Mainstream WeeklyGUEST EDITORIAL
Like a flock of passing locusts clouding the sky of prosperity for the farmer, perhaps revolution came and left… the destruction it left in its wake is a template for the uncertain future of protest politics, the rise of ‘ridicule’ as a political strategy and the loss of fear as tool of governance. For now, democracy has survived. Won? No.
Unlike Asian neighbours Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, the Jantar Mantar protest has, however achieved far less than what the media is trumpeting. It has not achieved regime change, nor the education reform or jobs that the Gen Z is bothered about this July. Its young leaders just let the gathering of 1.5 lakh heads in the heart of the national capital fizzle out in a few hours on the say-so of a government that has been lying to the teeth for twelve years. No threats of future agitations can really bring back the same spontaneous enthusiasm or numbers on the streets.
The question we need to ask as Indians is, can a hundred-years-in-the-making Project Hindutva be destabilised so easily?
Let us recall the sequence of the rise of dissent, a dissent not being described in Marxist language but being called ‘a Gen Z protest at exam paper leaks’, thus minimising the stature of the protest and changing the nomenclature of this particular uprising. The trigger was a 15 May remark by the highest judicial officer of the country during a court hearing, when he called unemployed youth ‘cockroaches’ who took to journalism on social media.
a. The Roach protest did not address ‘unemployment’, ‘labour marginalisation’, MGNREGA dismantling, lack of jobs in a semi-industrial country.
b. Nor did it address the specifics of the coaching-centre phenomena, the 21 suicides, priivatisation of education and exams, closure of 89,000 to 94,000 government schools since 2014, that children in class V cannot read Class II texts (ASER reports). It only focused on the NEET exam paper leaks, not even the CBSE secondary school exam scam or party control of universities. Basically, a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm dissipated for a small gain.
It is true, the Roach protest taught us many things about being ‘Indian’. On 20 July, an Egyptian friend asked, ‘Dude what is happening in your country? Are you all safe?’ It was a difficult question to answer. Technically, we are safe. But for how long? The police brutality, splayed by international media, made some friends ask how this is any different from Tiananmen or the Arab Spring (Tunisia, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Sudan, Jordan and Morocco) in which 61,000 deaths are reported due to various reasons.
The Chinese protest took place following the death of former pro-reform communist Party general secretary Hu Yaobang in April 1989. The students and the common man were untrained and anxious about the new economy as China moved rapidly to capitalism and did away with rice bowl jobs and the government lacked accountability and transparency in the economic process. Indians face the same problems, true. On 17 May, one million people, including workers were assembled in the Tiananmen Square. Indians were only a few lakhs at Jantar Mantar. Some thirty years ago, on 3-4 June, the Chinese army moved in and used force that killed nearly seven hundred people and injured several thousand more. The Indian economy is at a similar critical juncture. The Tiananmen protesters were non-violent.
The Roach protest was non-violent too; innovative and inspiring, it spread to several other cities. Technology was at their fingertips and stand-up comedy was in their bones. Music, poetry, and lowest level of humour and cheap jokes found equal space with highest ideological percepts; can happen only in India. Young women not only held up placards, they cried, laughed and sat on dharna safely. The fasts were typically Gandhian (can only happen in India). The students of All India Students Federation, All India Students Association and Students’ Federation of India fasted with the Cockroach Janata Party; no one gave them credit and they were not party to any negotiations with the government. In true Indian spirit Buddhist monks and Sikh Nihangs participated; major gurudwaras including Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, and Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib provided food and shelter to protestors round the clock.
Soon the CJP’s agenda became limited – just the resignation of the incumbent education minister. He was replaced by Pralhad Joshi, a RSS acolyte who defended the premature release of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case in October 2022 (gangrape during 2002 riots and killing of 14 of the family members of the woman). The new education secretary, Naresh Pal Gangwar, faces public and political scrutiny regarding over ₹1.16 crore in horticulture subsidies received by his family members.
