The Government Bowed To The Democratic Protest Of The Cockroaches
· Free Press Journal
The BJP-led government must be thanked for standing back and securing the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan amidst an explosion of youth protests across the country over the NEET paper leak issue. Pradhan’s exit comes after a lot of posturing by the government, starting with the transfer of the education secretary and National Testing Agency officials and talks with some leaders of the two-month-old Cockroach Janta Party. It was bad enough that a contemptuous description of unemployed youth as cockroaches in May provoked the rise of the CJP, followed by a long fast by activist Sonam Wangchuk. Then came a groundswell of protest, which snowballed into the demand for the minister’s ouster. But the attempt to quell the uprising using savage police violence in Delhi, Mumbai, and elsewhere left Prime Minister Narendra Modi with limited leverage reflected in his failed attempts at mollifying the protesters. Whoever authorised the police action, including the use of deadly pellet and shock guns, and gave thuggish, lathi-wielding plain-clothed individuals a free run made a poor choice. The PM frequently invokes the benefits of the demographic dividend for the country, but the current education policy lacks the gravitas and vision to actualise the gains. India’s population pyramid is dome-like, showing the maximum number of young people aged 10 to 24 at its base. Yet, public education is failing them because of budget cuts over the past decade. High-cost private institutions have, at the same time, proliferated, often under the aegis of politicians. This lack of equity and the welter of leaks of key examination papers that regulate entry into colleges and jobs have triggered suicides and stirred the cauldron of unrest.
Political parties that opposed or supported the CJP protest should read the writing on the wall. Some opposition parties are in power in states and are themselves answerable. In a country with restive youth, repressive state violence begets a more intensive protest movement; information blackouts through mobile and Internet shutdowns invite a withering blizzard of memes, reels, slogans, and commentary that a nimble and irreverent Gen Z produces effortlessly. Disconnected politics risks appearing as gerontocratic indifference. The mass protests also highlight the robust faith of the average citizen in democratic forms of resistance, harking back to the Independence movement, even without the support from large sections of the media today. July’s cockroach uprising is a timely pointer to brewing unrest. Aligning the course of education and skill-building with an increasingly technology-driven, intelligent, and environmentally sustainable economy has to become the first-order priority. Here, opportunity should be universal and sponsored by the governments and industries that benefit. The immediate priority has to be the dismantling of the NTA and creation of a new examination paradigm in consultation with states that have a credible record of operating examinations and the IITs that run the JEE.
Visit newsbetting.bond for more information.