The violent incidents following youth protests in Delhi were entirely avoidable

The violent incidents following youth protests in Delhi were entirely avoidable

Issue-driven mobilisation by civil society groups tends to remain orderly so long as the government of the day signals that it is willing to listen and engage with genuine concerns. The scenes from Delhi on July 20, when mostly young demonstrators were chased, tear-gassed, and baton-charged within sight of the new Parliament building, with some allegedly struck by pellet guns, while mobile Internet was switched off and Metro stations were shut across the area, were avoidable. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) march escalated only after the police resorted to force. Had the Union government engaged with the protesters earlier, including activist Sonam Wangchuk, who was on an indefinite fast and forcibly hospitalised two days earlier, the confrontation could have been avoided. A meeting was eventually conceded through Union Minister J.P. Nadda, but only after thousands had reached Parliament’s doorstep. It came too late. That a movement born as online satire could gather millions of digital followers and bring thousands to the street says a great deal about the government’s own record, which has become the source of a litany of grievances. Recurring paper leaks in entrance examinations, the re-conducting of NEET, and the friction over the three-language formula have led to deep concerns that higher education is being administered without accountability by the government.

Yet, it would be a mistake to read the anger as being about examinations alone. Increasingly, the protests have crystallised into a wider discontent over joblessness, stagnant wages and rising prices that weigh on the young across the country. The intensity of the protests also owes much to the Narendra Modi-led BJP government’s disinclination to address genuine civil society concerns except when an election is in view. Course corrections over the last 12-plus years have tended to be timed to the ballot rather than parliamentary sessions or to public disquiet, even as narrow electoral wins in Assembly and parliamentary elections are read as expansive mandates and a licence for an increasingly authoritarian style of rule. The protests, which have drawn support beyond Delhi, are reminiscent of Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya, Nepal’s Gen Z revolt and Bangladesh’s student uprising against authoritarian rule, though their scale and demands remain far narrower in comparison. That should not tempt the government to wait them out. Instead of correcting course, it has sought to reduce the protests to a political duel with the Congress-led Opposition, and to deflect attention from its failures through proxies in civil society and the media. This is self-defeating as it will only deepen youth disillusionment with the democratic system itself. An immediate step is in order. The Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, must own the failures on his watch and