Editorial: What next after NEET?

In the immediate term, it’s fair to say the BJP-led Union Government was allowed to get away rather cheaply from its humbling and humiliating defeat to the youth of this country last week. Before the student march on Parliament on July 20, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s continuance in the administration had already become untenable. And, after the Delhi police’s brutal treatment of innocent youngsters horrified the nation, offering his head on a platter to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) seemed like a small loss to sustain for the government.

The other two concessions the government made to the agitators, withdrawal of false cases filed against students and payment of compensation to the 20 or so NEET aspirants who took their own lives, are small change too, and non-structural, compared to what was at risk if the agitation continued. The risk calculus included the damage to Narendra Modi as PM, whose two tremulous late-night videos did only do nothing to assuage the students; they provided material for their derisive memes. Another development that put the government in panic mode was the decision by farmers’ unions to march to Delhi to make common cause with the students. The potential coalescence of two unassailable constituencies, farmers and youth, seems to have persuaded the government that discretion was the better part of valour.

While the government’s precipitate caving in may have satisfied the CJP, and the youth organisation’s capacity to continue the agitation may be limited, there were some serious questions relating to the handling of the agitation that the government ought to have been made to answer. Chief among them was the illegal use of pellet guns against unarmed agitators who posed no threat to security. The clear evidence of birdshot injuries to several protesters blows a hole in the authorities’ denial. Since the Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force both report to the Union Home Minister, it is upon him to disclose the facts to Parliament and order a fair inquiry. Who issued the guns to the force, which magistrate authorised the firing, and which officers issued the orders to fire are all easy facts to trace. Another specific point on which the government must come clean is the molestation of women protesters, including by senior officers of the Delhi Police. The identities of some of these policemen are clear in video footage taken by agitators, so it can’t be too difficult to find them and punish them.

The more important takeaways from last week’s agitation are for the young of this country, however. With this stupendous success, they have proven, to themselves as well as to people at large, that they have the agitational alchemy and talent to impose accountability upon a recalcitrant government. What they achieved over the past month was nothing short of a taming of tyranny, a feat not achieved by farmers four years ago or citizenship activists six years ago or the entire opposition for more than 10 years. To limit their engagement to issues like NEET would be a wasted opportunity. Several emerging issues that threaten India’s democracy, like the assault on voter lists or gerrymandering in the name of delimitation and reservation for women, need the energy and innovation the young can bring.