CHENNAI: As the Cockroach Janata Party’s protest enters Day 18 and renowned education reformer and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike enters Day 10, widespread concern is being expressed over the Centre’s adamant refusal to engage with the protesters. The government’s obduracy is not surprising if one goes by its response to the prolonged farmers’ protest, which was on a much larger scale.
The student- and youth-based protest at Jantar Mantar, in the heart of the national capital and under the media glare, has a single demand: the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over proven paper leaks and other plausible irregularities relating to conducting important pan-Indian admission interviews such as NEET.
One would have expected a mature and democratic political response from the BJP-led NDA government. However, its response relied heavily on law enforcement agencies and the bureaucracy. Though the government’s reaction was uncharacteristically restrained, it still resorted to blocking digital presence, erecting literal barricades, and creating metaphorical obstructions to prevent the indefinite sit-in by the protesters. The Delhi police launched extensive surveillance operations on the ground to intimidate the protesters, especially those providing logistics and other support at Jantar Mantar. The police fanned out across the city, targeting the families of protesters with fear-mongering rhetoric and dire warnings of irreparable consequences.
While the government resorted to administrative action and coercive tactics, the right-wing ecosystem was pressed into service to launch a propaganda war. This often involved using defamatory fake news, insinuating and misleading videos, and coordinated, vile trolling to defame the movement and label the protesters as “anti-nationals”. In the present instance, independent media and fact-checkers have called out the misuse of photographs of Umar Khalid and video clips of Arundhati Roy by the BJP IT cell and its army of digital warriors to label the protesters as belonging to an “anti-India gang”. Another effort was made to dilute the impact of the protest, pointing to the modest number of agitators at the site, despite the movement earlier garnering over 20 million followers on Instagram.
The protesters, led by CJP leader Abhijit Dipke, decided to persevere and, along the way, began to receive support from different sections of society. Besides civil society organisations, farmers' organisations, and others, notable public figures like actor Prakash Raj, activist Arundhati Roy, and several others expressed strong support and solidarity with the students and their struggle demanding accountability.
This not only added credibility to the protest but also proved to be a major morale booster.
The government's choice to avoid an openly confrontational approach is a refreshing change and should be welcomed. In a democracy, a responsive government should be proactive in inviting protesters for talks, which could help resolve the crisis. The government should acknowledge the fact that though the current protests are centred on a single issue, beneath them lies a growing restlessness and deep frustration over systemic issues like mass unemployment, a swirling economic crisis, the weakening of democratic institutions, and a lack of transparency, accountability, and participatory decision-making indicative of authoritarian impulses.
The government should relent, let the education minister go, and improve the systems and processes relating to examinations in particular and education in general. Besides earning brownie points from the vast constituency of young voters, this would help to some extent in changing the popular perception that the government is unresponsive or, worse, “arrogant and authoritarian”.