In effect, the CJP protest has resulted in a more offensive replacement. The real victory is for the 100-year-long Hindutva project that actually flowered in BHU’s Zoology Dept lab, where M S Golwalkar was a demonstrator. By 1940, he quietly became the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Dhirendra K Jha writes in his 2024 book about Golwalkar ‘the Myth behind the Man, the Man behind the Machine’ – the machine is the RSS – which dissects the model for the modern RSS mindset; violent, sexist, casteist, fundamentalist, patriarchal and intolerant. Thomas Blom Hansen points out in his review, how ‘ambitious, resentful, anxious and insular’ Golwalkar was as he faced a new India (1947-48) that pledged secularism, democratic principles.
Golwalkar is the icon for RSS acolytes like Narendra Modi, they are ambitious, insular and many other things. Jha writes, when the Indian Constitution stayed the idea of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, Golwalkar looked at himself as a ‘spiritual’ leader, as does our prime minister. Constitution amendment is on the agenda of the BJP, guided by the RSS. And yes, the 100-year project exists; visible in the government planners’ penchant and promises for 2047; they don’t have a education plan for 2047. Now let us look at a few players in the Jantar Mantar protest.
Dharmendra Pradhan, when he had the petroleum portfolio, arranged ONGC CSR donations to the tune of Rs 4,531 crore to over 2,000 RSS-affiliated organisations and projects across India, Between 2014 and 2021 (NewsMinute & others). He is very important to the RSS. He would not have resigned, unless the RSS told him to. What exactly made the RSS take this call?
The CJP protestors were primarily Hindu youth. ‘Hindu Youth’ are the RSS’ future –propagandists, shishyas, trainees, tech-savvy social media users, cadre and future leaders. No one expected this massive CJP mobilisation and the capability to gather without fear. The RSS realises the potential. It also fears the ‘a-religious’, irreverent, non-casteist and intellectual character of the average ‘Hindu Youth’ – from here has come the leadership of the armed, anti-colonial movements just as has come Gandhi’s nonviolent movement, the leadership for India’s Marxist movements, armed Left movements and the Dalit movements. The education portfolio was a small sacrifice to placate the ‘Hindu Youth’.
The 100-year project includes total breakdown of the education system, and new bill after bill is being brought in by the government to centralise, control and make money out of the system. It’s a thought-out method to keep the ‘Hindu youth’ depended, jobless and at the party’s beck and call. Only parliament can return education to the States as a federal subject. It is only in parliament that every education-related subject can be debated.
Everyone knows the Wangchuk family is looking at Ladhak’s CM seat and Sonam Wangchuk jumped into the CJP protest not for any altruistic purpose; his and his wife’s right-wing leanings are not hidden. The focus shifted to him the moment he joined the fast. He broke his fast, taking juice from BJP ministers at his bedside.
The CJI had started it all. The Supreme Court has now agreed to hear petitions regarding police excesses during the student demonstrations. With sustained legal community pressure, the bench, including the CJI has finally emphasised that lawful and peaceful protest is a protected right that cannot be denied. The court noted that the presence of an agitation does not give license for disproportionate force or a lathi-charge. This is an exception as the same justice system has kept protestors like Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fathima, in custody for six years.
Real problem-solving does not happen on the street. The repeated exam paper leaks is a systemic problem that cannot be solved by air force choppers airlifting exam papers. They are, after all, boxes like any truck or van and they do not leak papers.
Opposition leaders have been saying, there have been 152 paper leaks in the last ten years of BJP rule. The National Testing Authority that sets these nationwide exams has just 24 permanent staff; some have past ties to corruption. NTA chairperson is retired Prof Pradeep Kumar Joshi from Madhya Pradesh, who was a ABVP (right-wing student grouping) member; yes the same State infamous for the massive Vyapam scam and the DMAT scam, two major organised corruption and cheating rings involving State entrance tests for medical courses (PMT). Joshi went from MP PSC to UPSC and heads NTA now. The existing NTA needs to be scrapped and a new authority crafted, and not by the government; this, however, was not on the to-do list of the CJP.
The NEET format needs to be abandoned and universal international test practice needs to be implemented. Only parliament can return to the States the authority to allot college seats to State candidates. If that ever happens, one can say the CJP protest had some purpose.