessons From the Protest Movement
The last thing that comes to mind is that there is an education that comes to those who are involved in these deep, weeks-long protests that those of us who are on the outside will never receive.
At the end of this journey, no matter now it ends, these youngsters will know something essential about the Indian government, the Indian judiciary, the Indian media, the Indian police, the Indian laws and indeed about Indian society.
This cannot come to those of us on the outside, no matter how old or or knowledgeable or even how wise we may be.
Aakar Patel is a columnist and writer and you can read Aakar's earlier columns here.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
